Seattle Housing Buzz

What seemed dead a few weeks ago is being given a second chance. The Senate has attached the condo conversion bill to another affordable housing measure. If passed, it will go into House-Senate reconciliation as the House’s version of the affordable housing measure does not include the conversion bill.

However, the Senate’s version of the the condo conversion bill (SB 5031) is far more restrictive than the earlier compromised bill in the House (SHB 2014). Under the Senate’s bill:

• Eliminates the $500 cap on relocation assistance, allowing municipalities to set their own limits
• Requires a 120 day notice to tenants (currently 90 days)
• Developers many not begin construction during the 120 notice period or until the last tenant moves out

The bill does not include a conversion cap which the bill’s sponsor and tenant advocates were pushing for.

I, for one, am relieved the conversion cap was not included. You don’t fix one issue (tenant displacement) by hampering another (reducing the availability of affordable housing with a cap). Conversions, as a whole, have provided many first-time buyers the opportunity for homeownership. This is a good thing.

Now, I don’t work with conversion developers, but the restriction on construction seems draconian. I can understand it adds to the stress of the current tenants but it only serves to ultimately impact the cost of the conversion, and thus, increasing the sales price for buyers, many of whom are first-time homebuyers.

I’m not unsympathetic to tenants. In fact, I applaud the legislature in taking action. I’ve been a tenant far longer than I’ve been a homeowner.

I was displaced by a landlord who only gave me one-month’s rent worth of relocation assistance (he sold the property). Not enough to cover the costs of moving and acquiring another rental. I also lived in an apartment that was converted to condos. These things are part of life. And, that provided me the impetus to take matters into my own hands and become a homeowner.

Though, there is a need to help those who don’t have many options. Increasing the relocation assistance amount as well as helping tenants relocate, I think, are more useful remedies than placing a cap on conversions or limiting developers from beginning construction work.