House Our Neighbors Education Fund

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Mission and Vision

House Our Neighbors Education Fund envisions a future where all people can afford to live and thrive in vibrant, cohesive, and climate resilient communities. To achieve this, we educate the public on social housing and advocate for policy to realize social housing for the residents of Seattle and beyond. 

Why Social Housing?

The private market, which prioritizes profit over people, dominates our housing supply. Our low-income, affordable housing is primarily funded through the Federal Government, and as the Trump Administration is proposing drastic cuts to affordable housing, now is the time to invest in local tools to provide housing that is affordable to all. 

Social housing is an internationally proven model that provides permanently affordable, publicly owned, mixed-income housing. Because it is mixed-income, the rents of higher-income residents cross-subsidize those of lower income residents, and allows for social housing to operate without the ongoing operations and maintenance subsidies that traditional low-income housing relies on. It treats housing as a public good, not a commodity to make a profit off of. 

What We Do

Our coalition won two Seattle voter initiatives, Initiative 135 in 2023 and Prop 1A in 2025, creating and funding the Seattle Social Housing developer. After these victories, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure social housing is successful. We are the only organization focusing on social housing in Washington State and our current priorities include: 

1. Deepening awareness and support of social housing in Seattle, to ensure implementation is successful
2. Expanding social housing education beyond Seattle and build a state-wide movement, serving as a resource to others who want to bring social housing to their communities.
3. Conduct policy research and development that will set social housing up for success.

Visit https://www.houseourneighbors.org to learn more!