Seattle's first social housing building draws more than 10K applicants

More than 10,000 people applied to live in Seattle's first social housing building, a sign of the dire need for affordable housing in one of the nation's most expensive cities.

The Seattle Social Housing Developer announced last month it would buy the 150-unit Elara at the Market apartments in Belltown, transitioning the high-end building to a mix of deeply affordable and market-rate homes in the first test of social housing in Seattle.

Unlike traditional affordable housing, social housing includes tenants at a wide range of income levels in the same buildings. Popular in Europe, the goal is to subsidize more affordable rents for low-income renters, reduce economic segregation and keep the buildings affordable forever.

To bring that model to the Elara, people with the lowest incomes will get the chance to move in first.

The developer said it received 10,243 applications for the building during a two-week lottery that closed Friday. Starting Monday, the agency plans to draw names at random. It will first offer apartments to people making 30% of area median income or less, about $34,500 for a single person, until it has filled about 15 vacant apartments in the building.

The developer will then move on to people making up to 50% of area median income, $57,500 for a single person, for the next 45 available apartments. As more apartments become available, the building will be open to those with higher incomes.

The vast majority of applicants so far have been in the lowest income pools, with 70% earning up to 30% of area median income, according to the developer. More than 7,000 people at that income level applied for 15 available apartments. Roughly one in five applicants reported earning between 30% and 50% of area median income.

The developer will give applicants selected from the lottery 72 hours to respond and will require proof of income.

Interest in social housing reflects the broader need for more affordable homes in Seattle. The city needs more than 100,000 new homes of all types in the next two decades, more than half of them for people earning low incomes, according to state projections. While private developments can offer housing for people with middle and higher incomes, more affordable options almost always require government subsidy.

The Seattle Social Housing Developer, a publicly funded development authority, said it would pay nearly $61 million for the Elara, its first acquisition since voters approved creating the public developer three years ago and the funding source last year. The sale has not yet officially closed, according to county records.

Seattle funds the developer with a tax on companies that pay individual employees salaries exceeding $1 million.

The developer faced a rocky rollout, and some have questioned using public dollars to house people with higher incomes. Supporters argue that in addition to providing affordable units, there's a broad benefit to removing housing from the private real estate market.

Tapping into tax revenue and bonding authority, the social housing developer hopes to buy existing buildings and build new apartments for a total of 1,670 units operating or under construction in the next five years.

Elara at the Market will be the first test. Today, rents for new leases in the building range from $1,600 for a studio to as much as $2,400 for a one-bedroom or $3,700 for a two-bedroom, according to online ads. Under the social housing model, rents for one-bedroom apartments in the building will cost roughly $700 for people with the lowest incomes and $1,200 for people making half of area median income. Tenants with higher incomes will pay higher rents.

The developer will rely on natural turnover in the building to create the eventual mix of high- and low-income tenants, but also hopes to avoid a mass exodus of current tenants. To incentivize renters to stay, the developer promised no rent hikes for the next two years and free transit passes.

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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 4:50 PM.