Keep Your Habitat: Preventing the displacement of vulnerable homeowners in Seattle’s Central District

Abstract

As housing costs across Seattle steadily rise, both homeowners and renters consider moving outside of the city in search of cheaper housing, often sacrificing convenient access to transit, jobs and amenities. This study utilizes an informal group of homeowners in Seattle’s Central District called “Keep Your Habitat” to understand gentrification-induced displacement pressures and propose options for residents to resist displacement. This study employs a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of neighborhood demographics and housing market trends with qualitative interviews with neighborhood stakeholders to understand displacement pressures and resistance in the Central District. Finally, this research proposes several options to prevent displacement of vulnerable homeowners in the Central District, including property tax relief, more equitably distributing growth and supports for homeowners seeking to lease space within their home. Keeping residents in neighborhoods that they have called home for decades with good access to amenities and transit is a critical planning goal that strives to prevent displacement and re-segregation as more affluent household move back to inner city neighborhoods.