Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has established a housing production task force tasked with developing policy recommendations to address the city's escalating housing affordability issues. The move follows a significant drop in new housing unit applications and the failure of a plan to cut developer fees.
The task force has a 12-month deadline to propose solutions, with potential policy implementation slated for 2028 and 2029. This initiative comes after a proposed reduction in developer fees, intended to spur housing construction, faced opposition from nonprofit organizations that rely on such fees. The negotiations stalled earlier this summer, just before the proposal was to be publicly released.
City data indicates a 30 percent decline in new housing unit applications this year, following a 38 percent decrease in 2025. Mayor Wilson's executive order establishing the task force cites that nearly one-third of Seattle households spend over 30 percent of their income on housing, and approximately one-sixth of renters pay more than 50 percent of their income for rent.
"Housing that people can afford is critical to a city that works for everyone," Mayor Wilson stated in relation to the executive order. "We can’t control every force that drives up the cost of building homes, but we can act where it counts. This Executive Order is about clearing the path, cutting the delays, and building the housing Seattle needs — now."
The stalled negotiations involved Seattle's Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) fees, a program implemented in 2017 that requires developers to either include affordable units in their projects or contribute a fee towards affordable housing elsewhere. Rising interest rates and construction costs in recent years have been cited as factors contributing to a decrease in new building projects.
Following the breakdown of fee negotiations, Wilson stated her administration would "be setting a table with labor, affordable housing providers, community-driven organizations, and market rate developers to identify shared, collaborative solutions." Sunaree Marshall, an executive operations manager in the mayor’s office, told The Seattle Times that Wilson is "very interested in understanding across the board: What do we need to do to restart housing production?"
Some critics, like Seattle radio host Charlie Harger, have expressed skepticism, suggesting that a task force will create further bureaucracy rather than delivering concrete solutions. Harger commented on KIRO News Radio that "Now her signature issue, the one she ran on, the one she styled herself an expert on, goes into a room for 13 months." He questioned what a task force needed 13 months to discover, suggesting the reasons for the permit collapse are evident.
Meanwhile, applications for new homes have reportedly increased across the lake in Bellevue.