Seattle Social Housing Developer Advances First Construction Project
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Social Housing
Seattle Social Housing Developer Advances First Construction Project
By Ryan Packer
- October 16, 2026
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A property in the Central District belonging to former House Speaker Frank Chopp will transform into twenty mixed-income units by 2028. (Ryan Packer)
A new 20-unit apartment building in the Central District is set to make history as the first new development constructed by Seattle's three-year-old Social Housing Developer (SSHD). With a unanimous vote of the SSHD board to acquire a 7,800-square-foot property on E Yesler Way Thursday night, the vision of growing Seattle's housing stock with a new type of permanently affordable homes takes another major step forward.
The parcel set to be transformed into social housing, located at 2402 E Yesler Way, comes with an extra layer of meaning for Seattle housing advocates. It currently belongs to the family of former House Speaker Frank Chopp, who passed away in 2025 after a long career advocating around housing issues in the state legislature. Chopp's widow, Nancy Long, currently controls the property.
Nancy Long, Frank Chopp's widow, makes remarks about the sale of the parcel at 2402 E Yesler Way Friday morning. (Ryan Packer)
"It's very emotional because Frank was the first lawmaker that came out and supported social housing when House Our Neighbors ran the first initiative and [he] talked to multiple people on our behalf," SSHD Interim CEO Tiffani McCoy told The Urbanist following the vote. "So this is an incredible moment. I know that he would be proud, and it was really amazing that Nancy brought the property to us because she wanted it to be either affordable or social housing."
Construction is planned to start in 2027, with the building opening to tenants in 2028. The sale price for the land was $1.2 million, McCoy said, with a total project cost of $15 million.
This new project will be the SSHD's second housing project overall, ahead of what is expected to be an accelerated pace of property acquisition. Earlier this year, the developer took over operations of the 150-unit Elara at the Market along Western Avenue after purchasing that 2018 building for $60.9 million.
More than 10,000 people applied for a chance to live in the first phase of rental units that were opened up to new applications this past spring.
Elara at the Market was the Social Housing Developer's first official project, with 150 units now under its control. (Doug Trumm)
Dedicated funding for the SSHD comes from a 5% payroll tax on annual compensation over $1 million, approved by Seattle voters in February 2025 with the passage of Proposition 1A. Annual revenues that were projected at approximately $50 million have proven extremely conservative, with $115 million coming in during the first year of collections. Those additional resources are set to allow the developer to scale up faster than previously anticipated.
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