More than 10,000 applicants are vying for 15 rent-reduced apartments under a new Seattle affordable housing program funded by a city tax on workers who make more than $1 million a year.

Amazon, Microsoft and other companies fought the tax, but voters approved it in a 2025 referendum.

The program was expected to create only several hundred apartments a year, as the so-called social housing developer constructed new buildings.

But the first allotment of apartments is even smaller because the social housing developer decided to buy an existing luxury apartment building and won’t require tenants to leave.

“We believe we currently have 15 vacancies to fill,” said Lilly Ann Fowler, a spokesperson for the social housing developer, in an email. ”Applicants will be notified this week.”

Fowler said the first 15 apartments will be reserved for people earning 30% of the area’s median income, which is around $34,500 for a single person.

Critics say buying existing apartment buildings won’t create new affordable housing for the poor on a larger scale.

“With only a small number of new units becoming available, it will do little to address the needs of hundreds of people seeking affordable housing,” said Shannon Affholter, the Co-Chair at the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.

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