Seattle Council Election Yields a Surprising Pro-Housing Progressive
Voters in Seattle’s District 5 have elected progressive urbanist Nilu Jenks over moderate Julia Kang in the city’s sole council election this year, according to The Seattle Times. That outcome could signal an unexpected pivot for both homebuilders and renters navigating a persistent affordability crunch.
Much of the campaign centered on public safety, affordability, and city taxes. State Rep. Shaun Scott (D–Seattle), a democratic socialist leader, endorsed Jenks while she championed a progressive tax system, worker affordability, and less interventionary policing. Formerly a banker and teacher, Kang presented herself as a moderate by pushing for fiscal responsibility from the Council alongside increased police presence in high-crime zones. Yet while Kang focused primarily on reducing crime, Jenks confronted the city’s housing shortage head-on.
Nilu Jenks is the new council member for Seattle’s District 5, the latest victory for the city’s progressive movement after it had largely lost power in City Hall during the first years of the pandemic. https://t.co/vtqZ6V9GDk
Jenks Proposes Zoning and Permitting Reforms to Fix Housing Shortage
On her campaign website, Jenks listed “Building 1,000 New Units of Affordable Housing” as her top priority. While the term “affordable” is often synonymous with government intervention like rent control or city-subsidized construction, Jenks has offered several pro-market reforms in the past and on the campaign trail. In a 2023 written questionnaire to The Urbanist, she pinned the core of the city’s affordability problem as a housing shortage. She suggested resolving the issue by dismantling restrictive zoning rules, upgrading the notoriously sluggish, costly, and cumbersome permitting system, overhauling unpredictable and restrictive design review procedures, and restructuring well-meaning but counterproductive affordability initiatives.
Chief among those counterproductive targets is Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program. Started in 2017 and expanded citywide in 2019, the MHA forces new housing projects to either set aside rent-controlled units or pay hefty fees into the city’s affordable housing fund. Those fees range from $11 to $50 per square foot, adding up rapidly.
Progressive Nilu Jenks was elected to the Seattle City Council. Can she deliver on her pro-development campaign promises? https://t.co/MGvqbp72ge
ChangeWA, a nonprofit focused on advancing common sense governance, found that a redevelopment plan for a Safeway in Capitol Hill would owe more than $8.5 million in MHA fees upon construction, marking an 8-percent increase in construction costs. In 2025, Reason reported that the MHA program added $36,000 in fees to a local couple trying to redevelop their home into a smaller duplex and accessory dwelling unit. For a developer looking to build four townhomes on his property, the fee hits $126,000.
The Toll on Multifamily Permitting and Market Realities
Essentially operating as a tax on new development, the MHA drives builders away from high-cost projects across Seattle. Over the past five years, new multifamily permitting applications have steadily declined. According to figures from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, developers have submitted a mere 509 applications for high-density units thus far in 2026, marking a dramatic plummet from the 16,000 proposals submitted back in 2020. Even though city development has generally slowed down due to wider economic patterns, any levy on construction limits the marketplace’s capacity to balance housing inventory with consumer demand, consequently driving up living expenses for all urban residents.
Recognition of that friction has reached the dais. Working alongside builders, Councilwoman Dionne Foster recently put forward a proposal aimed at slashing MHA charges by 80 percent across the following two years. However, Seattle’s democratic socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, delayed that pause to convene a stakeholder workgroup to continue refining the proposal, according to The Urbanist. Wilson’s decision earned criticism from both Jenks and Kang.
Despite the specifics regarding MHA reform remaining absent from Jenks’ comments, her readiness to criticize the policy paired with definite strategies to ease zoning and permitting restrictions secured backing from the national pro-housing organization YIMBY Action. Her ability to execute that vision remains to be proven. Nevertheless, finding a progressive council member with serious and pragmatic plans to tackle the housing crisis stands as a welcome change in an urban center where living expenses keep climbing and anti-market fixes regularly prevail.
