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Spotlight on Seattle, Washington: Multifamily Tax Exemption Program' As a booming technology sector has attracted more people to Seattle, affordability across the city declined rapidly. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a deficit of 112,678 affordable and available units for renters at or below 50% AMI in the Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue MSA e Of renters between 51% and 80% AMI, 47% are cost -burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs and utilities. To address this, Seattle developed the Multifamily Tax Exemption Program (MFTE). The City of Seattle's MFTE program provides a property tax exemption of up to 12 years to owners of multifamily rental and for -sale residential projects. For rental properties, the property owner is excused from paying property tax on residential improvements in exchange for rent - restricting at least 20% of the units for income -qualified households during the period of exemption. The Roost A co -living artists' community in Seattle's vibrant RainierValley neighborhood, The Roost was completed in 2018 and offers 33 apartments, 24 of which house working artists and nine of which are subsidized by the Seattle Homes Within Reach Incentive, program, a sub- program of the MFTE program, to assist households earning below 40% AMI. All 33 of the units are affordable at 80% AMI. In 2019, Fannie Mae refinanced the property with First Mortgage Debt of over $4,000,000. The annual income and restricted rent levels forthe MFTE are published by the Seattle Housing Authority. By participating in the MFTE program, The Roost is required to implement an Affirmative Marketing'Plan, which will help individuals and households otherwise unlikely to apply for housing 1) know about the vacancies; 2) feel welcome to apply; and 3) have the opportunity to rent units. 5 Fannie Mae's involvementwith The Roost project is beyond the scope of the underlying working paper. O