SEATTLE -- A huge affordable housing project is being studied by Seattle City Council staff.
Seattle Council Member Kshama Sawant wants to sell bonds and build thousands of affordable housing units on city surplus lands.
"We are not just talking about extremely low income people. Also people who used to think of themselves as middle-class," said Sawant.
The units would be rented at no more than 30 percent of a tenant's income.
The numbers are not in yet, but, she believes those rents would pay back the bonds.
"We are talking about a bond sale because we want to generate thousands, on a scale of thousands of units," she said.
Council President Tim Burgess says he's ready to release a counter proposal to build affordable housing using public and private funds.
