The city proposes expanding incentives for “affordable housing” in “urban village” areas, of which we have a few (including The [Alaska] Junction and Morgan Junction). However, some are voicing skepticism till they’ve read the fine print, including (according to this P-I article) WS-based City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen. EVENING UPDATE: A reader points out the Seattle Displacement Coalition is upset about this; click ahead to read parts of its own press release:

We have only one word to describe the Mayor’s new plan: outrageous!   We’ll fight it to be sure!

There is an unprecedented housing shortage in Seattle of low income housing – 4700 rentals lost since 2005 to conversion, 1500 lost to demolition – a net decline in the rental stock of over 3 percent for the poor – those with incomes at or below 40% of median or an income (roughly $25,000 a year). 

These losses have not been offset by new rental construction for this income group.  Most new stuff is going into condo development.  King County including Seattle reports a rental shortage county-wide for those at or below 40% of 70,000 units.  Vacancy rates have plummeted and homelessness is on the rise. And what does our mayor do – he launches a program to provide millions in tax breaks to developers who set aside a small portion of their developments for those with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 a year – well above what even the average income tenant can afford! To top it off King County reports a surplus of rentals of 101,000 units for those with incomes between 80 and 100 percent of median. 

The SDC offers a lot of stats; no time right now to reproduce them here but if we find them online, we’ll link.