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In the days before a recent ballot referendum in Seattle that would determine the future of social housing in the city, large tech companies spent big. Amazon and Microsoft, both of which are headquartered in the Seattle metropolitan area, each donated $100,000, and opponents of a tax to fund social housing spent a combined $780,000 in the lead-up to the February 11 vote. Despite this, the vote on a corporate tax to fund the citys social housing authority won, with 63% of voters supporting it. In 2023, voters had already resoundingly approved the social housing authority, agreeing that a new entity would be created to acquire and construct mixed-income housing and keep it permanently affordable and under the citys ownership. But this February, voters were asked to return to the polls to determine how to fund the authorityor whether it would be funded at all. The first question on the ballot asked if voters approved of funding the new authority using payroll taxes. Next, voters had to choose whether they wanted a new 5% payroll tax on individual compensation above $1,000,000, paid by companies, or to use an existing payroll tax that mostly funds affordable housing. The new tax could bring in $52 million of funding each year for social housing. The second option would appropriate $10 million a year for five years that had already been set aside. The citys big tech companies had no interest in paying a new tax. In addition to contributions from Amazon and Microsoft, Seattles Chamber of Commerce donated $40,000 and T-Mobile donated $20,000 to derail an additional tax on companies. But according to Tiffani McCoy of House Our Neighbors, a Seattle nonprofit that has been one of the lead supporters of the social housing authority, the influx of spending actually hurt Big Techs case. Frankly, Amazon donating was a godsend for us, McCoy says. We capitalized on the fact that Amazon and Microsoft were dumping in $100,000, and we made clear to voters that these corporations dont want you to have social housing. McCoy says the campaign to fund the social housing authority with a corporate tax sent mailers, paid for digital advertising, and made social media posts that played up the tech companies donations. Supporters also held a rally in front of Amazons Seattle headquarters. Theres a lot of resentment toward tech billionaires who are part of the Trump regime here in Seattle, she says. The win suggests a way forward for organizers on the local level to take the housing crisis into their own hands. Persistent federal inaction and recent drastic attacks to HUD have provided motivation. We needed to Trump-proof our housing sector, McCoy says. And I think that helps because theres mass opposition to what hes doing. The vote also showcased a groundswell of resentment toward Big Tech that has been percolating among voters. The authority will initially be modest in its ambitions, as it wont have funding to develop housing anywhere near the scope or scale of the private market. The plan is to build or preserve 300 units a year, once funding comes in, according to the social housing development authoritybut it will own those units and will be able to issue its own debt. The first step, proponents say, is to make sure the money actually comes through. What will Seattles social housing authority do? The initial ballot referendum to build a social housing authority in Seattle passed in February 2023 with 57% of the vote. It created a public development authority, a type of government-owned private entity that can take out debt by issuing bonds. The term social housing has been used broadly in recent years to refer to types of housing that are not subject to the speculative market, including public housing, forms of subsidized affordable housing, and housing owned by community land trusts. Seattles referendum referred to social housing as publicly owned and financed mixed-income housing intended to be permanently affordable. According to the housing authoritys charter, that means it will acquire or build housing and rent it to people making between 0% and 120% of the area median income, with rents never exceeding 30% of a tenants income. The median income for a family of four in Seattle is about $160,000, according to the Seattle Housing Authority. That means families in properties owned by the authority could be paying between $0 and about $4,700 a month, depending on their income. Since the authoritys properties are not meant to be resold, it could provide a modicum of stability to lifelong renters as they age. Market-rate properties are meant to increase in value every year, but seniors with fixed incomes dont see their pay increase as they age. For decades, working Americans in general havent seen their pay increase significantly. The authoritys charter also creates a mediation provision for tenants to prevent evictions: According to the charter, residents MUST be afforded opportunities for restorative justice conflict resolution prior to being subject to eviction procedures. Theres not the pressure of somebodys investment that is in cross purposes to their ability to stay there, says Julie Howe, a Seattle Social Housing board member. The authority will issue its own debt in the form of bonds and create a revolving loan fund, lending itself money for construction and acquisition that would be paid back through rents, with higher rents subsidizing lower rents. Debt is a large and under-discussed factor in the cost of housing, as developers often price units to pay back loans. By using its own funds for construction, the authority will be able to reduce interest payments that can cause rents to balloon. The authority will be governed by a board with 13 members, including 7 appointed by the Seattle Renters Commission, an advisory board that consults with the mayor and city council. They will be mainly focused on the authoritys fiscal responsibilities and making sure it remains aligned with its mission. While public housing is notoriously underfunded in the United States, the result of a bipartisan aversion to government-owned housing, McCoy says the mixed-income approach that Seattle is taking with its own development authority might prove more sustainable, as it doesnt require as much direct subsidy. The authoritys approach is also less convoluted than building housing using Low Incom Housing Tax Credits, which requires multiple layers of financing on top of the federally issued credits. But there still needs to be a dedicated revenue stream to staff the development authority, to purchase and construct housing, and to issue bonds. The state law establishing public development