First of its kind concert for social housing taking place Sunday, January 29th

Washington’s 43rd District Democrats is partnering with Tech4Housing to produce a first-of-its-kind concert featuring local Seattle artists in support of social housing initiative I-135. The show will feature music, speeches and education about what the initiative aims to accomplish and how activists like Dawn Dailey and Suresh Chanmugam have been working to combat the issue.

“I'm a creative myself,” Dailey said. “I work for the Burke Museum of Natural String Culture. In my role, in public programming and acquiring talent to work with exhibitions and content, I've gotten to know folks struggles.”

Dailey believes that creating sustainable social housing will play a role in saving and revitalizing Seattle’s music and art scene, as artists continue to find themselves priced out of Seattle. Chanmugam, is a tech worker who works with Tech4Housing, a community of tech workers fighting to ensure that rising costs don’t prevent Seattle from losing its creative community.

 “The success of the tech industry hasn’t come equally to all communities in Seattle and the humanitarian impact of high housing costs has been devastating,” Chanmugam said. “Many people have been displaced out of this city.”

Both he and Dailey hope that housing which is rent controlled and accessible can provide artists and creators with an option to remain in the heart of the city. Chanmugam says he knows many individuals who must commute upwards of thirty minutes to work, which also increases emissions and impacts global warming.

He’s also concerned about where the failure to address these issues could lead Seattle in the future.

"It will will become like San Francisco,” Chanmugam said. “A city of tech bros and then people living on the street. We are dangerously close to that already. I have three children. Their teachers, dentists, and coaches all commute from far outside the city already.”

Dailey said the initiative plans to solve these problems in a sustainable and accountable way. I-135 would establish a Public Development Authority, which is similar to the way institutions like the Pike Place Market are run.

“Any resident of Seattle can actually sue this social housing developer if it does not uphold what's written into its charter,” Dailey said. “That charter says that it must build and operate housing for prioritized for people earning between 0% and 120% of the area median income.”

You can find out more information about the concert and buy tickets here

Find out more about I-135 here