Seattle Housing Buzz

A while back I wrote a post about the human cost of conversions with the new owner/developers only needing to provide 90 days notice and $500 to displaced tenants. It looks like the increasing number of conversions, and thus, more displaced tenants, who undoubtedly are unable to afford to purchase the snazzy conversions, are getting noticed by the politicos. From the PI’s Forced Out Tenants article:

(State Senator) Fairley’s plan would ban construction, remodeling or repairs during the required advance notice period for conversion or until at least 12 hours after the last tenant moved out. It also would increase the minimum payment to $2,500, then adjust it each year for inflation.

It would allow cities to cap the number of apartments that could be converted to condos each year and extend the notice period from 90 to 120 days.

I personally don’t fully support the current proposal, but I applaud steps to protect tenants and to fairly compensate them when they’re displaced due to a conversion. Conversions, after all, is a business venture so it does need to be economically feasible to the developer and to provide needed housing units for would-be home owners.