authorities does not allow them to impose taxes. And the 2023 ballot referendum was limited to creating the authority; a dedicated funding stream was always going to require a second ballot measure. Some opponents of the social housing authority, which includes not just big tech but affordable housing developers, believed that the new ballot measure was an opportunity to relitigate whether the authority should be established at all. Theyre really looking for a do-over, McCoy said prior to the February vote. Taxing the wealthy Rather than opposing the authority outright, opponents opted to put option 1B on the ballot to essentially recreate the affordable housing system that exists in Seattle, with no new funding. That option would have effectively made the social housing development authority moot: the citys affordable housing fund that it would have pulled from can only go toward people making 80% of the area median income or lower, which means that the authority would not be able to cross-subsidize rents. According to Howe, the board member, this would have put the agency in conflict with affordable housing developers who rely on the existing funding stream. That would essentially go against how we were founded, Howe says. Suresh Chanmugam, a tech worker organizing with the group Tech for Housing, says tech companies dont mind Washington having one of the most regressive tax codes in the nation. Because the state has no income tax, most taxes are derived from consumer sales and property, regressive taxes where poorer people have an effective tax rate much higher than the wealthiest. Chanmugam believes rich companies use the lack of an income tax as a pretext to pay their employees less than they would in other states. He says that dozens of members of the Tech for Housing coalition knocked on doors, tabled at farmers markets and phone banked across the city. When people hear, Hey, do you want to tax companies to fund social housing?, people say yes, because theres near universal appeal in Seattle for making big businesses pay their fair share in taxes, Chanmugam says. He says he personally spoke to about 300 voters while canvassing and only received pushback from one or two people. It makes sense that tech workers have opposing priorities to their employers: While tech workers are typically high earners, many would benefit from the social housing authority, which would ensure that people making 120% of AMI, or around $190,000 for a family of four, would pay only 30% of their wages toward rent in units it owns. That would greatly offset any pass-through cost put on their wages by tech companies. According to campaign finance records, Microsoft and Amazon were tied for the highest donations to the campaign for option 1Busing existing taxat $100,000 each. Its not the first time that spending from tech companies has backfired in Seattle. In 2019, Amazon and the Chamber of Commerce supported a slate of City Council candidates, most of whom lost. The corporate tax was also opposed by the mayor; ads for option 1B, which would use existing funds, had pictures of his face on it. One opposition mailer included the mayors face and signature and the message, I strongly urge you to vote for Prop 1B. We need to build and operate social housing the smart way. 1B uses existing city funds, and has all the voter accountability and transparency that 1A doesnt have. The mailer notes that 1A builds homes for the poorest city residents. Only two current city council members support the corporate tax, according to McCoy. Our city council has taken a very reactionary turn, McCoy says. But the campaign used the political opposition to their advantage, citing the mayors stance in opposition mailers and messaging. Money being held up Despite the measures success, supporters say the city is still lagging on funding the authority. The new payroll tax is retroactive to January 1, 2025, but the city told supporters of the corporate tax the system to bill for it will take a year to build out, so that money wont be available for the authority until early 2026. In the past, the city has used an interfund loan, borrowing money from its existing funds to process a new tax right away. McCoy says the city didn’t initially appear willing to take similar measures to pay for the social housing authoritythough the mayors office later contacted the authority to discuss a bridge loan. A spokesperson for the mayors office says the city offered the loan to the authority to keep it afloat until the payroll tax revenue comes in next year. We have not determined the amount of the bridge loan yet, and any funding would require approval from the Citys Debt Management Policy Advisory Committee and the City Council, the spokesperson said in an email. Additionally, the original February 2023 ballot measure required the city to pay for staff for the authority for 18 months, but supporters say the city has only paid for 12 months. The spokesperson at the mayors office says that the city had disbursed all $850,000 of its contractually obligated startup costs, with the final payment on March 4. Roberto Jimenez, CEO of Seattle Social Housing (SSH), told Shelterforce Next City, The mayor interprets the charter and contract differently than does SSH. I believe we will reach agreement. Jimenez says his recent conversation with the mayors office was positive. He says the authority has already started looking at opportunities to purchase housing. That includes real estate deals that have stalled because buyers have had trouble accessing financing. He says construction is getting harder to do because of rising interest rates and the uncertainty of Trumps tariffs. But ideally, the authority will be in a position to build small and midsize housing that larger developers now avoid because larger multifamily buildings are more financially feasible. But first the money needs to arrive. Things could happen very quickly if the money gets freed up, he says. The challenge that were facing right now is we dont have the resources to hire staff yet, and we dont have the resources to really pursue analysis of these real estate options. Despite the hostility to the social housing development authority and its funding mechanisms from the political class, voters have now affirmed that they want it, twice. I think people dont ned to be afraid of it, Jimenez says. I think its an alternative form of housing that makes a lot of sense and has worked around the world. And its becoming much more utilized in the U.S. over the last couple of years. Youre going to see a lot more of it. By Roshan Abraham, Next City This story was originally copublished by Next City and Shelterforce.
