By Gwen Davis

Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) plans to raise rent rates on low-income residents, potentially forcing people to move out. On Wed. morning, the Seattle City Council heard SHA make its case.

SHA is in charge of West Seattle's High Point, which provides housing options for people of all income levels.

This meeting was heated. Here is the story:

--> SHA's new proposal would not affect the elderly or disabled, SHA officials said, only a population of residents aged 24-61 who are able to work. SHA serves 13,000 individuals, and 65 percent of them are able to work, they stated. SHA is in a space crunch: this year only 2,000 spots were available for 24,000 applications.

The new proposal, Stepping Forward, would dramatically raise rates. People who are currently making around $11 an hour would have to make $19 an hour by the end of a four-to-six-year implementation process or they'd get kicked out. SHA plans to provide job training so residents can get higher-paying jobs.

--> Council members brought up a range of questions and concerns: How can you expect people will increase their income? Is there going to be a study to confirm your hypothesis that raising rents will increase self-sufficiency? Everyone wants to make more money, but what if the rent goes up and people don't have an opportunity to make more income? All minimum-wage workers would like to make $19 an hour, but we don't have many $19 an hour jobs, they said.

"This is frightening," Council Member Mike O`Brien said. "I don't have any confidence this proposition is going to work. There are no studies that show that flat rents result in better self-sufficiency," he said. Additionally, Seattle is the 10th most expensive city in the country in terms of rents. People will be forced to move out of Seattle.

Council member Kshama Savant said: "Just because you decided people should get better jobs, that doesn't mean they will," she stated. "What we're worried about is that this will make people homeless. People are scared that they and their children will be homeless."

Furthermore, "a large portion of people who have significant education [such as master's degrees] aren't able to get jobs," she said. This isn't just about minorities and immigrants. That's the status of our economy. These aren't factors you control."

One council member testified that "SHA residents are frightened by this proposal and 300 residents rallied to protest against this." At the end of a six-year period there would be a 500 percent increase on the poorest households, he said.

--> SHA officials explained to the council: "Providing more housing was our number one priority and [this encourages self-sufficiency is a process that's easy for people to understand and is equitable," one official said.

"The proposal itself is trying to break away from the concept of tying income to rent," he said. It's trying to focus on work ability and providing people with the kinds of work-training services that are helpful in getting residents to create a better living.

SHA presented a chart that depicted what the new rents would be for the targeted population.

There will be exemptions for hardships, they said. The goal is to increase the income of individuals with work-training and with that, rents would be able to be increased, as well.