Seattle City Council panel backs $29 million bonds-for-housing plan

Seattle City Council members voted 7-2 in a budget-committee meeting Wednesday to move ahead with a $29 million bonds-for-housing plan.

That means the plan likely will be among changes the council makes to Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed budget. A final vote on all the changes is scheduled for Monday.

Councilmember Lisa Herbold’s proposal calls for Seattle to raise $29 million next year through bonds that would be paid off over 30 years.

The purpose would be to help create hundreds of units of affordable housing that the city sorely needs amid rising rents and home prices, Herbold and other supporters said.

Mayor Ed Murray, whose proposed budget includes $54 million in funding for affordable housing, opposes the plan.

Only council members Tim Burgess and Debra Juarez, calling it fiscally irresponsible, voted against the bonds-for-housing proposal.

There was a 7-2 vote against a $160 million alternative presented by Councilmember Kshama Sawant, which would have required the council to kill the controversial North Precinct police-station project. Only she and Councilmember Mike O’Brien voted for it. Sawant listed dozens of churches and other organizations behind her plan Wednesday and backers filled the council’s chambers.

Murray put the police-station project on hold in September.

Herbold’s plan reduces funding for that project.

She said popular support for Sawant’s more ambitious plan created political space for her own plan to win approval.