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A new partnership between music creation platform BandLab and Sony is set to bring users production tools that are aimed at making independent musicians competitive with big-budget artists. Starting this summer, BandLab will integrate Sonys spatial sound technology, 360 Reality Audio, directly into its song-creation appallowing the songwriters and producers who use it to build immersive songs on their smartphones, using any headphones. A lot of these creators dont have access to expensive equipment and gear, says Jordy Freed, who leads brand, business development and strategy for Sonys personal entertainment business. When we look at 360 [Reality Audio] and some of the other technologies well integrate, wed be doing a disservice to current and future trends of music creation and listening if we didn’t open this up to more people. Executives from both companies say the features that BandLab will add in the coming months are just the start of a broader partnership that positions Sony and its personal entertainment businesswhich encompasses its consumer and professional audio businessesas a ground-floor partner to BandLab’s 100 millionstrong user base. Making amateur production immersive During the production process for most songs, producers and musicians assign elementsvocals and instruments, for exampleto a channel (left or right in the most basic form). With spatial sound tools offered by companies such as Sony and Dolby Atmos, song-makers can assign any element, or object, a position and volume based on distance in a virtual sphere around a listeners head. Though Apples spatial audio on Apple Music can be paired with hardware capabilities like head tracking to create a more dynamic spatial experience, a listener doesnt always need special headphones to listen to an immersive song. But the tools for making immersive music have been reserved for pricier software suites and studio equipment. For many years, its been so limiting for who can create in spatial, just from a pure economic basis, Freed says. A lot of the tools that have existed in spatial are often on the higher end in terms of price points and knowledge needed to use them. If youre an emerging creator, are you seeing the return on investment if youre spending that money? He says the BandLab partnership will be the first time a broad swath of musicians will be able to experiment with immersive audio. Initially, users will have access to a free set of curated, spatial-enabled beats onto which theyll be able to add vocals, instruments, and other production elements, with the final song being sa BandLab cofounder and CEO Meng Ru Kuok says the partnership is designed to make sure BandLab users are able to compete in a music industry in which streamers have been building demand for immersive listening steadily for years. In January 2024, Apple implemented a bonus payout of up to 10% for songs that are also available in spatial audio on Apple Music. The move came as a growing number of listeners opted for the immersive versions of songs on the streaming platform. Last summer, Apple VP of Apple Music and Beats told Wallpaper that 90% of Apple Music users were listening to songs with spatial audio. Though Apples spatial experience is powered by Dolby Atmos, Amazon music currently support Sonys 360 Virtual Audio. (Tidal removed its support for Sony’s 360 Virtual Audio summer.) From the consumption and listening side, theres been massive progress, but creation and music has always laggedlargely because of the infrastructure of people needing desktop equipment, expensive audio interfaces, expensive mixing gear, and those kinds of things, Kuok says. We dont want our creators to be left behind. We see in Sony a partner that is technologically able to make it accessible for people just through a pair of headphones. Equipping smartphone creatives for the future The spatial audio tools are just the start of multiyear partnership between Sony and BandLab. Freed says Sonys work with BandLab is part of his divisions broader efforts to engage with emerging artists and creators. The company works closely with the Recording Academy on its Grammy U program, which supports up-and-coming music professionals via events and networking opportunities. Additionally, in March, Sony and New York University announced the creation of the Sony Audio Institute, which over the next 10 years will offer students in the schools Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development access to Sony tech and research opportunities. It was important for us to have a fully rounded-out effortfrom the Grammy folks to the 100 millionplus BandLab users, most of whom are under 25 years old and creating with smartphones, Freed says. BandLab is seeing its fastest user growth in Nigeria and South Africa, as well as Latin America, all areas where smartphones are the dominant tech among creators. Freed says the partnership could expand to include creator camps and other educational opportunities with BandLab users to train them on Sony technology or connect them with industry professionals. This is not something that we look at and ask what the business impact is for the next quarter, Freed says. You do something like this because you really care deeply about community and growing a creator base to bring everyone together and shape where things are going for what it means to be a music creatorbecause its changing.
