Mallahan and McGinn turn attention to affordable housing

Seattle Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan speaks at a forum sponsored by the Housing Resources Consortium (PostGlobe)

Continuing their campaign to fill in the blanks for voters with about a month left in the general election, Seattle mayoral candidates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn turned their attention Thursday to affordable housing.

After trading barbs over the viaduct in the morning, the two sat at small tables of representatives from affording housing providers. As in other forums, the candidates gave similar answers to questions from housing advocates, who primarily seemed interested in how to preserve a place for poor and working families as the city grows and gentrifies around light rail stations.

However, Mallahan and McGinn each had their own twist, with Mallahan often blending his combination of management and business experience and his own personal values.

Asked how he’d support affordable housing – beyond backing the renewal of the city’s housing levy, which both candidates do – Mallahan cited his experience as a T-Mobile executive. “I manage to efficiencies, which finances the latitude to pursue social justice issues.”

McGinn, trying to broaden his image beyond being the anti-tunnel candidate, largely stayed away from the issues, but couldn’t resist bring it up completely. McGinn, an environmentalist and former head of the Greenwood Community Council, often highlighted his broad experience in city issues.

McGinn mentioned that the city had included affordable housing in only one of the new libraries it built around the city and said he’d look at using city property as one way to leverage more affordable housing.

Seattle Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn speaks to housing advocates at a forum on Thursday. (PostGlobe)

Both candidates said they’d support incentives on developers to include affordable housing in their projects. McGinn mentioned the need to work with state and federal leaders to bring the city funding for affordable housing.

However, asked by Rachael Myers,  the executive director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance,  about requiring affordable housing around light rail stations, both candidates waffled. Currently, the city allows developers in some cases to exceed zoning and height limits if the project includes affordable housing. But there is no requirement if the project remains within zoning in the area.

Mallahan said there were legal problems with simply requiring affordable housing near light rail stations, where the building of the train line often results in higher property values and housing prices. McGinn said the requirements for affordable housing had to be balanced against discouraging projects that would add more density in the city.

Asked about the NIMBYism in neighborhoods about increasing density and affordable housing around light rail stations, Mallahan said he would show leadership to get the city to live by its progressive ideals.

Those ideas slip sometimes, he said at one table of housing advocates, during a format in which the candidates moved from table to table to talk with small groups of people. “We recycle or drive our Prius and think we’re doing enough,” he said.

Mallahan said also that affordable housing funds raised by allowing developers to exceed building heights should stay in the neighborhood instead of going into a citywide fund. South Lake Union, he said, was an example of low-income people being pushed out of a neighborhood.

McGinn said he’d strengthen  neighborhood plans and said “part of the solution is to that if neighborhoods get the resources to make them better places to live, they would be more like to accept (growth).” He  noted that he’d been a leader in pushing last year’s successful parks levy.

The viaduct came up when the candidates were asked how they’d replace the loss of King County funds for human services.  Mallahan said it’s a difficult issue and that he’d manage city funds more efficiently to save money for human needs.

McGinn said he, unlike Mallahan, opposes removing the city’s head tax on employees. Supporters of removing the tax say it hinders small businesses during a difficult economy. McGinn said, “losing $5 million (from the tax) when the city has a $72 million budget deficit is not a good idea.”

McGinn also said money to replace the viaduct with a tunnel could be better spent. “We should stop, get out of (the project, and do something within our means.”