 It's official. Developers now have the green light to convert vacant office space into housing in downtown Seattle. The need for more housing is a hot topic at Seattle City Council to address the sky-high housing costs. And as more and more people move to the Emerald City for work, now some help is on the way. I believe it will help reactivate downtown. We desperately need housing. This will help with that. Council signed off on an amendment to the land use code. This lets developers convert commercial high-rise and other buildings sitting empty in downtown into housing.