Advocacy Wins

In 2024, HDC and our partners a pivotal role in spearheading a series of incredible victories for housing affordability and supportive services in King County—and your voices made a difference! Together, we secured more funding for affordable homes, built and maintained inclusive communities, and improved the health and stability of housing throughout our region.

In 2024, HDC and our partners:

• Secured $127 million in new funds for affordable housing in the 2024 supplemental budget, building on the record $400 million in investments from the main 2023 session.
• Secured $2 million to build on the Covenant Homeownership Act by funding capacity building and predevelopment support for “by and for” developers, a starter home production plan, and homeownership counseling.
• Helped pass SB 6173, which expands Sales & Use Tax to fund homeownership projects for those earning up to 80% AMI in urban areas and 100% AMI in rural areas.  
• Helped pass HB 2003, which provides a Leasehold Excise Tax exemption for public lands used for affordable housing.   
• Helped pass HB 2071, which reforms state building codes to apply the lower-cost residential building code to 4-6 unit multiplexes.   
• helped pass HB 2329, which directs the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to study property and liability insurance options for affordable housing providers, making the first step towards addressing skyrocketing insurance costs.  
• Collaborated to support a three-year Design Review Holiday (CB 120824) in downtown Seattle, reducing costs and expediting housing development. 
• Secured $14 million in flexible operations funding from the City of Seattle to stabilize the operations of affordable housing providers.  
• Led the Complete Communities Coalition’s big-tent advocacy for critical zoning changes during the draft One Seattle Plan comment period. After we issued a letter requesting specific improvements, with over 60 sign-ons from a diverse range of organizations, the city released draft zoning maps with meaningful improvements based on our feedback. The proposed zoning would double Seattle’s zoned housing capacity, to allow up to 330,000 new homes across the city.  
• The Covenant Homeownership Program officially launched on July 1, providing down payment assistance to low-to-moderate BIPOC households who have been impacted by housing discrimination. As of October, 54 families have become homeowners with average assistance of $108,000. Another 157 are in the pipeline. This assistance has made the dream of homeownership real for these families who have been so deeply impacted by discrimination.