Housing levy passes, with help from young people

The Housing Levy in Seattle passed by a wide margin last night. It’ll cost the average home owner $10 a month for seven years. That’s twice the cost of the last levy, which expires this year.

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It was hardly a fair fight.

The Yes for Homes campaign had all kinds of political support – and all kinds of money. The campaign raked in $328,000 total, much of it from housing developers.

The opposition raked in zero.

McDonald: “We had no campaign.”

That’s Brianna McDonald at her home on Tuesday.

She wrote the statement in opposition to the levy, even though she says she likes housing.

McDonald: “Because I do not feel that any policy is so great that it should go unopposed in a voter’s pamphlet.”

Last night there was a big party celebrating the levy’s passage at Optimism Brewery on Capitol Hill.

Sonny Nguyen was there with Washington Bus, a group that trains young activists.

Nguyen: “It feels great to win by so much, especially when this campaign was led by a lot of young people. A lot of the field work was done by young activists learning how to do this and by young people in power in the campaign.”

Seattle’s past housing levies have built over 12,000 affordable apartments since 1981.

The new levy is expected to add a couple thousand more.

It also funds programs that protect people from homelessness.