The widening disparity between rent and home prices underscores a growing affordability crunch across the region.
Christian Chabot of Tableau, a data-analysis company, says moving the firm here from the Bay Area ten years ago turned out to be "an absolute home run".Seattle's problems, such as they are, are of growth: rising rents, widening inequality and transport infrastructure struggling to cope with rising demand.
"The government needs to give councils the powers and funding to resume their historic role as a major builder of affordable homes and to address the widening gap between incomes and rents.
Advocates of affordable housing say that the employed homeless are proof of the widening gap between wages and rents — which rose in the city even during the latest recession — and, given the shortage of subsidized housing, of just how difficult it is to escape the shelter system, even for people with jobs.
The rise of the private rented sector was ushered in, as the state rented to fewer people, and the widening geographic inequalities in the economy continued to grow.
Protesters set up tent camps in cities throughout the country to draw attention to inflated housing prices and rent, the high cost of living and the widening gap between Israel's rich and poor.
The other reason to care is because this rent-seeking has broader economic effects, one of which is widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
There is no shortage of anecdotal body blows, either, about how rent decontrol has given places like Boston and Cambridge an increasingly transient nature and a widening income gap.
For the city, the prospect of a team renting the space solves a politically embarrassing problem: The ballooning cost of the overhaul, which includes building high-priced skyboxes and new press boxes and widening exit ramps.
The National Housing Federation, which commissioned the forecasts and represents housing associations, warned that the widening gap in demand for and supply of housing meant "an entire generation will be locked out of home ownership and forced to rent for life".
