House Our Neighbors

House Our Neighbors (HON) initially formed as a coalition in 2021 to oppose a charter amendment that would have enshrined encampment sweeps in Seattle. After it was defeated, HON wanted to propose our vision for how to address the homelessness and housing crisis: social housing.

The magnitude and scale of the housing crisis, both here in Seattle and across the country, make it clear that our current approaches to affordable housing are insufficient. This crisis impacts everyone: from those living outside, to educators, bus drivers, human service workers, artists—all of us who live and/or work in cities across the country .

Social housing addresses the need for true affordability across the income spectrum, through constructing and acquiring housing that is permanently affordable and publicly owned in perpetuity--and crucially, available to virtually all who need it.

We have won two ballot initiatives in 2023 and 2025 to create and fund a social housing developer in Seattle. In 2023 we established HON as a nonprofit, and we have both a 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(3) organization, to do the long-term organizing work needed to make social housing abundant and successful across the state of Washington.