Seattles Floating Homes PDF Download

The houseboats along the shores of Lake Union in Seattle, Washington are an iconic emblem of the city's character and popular image. However, tensions between the houseboaters and the City of Seattle, as well as with moorage owners, presented an existential crisis. Pollution, zoning, and monopoly market conditions gravely jeopardized the community. Urban renewal, catalyzed by the 1949 Housing Act, advocated for the destruction of underperforming "blighted" neighborhoods to allow the redevelopment of urban cores throughout the United States. While preservationists defended historic and diverse neighborhoods, urban renewal had long-lasting implications for how Seattle's urbanites envisioned the future. The Equity Ordinance attempted to block arbitrary rent increases for houseboat moorages as restrictions on houseboat space tightened the hold of moorage owners on their tenants. Despite efforts by the Floating Homes Association (FHA) to safeguard the community, the community eventually succumbed to market influences. Cooperative ownership shifted affluent moorage renters into owners, creating an economic threshold at which some houseboaters were displaced. Spanning from 1957 to 1993, this thesis argues that the houseboats of Seattle's Lake Union underwent gentrification due to urban renewal mandates and yielding to market-driven solutions.