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Floor tiles designed to block cellphone signals. Special window film to ruin the photos of overhead drones. A bevy of hidden electronic jamming devices. This might sound like the arsenal of a high-tech spy, but its actually just a few of the trappings required to keep a conclave secret in 2025. In the wake of Pope Franciss death and funeral this weekend, the Catholic Church is now in a high-stakes race to prepare for the papal conclave, the traditional ceremony that will determine the next pope. On May 7, around 135 Roman Catholic cardinals will be sequestered in the Sistine Chapel for a series of ballot votes to decide who will inherit leadership of the churcha process that can take anywhere from two days to several weeks. The conclave is designed to be a highly secretive process, wherein the outside world is entirely ignorant to the discussions happening inside the Sistine Chapel, and the cardinals themselves likewise have no connection to the outside world. However, with all of the technology available in 2025 (like drones, AI, and advanced microphones), maintaining that secrecy is much more difficult than it was in 2005, when cellphones were first banned. It doesnt help that thousands of conclave followers are turning the event into a gambling opportunity, betting their hard-earned cash on the events outcome and making the public even more ravenous for a glimpse inside the chapel walls. To prepare for this highly publicized event, the Vatican is currently in the process of a design overhaul of the Sistine Chapel to host its temporary residentsand to keep information tightly contained. View of the Vatican City and Rome from the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. [Photo: Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images] Jamming devices, armed guards, and high-tech floor tiles Right now, much of what we know about the Vaticans conclave security measures comes from reports on the last conclave back in 2013. That year, fears surrounding potential leaks through hidden devices or internet signal were a serious concern, especially after an unfortunate incident in 2005 when a German cardinal reportedly accidently leaked the conclaves papal choice before the official announcement. To prevent any similar oversights in 2013, the Vatican disabled its internet signal by using jamming devices that prevented messages from any device transmitting information in or out of the chapels walls. There was a rumor that the jamming devices were placed in the floorboards, which was ultimately dispelled by the Reverend Thomas Rosica. They won’t work if you put them there, Rosica told reporters. Instead, he said, the jamming devices were installed high up on the walls, like a shield on an airplane. At the time, veteran Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, who is currently the editorial director of the Holy See publication Vatican News, reported that the Vaticans anti-bugging technology took the form of a Faraday cage inside the Sistine Chapel, the Santa Marta residence, and Synod Hall, where pre-conclave meetings took place. A Faraday cage is a kind of enclosure that prevents the transmission of electromagnetic waves by surrounding a targeted area with an electrically conducting material. Further security measures at the last conclave included privacy film on all windows to prevent any drone photography, rigorous checks for hidden devices inside the chapel and on the cardinals themselves, and an elite force of guards armed with heavy weapons. This time around, information on the Vaticans security plans is not yet widely available. However, there is one detail thats already emerged. According to an interview with NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose today, The floor being installed in the Sistine Chapel right now has special cellphone-blocking technology to keep inside information in and outside information out. Fast Company has reached out to the Vatican for more information on new security measures, and will update this story accordingly. Because insight on the cardinals decision cannot be transferred to the public via the internet, they will instead use a tried-and-true method: smoke. Each day that the cardinals do not reach a decision, black smoke will issue from a chimney at the Sistine Chapel. When the choice is made, the smoke will be white. Per a report from the Associated Press, the Vatican is currently working on installing a new chimney to ensure that all of the cardinals ballots are properly burned. Meanwhile, a second chimney installed beside it will issue the ceremonial black or white smoke.
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