Seattle's effort to protect renters allegedly helped destroy a $39 million investment meant to provide affordable housing, sending a 254-unit apartment complex that served lower-income residents into receivership.Now, its owners have scored a court victory in a battle that could influence similar fights in Philadelphia and other Democrat-led cities.The Washington Court of Appeals ruled Monday that GRE Downtowner LLC, the company behind Seattle's 254-unit Addison on Fourth affordable housing development, can proceed with claims that the city's sweeping rental regulations amounted to an unconstitutional taking of private property.
GRE alleges the restrictions, including an ordinance requiring landlords to accommodate certain additional occupants without their consent, sent rent collections plummeting, triggered millions in losses and ultimately made the once-viable affordable housing investment financially unsustainable.The development operated under the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which offers tax incentives to private investors in exchange for providing rent-restricted apartments to lower-income residents.Sean Flynn, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, explained that while such developments typically generate relatively modest profits, the federal tax credits make them financially attractive to investors, helping bring private money into affordable housing projects that might otherwise struggle to get built.Flynn, who is working with GRE Downtowner in its case against the City of Seattle, told Fox News Digital that the city's successive ordinances targeting landlords ultimately created a "toxic cocktail of legislation" that took a functioning affordable housing property and "destroyed it."PROPERTY OWNER ADVOCACY GROUPS PUSH BACK ON MAMDANI'S 'RENTAL RIPOFF REPORT,' PUBLIC DATABASE OF LANDLORDSA photo of a housing development in the state of Washington.
(Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)According to co...