Black Seattle homeowners continue to fight for anti-displacement measures to be included in upcoming comprehensive plan

Feb 3, 2025 Story by: Editor

The City’s Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan, led by Council-member Joy Hollingsworth, convened its first meeting to discuss Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed " One Seattle " 2025 Comprehensive Plan. The latest draft of the plan, released in March 2024, has faced criticism for allegedly weakening the anti-displacement protections introduced in an earlier draft from August 2023. Despite this, Black homeowners remain committed to securing a comprehensive plan that includes effective measures to safeguard homeownership within Seattle’s Black community.

Ruby Holland, who moved from Seattle’s Central District to Atlanta in 1984, was shocked by the drastic changes in her childhood neighborhood upon her return.

"When I moved back to Seattle … in 2015, I was looking for the Black people, and I couldn't see any," Holland recalled.

In 1970, Black residents made up 73.4% of the Central District's population. By 2014, just a year before Holland’s return, that number had plummeted to 18%, according to the Systemic Justice Program .

Hoping to reconnect with her former neighbors, Holland attended local meetings, where she learned that she herself was at risk of displacement.

"I had heard about the [Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program] coming to town — which was upzoning — and I was told that [I] was at risk of being displaced [from my home]. I heard this at my neighborhood meeting and my ears stood up, and I was like, 'I just moved here from Atlanta. I sold my house. It took me five years to downsize and save up enough money to relocate to Seattle, bring all my belongings and my dog. I ain't going nowhere.'"

The MHA program, as explained by Callie Craighead, press secretary for the Mayor’s Office, is intended to address affordable housing needs in Seattle.

"Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) is a City of Seattle policy designed to support affordable housing needs in Seattle. It requires developers of new commercial or multifamily housing to provide affordable housing units on-site as part of the development or to pay a fee in-lieu of to support more affordable housing production in Seattle, including in the Central District."

Despite being marketed as a solution for affordable housing, Holland argues that the MHA program ultimately harmed Black homeowners. She described how, following its implementation, developers actively pursued her and her neighbors.

"In 2019, when the law passed, developers came to our homes, knocked on our doors, and told us we had to leave for affordable housing. It was just horrible," she said. "It seemed like the whole city had got together and decided, 'Yeah, we're getting rid of all of them.' … So they were actually redlining us too. They were doing things and discriminating against us. And it was really hard."

The aggressive push by developers to acquire land, coupled with rising property taxes due to increased property values, has made it increasingly difficult for families to remain in the neighborhood.

Historically, Black families in Seattle and other major U.S. cities have faced numerous discriminatory barriers to homeownership.

One such barrier was redlining, a practice where banks marked certain neighborhoods as too risky for home loans. This led to mortgage lenders either rejecting loans outright or imposing significantly higher interest rates for those seeking to buy property in redlined areas. Seattle’s Central District was one such redlined neighborhood, with mortgage companies discouraging investment by labeling it a "no-investment zone" or "high risk." While Seattle banned redlining in June 1977, its effects persist.

Another discriminatory tool used against Black homeownership was racially restrictive covenants—legal clauses in property deeds that prohibited sales to non-white buyers. In Seattle, Black residents were largely confined to the Central District due to these covenants.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of such covenants in Corrigan v. Buckley (1926), a later ruling in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) declared them unenforceable. However, it wasn’t until the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 that these covenants were explicitly outlawed.

For Holland, the MHA program is yet another chapter in this long history of displacement.

"I really went on a rampage at first and was telling everybody I knew how they were trying to get us out of here. Finally, the tax assessor heard our plea and he spoke to the governor, and the next thing I knew, it was 2023 and Gov. Inslee said, 'No more displacement for people in formerly redlined communities,' and that we need to have an anti-displacement plan for former redlined communities to go along with the comp plan," said Holland.

Washington state law (RCW 36.70A.070) mandates that comprehensive plans include measures to counteract past discriminatory housing policies. This means such plans must recognize and address racially disparate impacts, displacement risks, and housing exclusion while implementing policies that preserve historical and cultural communities, invest in affordable housing, and establish tenant protections, equitable development initiatives, and community planning requirements.

However, Holland believes that the current draft of the comprehensive plan falls short in protecting South End homeowners from displacement.

"The mayor on the new comp plan still wants to put all of Seattle's growth in the [Central District], South End, and other areas of the urban villages, so we're fighting that," she said.

To address these concerns, Holland and fellow organizers are working on a tax relief program for Black homeowners struggling with property taxes.

Chukundi Salisbury, from the Black Legacy Homeowners Network, is also advocating for stronger anti-displacement policies. His organization, which aims to support and preserve Black homeownership in Seattle and King County, has submitted recommendations to the Mayor’s Office.

"We've given a bunch of recommendations for things that could happen immediately," Salisbury said.

Salisbury, who is the founder and executive director of Black Legacy Homeowners Network , notes that property tax increases often push homeowners into financial distress, making them vulnerable to developers who use fear tactics to pressure them into selling. His organization actively reaches out to those struggling with property taxes to prevent them from losing their homes.

"That tax list comes out in the Daily Journal of Commerce, and [though] it's hard to discern, we most certainly want to try to reach distressed households," he said. "Somebody needs to go to those people on the flip side and say, 'Well, guess what? You don't have to lose your house.' And that's what we do at Black Legacy Homeowners."

Inye Wokoma, co-founder of Wa Na Wari, is another advocate pushing for stronger anti-displacement measures in the comprehensive plan.

"The comp plan fails to materially address the issue of displacement in any substantial way," Wokoma said. "One of the most important elements is that we have to create some resiliency for Black families that already own homes. And if you don't do that, then you're really not going to have the underpinnings for a healthy Black community, if everybody gets transformed into renters."

Wa Na Wari, an organization dedicated to preserving Black cultural spaces and homeownership in gentrified areas, has been actively involved in community-based advocacy efforts. Through its Central Area Cultural EcoSystem, 21st Century ( CACE 21 ) initiative, the organization works to empower Black homeowners and cultural workers to challenge displacement through policy recommendations, community organizing, and mutual aid initiatives.

"We've been thinking about it together, but we've also been progressively acting together. We haven't gotten to the point where we formed a bona fide coalition, but we do stay in regular communication about these issues," Wokoma explained.

Holland, Salisbury, Wokoma, and other advocates have submitted a formal set of recommendations aimed at strengthening the anti-displacement provisions removed from the second draft of the comprehensive plan.

"We put together a formal set of recommendations as it relates to the anti-displacement component of the comp plan," said Wokoma. "We got together and we collectively put together what we considered our best ideas, and we just submitted it." Source: South Seattle Emerald