By Erica C. Barnett

An anti-displacement program designed to help BIPOC-led community groups develop housing and other projects is on the chopping block.

Late last Friday afternoon, Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera proposed a budget proviso—a restriction on funding—that would prevent the city’s Office of Community Planning and Development (OPCD) from spending $25.3 million allocated for the Equitable Development Initiative in 2024 unless it allocates all the funds that are currently available for the program, around $53.5 million, by September, and provides the council with a detailed analysis of every project funded through EDI.

If those two things don’t happen by the September deadline, the money—most of it ($19.8 million) from the JumpStart payroll tax—would go back into the general fund and could be used to address the projected $250 million 2025 budget shortfall. About 9 percent of JumpStart—a tax on paid by the city’s largest companies on the salaries of their highest-compensated employees—is allocated by law to EDI.

Because it is unlikely that OPCD can allocate all the funds to dozens of projects in various stages of development over the next few months, Rivera’s proviso would effectively gut the program.

The EDI program provides funds to help community groups that have little or no capital development experience with site acquisition or other capital costs that are part of the larger “capital stack” used to fund complex projects, including affordable housing, child care, and community centers; in some cases, the funds help organizations that don’t have a permanent home build capacity and stability so they can grow. If the EDI funds go away, dozens of projects could collapse.

Tammy Morales, who heads the council’s land use committee and , said supporters of EDI were “surprised that there would be such a potentially huge impact on dozens of organizations and projects without notification to anybody. … I don’t know what’s motivating this. All I know is that this would be hugely destabilizing for dozens of projects.”

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Advocates for the anti-displacement initiative have noted that development projects don’t happen in a year; particularly for community groups that may be developing projects for the first time, they can take months or years, which is why the funding for EDI carries forward from year to year. “The nature of development is that sometimes it takes two or three years to get all the financing together,” Morales said.

It’s probably unreasonable, in other words, to expect a community group with no history developing major capital projects–like the Ethiopian Community in Seattle, which has been working for years to develop senior housing on the site of its existing community center on Rainier Ave. S.—to spend its entire EDI allocation right away.

At a meeting of the council’s budget committee earlier this month, Rivera characterized EDI projects as “one-time funding” that might pay for programs that need ongoing funds in future years, creating a funding cliff. “I have questions about what this one-time funding will cover and whether there were any programs being contemplated  this money that would need ongoing funding,” Rivera said.

However, a detailed EDI project list shows that these are generally capital projects, and that the initiative pays for things like site acquisition, planning for capital projects, and construction, as opposed to ongoing programs that require annual funding.

Because EDI is designed to fund projects that address displacement in communities of color, the vast majority of the projects are in Morales’ District 2, which includes all of Southeast Seattle, the most diverse part of the city. There are also a large number of projects in Joy Hollingsworth’s District 3, which includes the historically Black Central District, and Rob Saka’s District 1, which includes all of West Seattle.

Rivera’s district is one of just two council districts (the other is Bob Kettle’s District 1, which includes downtown, Magnolia, and Queen Anne), that does not include a single EDI project.

During the same budget meeting, Rivera complained that OPCD had “consistently rescheduled and delayed” meeting with her to explain EDI. In fact, OPCD director Rico Quirindongo briefed Rivera on EDI individually in her council office on at least two occasions in May, council sign-in sheets confirm. The department also did a full briefing on EDI for the the council’s land use committee, on which Rivera sits, in March. All three of these briefings occurred before last Friday, when Rivera introduced her proviso.

Earlier this year, the council killed another program designed to help community groups prevent displacement by providing density incentives for community groups that develop affordable housing. At the time, Rivera said the city should not provide new housing incentives until the city adopts a final comprehensive plan in the coming year, and suggested (incorrectly) that the city does not know what’s in the housing levy Seattle voters adopted earlier this year.

Mayor Bruce Harrell has been supportive of the EDI program in the past, saying last year that the program “embodies our One Seattle vision, bringing to the forefront innovative community-based programs that increase affordable housing and economic opportunity, and ensure vibrant cultural spaces find permanence in our city.” PubliCola has reached out to the mayor’s office for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

The council is scheduled to vote on Rivera’s amendment at its meeting at 2:00 this afternoon.