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Who Qualifies for Affordable Housing?

 Who Qualifies for Affordable Housing?



AMI

Affordable housing categories are based on the Area Median Income (AMI). Sammamish uses the Seattle Metro Area Median Family Income as its AMI. For 2024, this is $147,400. For comparison, the Sammamish median household income was approximately $239,000 in 2023.

Note that AMI is household, not individual, income. In Sammamish, almost half of households have two incomes. In King County, about 2/3 of households have two incomes.


Affordability Categories

For affordable housing regulations, the highest category is Middle Income, from 80 to 115% of AMI, or $118,000 to $170,000. Sammamish does not appear to have any program in place or under discussion for people in this category.

The Low Income category is from 50 to 80% of AMI, or $74,000 to $118,000. This is the target for the current Sammamish Mandatory Affordable Housing 10% regulation. There is nothing in the  proposed code changes that will increase this.

The Very Low Income category is from 30 to 50% of AMI, or $44,000 to $74,000. Sammamish only addresses this category in a somewhat complicated way using bonus units. It is unclear if there will  be any changes to increase the housing supply for this category.

The Extremely Low Income category is below $44,000. Households in this category will need a lot more help than just affordable housing. King County thinks that Sammamish should add almost 1500 housing units in this category. This housing is expensive to build and operate. It is unclear where the money will come from.

King County Incomes

Remember that these are individual incomes, while affordable housing categories are based on household income.

$220,000 Senior Software Engineer

$110,000 Registered Nurse

$110,000 Police Officer

$100,000 Entry Software Engineer

$85,000 Electrician

$84,000 Fire Fighter

$78,000 Teacher

$68,000 Grocery Store Worker

$65,000 Sammamish City Council

$60,000 Maximum Social Security benefit

$48,000 Restaurant Worker

$45,000 House Cleaner

$41,000 Retail Sales

$24,000 Average Social Security benefit



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