What happens when low-income housing is no longer affordable? pic.twitter.com/0i3NW8q41C
— Gay Bear Research, LLC (@GayBearRes) April 28, 2024
In Seattle and across the country, nonprofits that operate low-income housing face a skyrocketing balance of unpaid rent.
In the Seattle area, the total rent debt across all tenants is estimated at $170 million, according to the National Equity Atlas, the vast majority of it belonging to low-income households. Across the country, the total is almost $10 billion.
Many housing providers say the amount of overdue rent has grown dramatically since before the pandemic and is hurting their ability to maintain and build more affordable housing in a region and nation that is starved for it.
These organizations, whose missions include bringing and keeping people off the street, have begun to evict nonpaying tenants to bring in paying ones.
Some fear more evictions are on the way.
Housing providers have been meeting with local, state and federal officials to come up with solutions, and in some cases, asking to make it easier to evict tenants.