In 1985, the City of Seattle announced plans to spend more than $5 million of the city's general-fund dollars on creation of a new home for the elephants at the Woodland Park Zoo. Such a home, it was said, was long overdue. It just wasn't humane to cram those pachyderms into a cramped concrete enclosure, and they needed room to roam.

For housing advocates, this was bitterly ironic. Sure, it was a fine idea to renovate Dumbo's home, but the Reagan administration had just wiped out federal assistance programs for housing for low-income and working families across the country.

To top it off, there was a downtown-office boom under way, and city officials had just announced the loss of more than 1,500 low-income units to demolition and abandonment in downtown alone.

Hundreds of other units across the city also were giving way to new construction, while waiting lists for our city's limited stock of affordable rentals were exploding. The city's few homeless shelters were inundated with newly homeless people, including, for the first time, dozens of families with children.

Advocates had already called on city officials to address this housing shortage, but precious little had been done. Then came the funding for the elephant house.

THE FIRST LEVY

David Bloom, of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, wrote a scathing critique of the city's priorities in the daily papers: How was it that our city's leaders could find the dollars for an elephant house but not for the growing number of low-income working families in our community?

That editorial and subsequent hubbub set in motion our city's first family-housing levy, approved by the voters in 1987. That levy raised more than $50 million for low-income housing over seven years. And for the first time, the city tapped a portion of its general fund for housing and supportive services.

Since then, about $200 million in total has been generated from three housing levies brought before the voters every seven years. The last one approved in 2002 raised more than $86 million. About 60 percent of these funds have been used to provide housing for families with incomes less than 50 percent of median. More than 35 percent of all funds have been used to serve the poorest of the poor in our city - those from 0 to 30 percent of area median.

IT'S TIME AGAIN

Now that the 2002 levy is in its last year, voters will be asked this time to commit $145 million over an additional seven year period to renew that levy. Even at this higher amount, given inflation, it won't produce as many units as the 2002 levy.  The new levy will add in property taxes annually between $50 and $60 on an averaged priced home of around $300,000-$400,000. In all, the three past levies created more than 5,000 units of housing. It's difficult to imagine how much worse our housing crisis would be without the levy.

But our mayor and some on the city council seem intent on tampering with this successful formula. Our mayor and at least a few council members want to shift as much as $45 million of these upcoming housing-levy dollars away from the poor and very poor to incentivize production of units affordable to those at 80 percent of median - euphemistically called "workforce" or "mixed-income" housing.

A couple with one child would need to pay more than $1,400 a month for a two-bedroom unit priced at 80 percent of median. To afford that (assuming they pay 30 percent of their income on rent), that household must earn more than $55,000 a year. According to Washington Employment Security, 75 percent of all county wage earners earn less than $55,000 a year.

The Census Bureau's 2007 American Community Survey shows there are 40,600 households in Seattle with incomes at or below 40 percent of median but only 11,100 units affordable to that group.

By contrast, for the 20,000 households in Seattle earning between 60 to 80 percent of median, there are almost 60,000 units at rents they can afford. Even pricey new rental construction may include units affordable at 80 percent of median, or they will within a few years as the building ages.

But here's an even bigger rub. Our mayor's rush to incentivize more housing for those at 80 percent of median and above has only accelerated the loss of housing serving those at or below 40 percent - from demolition, conversion or speculation. From 2005 through 2007, Seattle broke records for new housing construction, but we also experienced an unprecedented loss of more than 5,000 units of existing low-income and very low-income housing - far more than we could ever replace with our limited public-housing funds.

CITY COUNCIL (Committee action on June 11)

Seattle has recently approved up-zones and still more tax giveaways to developers to promote units at 80 percent of median and above. Just this week, the council voted to eliminate language in the downtown bonus program guaranteeing some of the millions raised from this program for those at 30 percent and 50 percent of median (meaning the city is free to give it all away including $14 million already accumulated, to developers producing units priced at 80 percent of median).

With respect to the limited public dollars we have - especially our housing-levy dollars - the emphasis must remain on serving those at the bottom: below 30 percent of median. None of the new levy's $104 million dedicated for rental housing should be used for households above 60 percent of median (where again the mayor would allow $45 million serving those between 60 and 80 percent of median).

The remaining portions of the levy for homeowner assistance, to help renters paying rent, and for acquisition of existing housing also should be limited to ensure that only a tiny fraction if any goes for housing above 60 percent of median.  Further, of the nine million dedicated for homeowner assistance, most of that should go to land trust and coops or if a unit is purchased with these funds the unit may not be resold to higher income groups - the longterm affordability of the units must be retained.

The city council is scheduled to finalize the new housing levy and begin taking votes in Committee on June 11. Let the council know what you think. Let's not risk losing a very important thing for our city.

Changing the levy to provide housing at rents thousands of dollars above what the average family can afford in order to serve households with much higher incomes is not a formula for winning voter approval in a deep recession.

John V. Fox and Carolee Colter can be reached at needitor@nwlink.com.