Sources: Seattle passed on buying, preserving 1,400 affordable apartments
A portfolio of super small Seattle rental homes called aPodments is on the market, and real estate industry sources say the city has taken a pass on buying and preserving the affordability of the 1,401 units.
The sources said Amazon was going to help finance the purchase through its $2 billion Housing Equity Fund, which provides low-interest loans and grants to build and preserve affordable housing in Seattle as well as Nashville, Tennessee, and Arlington, Virginia, where the company is expanding. Amazon officials declined to comment for this story as did public information officers in the Mayor's Office and the Office of Housing.
The brainchild of Gary Mulhair, once the leader of a nonprofit where he saw the need for affordable housing up close, aPodments rent for an average of $921 a month. That includes utilities, free use of laundry facilities, and there's no application fee. Public money is not used to subsidize rents.
If the city or a nonprofit operator of low-income housing doesn't buy the portfolio, a market-rate investor very likely will and jack up rents, and the affordability of the aPodments would be lost forever.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/10/05/seattle-apodment-portfolio-hits-market.html
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