Seattle's District 5 voters have elected progressive urbanist Nilu Jenks to the city council, delivering what may be an unlikely victory for both housing developers and renters, according to a November 6, 2026 report in Reason. Though Jenks campaigned on typical progressive priorities like less aggressive policing and worker affordability—earning backing from democratic socialist leaders including state Rep. Shaun Scott—she also championed pro-market housing reforms that could make construction significantly easier in a city where development costs have soared.
While her moderate opponent Julia Kang, a former teacher and banker, focused heavily on crime reduction and fiscal responsibility with less emphasis on affordability, Jenks made Seattle's housing crisis central to her campaign. She listed "Building 1,000 New Units of Affordable Housing" as her top priority, but unlike many progressives who rely on rent control and government-subsidized construction, Jenks proposed removing restrictive zoning, streamlining the city's slow and expensive permitting process, and reforming design review procedures. She specifically targeted Seattle's Mandatory Housing Affordability program, which charges developers between $11 and $50 per square foot for new projects—fees that reached over $8.5 million for one Capitol Hill Safeway redevelopment plan and added $36,000 to a local couple's plan to convert their home into a duplex with an accessory unit. According to Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspections, new high-density housing applications have plummeted from 16,000 in 2020 to just 509 so far in 2026.
In a 2023 questionnaire to The Urbanist, Jenks described the root of Seattle's affordability problem as a housing shortage and called for "removing restrictive zoning; improving the historically slow, expensive, and inefficient permitting process; reforming restrictive and unpredictable design review processes; and fixing well-intentioned but counterproductive affordability programs." The report notes that Jenks' critique of the MHA program and her clear plans to deregulate permitting and zoning earned her the endorsement of YIMBY Action, a national pro-housing organization. Both Jenks and her opponent Kang criticized Seattle's democratic socialist mayor Katie Wilson for delaying Councilwoman Dionne Foster's proposal to reduce MHA fees by 80 percent for two years, with Wilson instead convening a stakeholder workgroup to refine the plan.
The report explains that the MHA program functions essentially as a development tax, requiring all new housing projects either to reserve rent-controlled units or pay substantial fees to the city's affordable housing fund—a policy that drives builders away from high-cost Seattle projects. One developer planning four townhomes would face $126,000 in housing fees under current rules. While broader market trends have slowed development in many cities, any tax on development limits the market's ability to match housing supply with demand, pushing up housing costs for all residents. The fees add up quickly: ChangeWA, a nonprofit focused on common-sense governance, found that MHA requirements represent an 8 percent increase in construction costs for major projects.
The report concludes that while Jenks must still prove her ability to implement her vision, "in a city where housing costs continue to rise and anti-market solutions seem to follow, a progressive councilwoman with serious and pragmatic plans to address the housing shortage is refreshing." Her election represents a potential shift in Seattle's approach to affordability—one that addresses the problem through expanded supply rather than purely through subsidies and price controls. With developer fees currently choking off new construction and housing applications down 97 percent from their 2020 peak, Jenks' willingness to challenge "well-intentioned but counterproductive" programs could determine whether Seattle can build its way back to affordability.