Mayor Greg Nickels has frozen a $350,000 fund set aside by the Council to assist financially vulnerable tenants displaced by condo conversions, writes Jonah Spangenthal-Lee in this week’s Stranger Cash Out: Nickels Puts Displaced Tenants in Limbo.
The $350,000 set aside by the city council would have provided as much as $1,500 to tenants who made as little as 30 percent of the median income. Households that made 31 percent to 50 percent of the median income would get $1,000, and those in the 51 percent to 80 percent range would get $500.
Tenants in need haven’t seen any of the relocation money, though, since Nickels held up distribution of the funds, in spite of the council’s mandate.
Seattle has lost more than 6,000 rental units to condo conversions since 2004, and that’s not counting all 2007 data. What kind of regulatory protection do you think Seattle tenants and renters deserve when their buildings are bought by investors looking for short-term profits?
