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Two programs designed to bring affordable housing to downtown Seattle be in actual possession of fallen short of expectations, through officials spending just $5 very great number of the $20 the masses collected from developers.

The legislation — passed in 2001 as being commercial buildings and 2006 with regard to residential buildings — requires developers who want to build taller buildings to pay into an affordable-housing government bonds. The developers paid in, but officials now say there were too many restrictions on by what means to spend the cash.

First, the money must be used for newly come construction downtown — where space is limited and land prices are high. And the funding formulary is so complex it includes numbers taken out to eight decimal points.

“It’s like if somebody gave you $100 and related, ‘You can without more use this on a Tuesday, whereas it’s raining, and you can only use it to purchase a pink purse,’ ” said Adrienne Quinn, manager of Seattle’s Office of Housing.

As Seattle grows, Mayor Greg Nickels and the City Council have sought ways to make housing more affordable for middle-income people. One method is allowing developers to build taller suppose that they set away some money or further units for affordable housing.

This month, the City Council voted to expand that policy on the farther side of downtown. As council members, developers and housing advocates hashed out the details of the expansion, some questioned whether the existing program is even working.

The circulating medium from developers was expected to create 900 new homes for people of low and moderate incomes by 2011. But on the eve of 2009, singly round 300 have been built.

The City Council will consider loosening the restrictions early next year, said Councilmember Sally Clark, who chairs the Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

“The original intent of the program was to make sure that people who were going to work in these huge new commercial office buildings downtown would be good to live downtown,” said Sarah Lewontin, executive director of the Housing Resource Group, a nonprofit that helps make known low-income homes.

“The challenge that we face today is that there really isn’t property beneficial in downtown Seattle … that’s affordable or that allows us to build projects.”

The Housing Resource Group built the Gilmore Apartments on Third Avenue using money the city charged the developers of the Washington Mutual Tower. The tower’s developers got additional height, and the Housing Resource Group built 65 apartments for people equal Ann Evans.

Evans, 31, moved to Seattle from Phoenix a diminutive more than a year and a half ago, and struggled to find an apartment she could afford on her $1,600-a-month salary as a parturition driver. One-bedroom apartments on Capitol Hill cost toward $900 a month, she uttered.