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The Mission of Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty is to apply the perennial truths of economics and ethics to the urgent challenges of today. We are building a sustained argument against the progressive ideological regime that increasingly dominates America’s institutions and rebuilding the foundation of the nation’s first principles: freedom, equality, charity, and the pursuit of happiness for all. Read more.

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Affordable Housing Owner Sues City of Seattle: Unpacking the Lawsuit

_{Caitlyn McKenney
October 30, 2024
7
Housing}

Last week, GRE Downtowner, LLC (GRE) filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle, arguing that the city’s policies have destroyed the livability and economic viability of GRE’s Addison on Fourth apartment building. The Addison on Fourth is an affordable housing building nestled between Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square and Chinatown-International District. The lawsuit alleges that the city has forced the Addison to either continue operations in service of a public good at a massive private loss, or to shut down operations entirely. Both options GRE describes as “disastrous.” To understand why a privately-owned housing building is in default, facing over $40 million in liabilities, and “hemorrhaging money,” in an affluent west-coast city, we must look at a series of …