At a chilly morning press conference today, Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD) Interim CEO Tiffani McCoy announced plans for the agency’s first original construction project, a five-story apartment building in the Central District on the lot that used to belong to the late housing advocate Rep. Frank Chopp. Scheduled to open in 2028, the development will provide 20 units of housing, leased at a mix of affordable and market rate rents.
The Central District site is SSHD’s second official housing project, following the May acquisition of the 150-unit Elara at the Market in Belltown. The two are part of a rapidly expanding housing portfolio—the agency hopes to reach 1,000 units owned or in the pipeline by the end of 2027. McCoy says the SSHD has a third yet-to-be-announced acquisition that will bring the total to 300 units by the end of this year.
The announcement comes in the midst of SSHD’s herculean expansion effort—it’s looking to nearly triple its staffing over the next 14 months. All this is funded by a surprisingly large windfall from Seattle’s social housing tax on big corporations. But to keep the momentum, the agency needs to maintain its careful balancing act to keep our fickle local politicians on its side.
Established by two ballot initiatives, SSHD operates on a model that is relatively unique for public housing in the US. Instead of only serving poor households, residents from a broad range of class backgrounds are allowed to live in social housing, with wealthier tenants subsidizing the rents of their lower income neighbors.
As part of its mission SSHD is trying to be better than your average for-profit (or even non-profit) landlord. With the Elara, SSHD provided free ORCA transit cards to all residents, froze the rent for two years, and is working to end previous landlord Greystar’s practice of distributed utility building, which divides costs equally among tenants instead of based on usage. It has also hired a restorative justice manager to address intra-tenant conflicts.
SSHD spokesperson Lilly Ana Fowler says the efforts are already yielding results, with the building’s monthly turnover rate plummeting to below 2 percent, well below the average for market rate apartments. According to Fowler, 16 new low-income renters have moved into the Elara, and the agency plans for a total of 60 units in the building to be dedicated to households making less than 50 percent of the area median income.
The agency also wants to be a top-notch developer, pledging to use union labor for its constructions and follow green passive house and universal design standards. But these efforts don’t come cheap—at a total budgeted cost of $15 million, the new Central District apartments will cost roughly $750,000 a unit.
Part of this cost is also due to the mixture of units: The majority of homes in the building will be geared toward families, with 2 or 3 bedrooms. (Less than a third of all Seattle area rentals have two or more bedrooms, according to Zillow listing data).
But, unlike most government agencies, SSHD is working with what could be considered a bounty of resources. Its primary source of revenue—the voter-approved 5 percent corporate surcharge on salaries above $1 million—delivered $136 million in tax revenue last year and an additional $59 million in the first half of 2026. This is about two and a half times more than was expected, and has put the agency under pressure to deliver.
Earlier this year, SSHD increased its 2027 year-end production goal by 70 percent. It currently has at least six additional new projects planned for the next year. In addition to the social housing tax money and rental income, the developer plans to issue a $270 million bond to pay for the portfolio expansion.
The SSHD will have to carefully navigate the choppy waters that are Seattle politics and rebuff politicians’ innate tendency to appropriate money for their own goals. To this end, the JumpStart payroll tax serves as a cautionary parable; Once upon a time most of its revenues was supposed to go to affordable housing, but now it’s mainly used to fill the budget deficit. Seattle City Council members are already circling the SSHD’s pot of money. At a September 29 budget committee meeting, Councilmember Bob Kettle floated the idea of diverting social housing tax money for other affordable housing projects. He can’t actually do that. Not yet, at least. The two-year period in which council members are not allowed to amend the tax expires in February 2027.
Several notable political allies stood with the SSHD at the press conference, including state legislators, Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and a staff member from Councilmember Dionne Foster’s office. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson did not send a representative, but she has previously shown strong support for the developer.
One notable absence was Council President Joy Hollingsworth, who represents the Central District and is rumored to be considering a mayoral run when Wilson’s term is up.
That hesitance may foreshadow a lukewarm reception to the neighborhood. The dynamics of development in the Central District are complicated and painful, with urban renewal policies displacing the majority of residents from the historic heart of Seattle’s Black community over the last 30 years. This adds a layer to the typical “NIMBY” concerns of having a new five-story building show up down the block.
At the press conference, Reverend Dr. Robert L. Jeffrey, Sr. of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church spoke supportively of the project, saying that SSHD’s community preference policy will give people with ties to the Central District “an opportunity to return home.”
“This type of initiative is what the Central District and the greater Seattle city needs,” Jeffrey said.
McCoy has indicated that SSHD will not shy away from pursuing taller developments in the future to maximize economies of scale and increase the number of people who can live in social housing.
One of the main pathways for SSHD to achieve this is by entering into housing cooperation agreements with the City, which allow it to bypass virtually all zoning requirements with a vote from the council. So to realize its ambitious goals, the SSHD will need to continue to thread the political needle.
The 7,800-square-foot Central District lot slated for development is a special case. It’s the home of former Washington State House Speaker Frank Chopp. During his time in the legislature, Chopp—who passed away last year—was a strong advocate for affordable housing. He also secured $200,000 in seed funding for the SSHD.
Chopp’s widow Nancy Long told The Stranger that due to high taxes, it didn’t make financial sense for her family to keep the property, but selling to a for-profit developer was off the table. The SSHD made a good prospective buyer, with its quick two-year development cycle, and cemented another brick in Chopp’s legacy.
“He would be very proud, I think, for this to be used for affordable housing,” Long says.
McCoy says the SSHD is talking with the City about relocating Chopp’s old blue heron-shaped tiny home and preserving it as a landmark.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the agency plans for 60 units in the Elara to be dedicated to households making less that 80 percent median income. The units are for those making less than 50 percent of the area median income. We regret the error.
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