So ignorance of the law may yet prove to be an excuse!?!

“Second, regardless of whether Seattle enacts rent control (and whether it ever takes effect), the city needs to make a massive investment in public housing. Sawant has made this point many times, and she is 100% correct. We can have a robust debate about the extent to which the private market will deliver enough housing for people earning the median Seattle income or higher, but there is no rational argument to be made that the market will deliver housing for people with incomes below 80% of the median income; it simply won’t. Meeting that need will require government intervention. ”

Sadly, this is where the author jumps the shark in the sense of looking at rent control (and how the ill effects have been lessened in other cities) in isolation.

https://www.sightline.org/2016/09/06/how-seattle-killed-micro-housing/
“This article is the story of…the obscure changes in land-use rules and departmental regulations that have now strangled a practical, modest, sustainable, unsubsidized form of inexpensive living that held enormous potential both for Seattle and for the rest of Cascadia.”

The author should have read the linked article which demonstrates, perfectly, how market forces can deliver low cost housing, even in hot markets like Seattle. IF and ONLY if economically ignorant politicians would simply get out of the way.

Read how by regulation, Seattle can turn a market based, unsubsidized, development of 40 units for $900 / month each morphs into 21 units at $1400 / month each