A nonprofit affordable housing organization in Snohomish County is a couple of steps closer to building its first senior housing project after receiving millions of state and federal funding.
The Washington State Department of Commerce announced in January that 22 projects received state funds, ranging between $965,000 to $7.5 million, to help finance affordable housing construction and rehabilitation projects. Five of those projects also received federal funding.
“Housing affordability and availability … is an ongoing challenge, and remains a top priority for our work with the Legislature, local governments and affordable housing developers and service providers,” Department of Commerce Director Joe Nguyễn said in the announcement.
The projects are located in 12 counties across Washington state, resulting in 1,282 new affordable housing units. Housing Hope was the only applicant located in Snohomish County. It received about $3.9 million from the state and $1.1 million from the federal government.
The organization’s project involves 66 units – 60 one-bedrooms and six that are two bedrooms. It’ll be at 2624 Rockefeller Ave. in Everett, formerly owned by the Everett United Church-Christ.
The plan is to start construction by mid 2026 but the timing can change, said Kathryn Opina, Housing Hope’s senior director of administration and operations.
Of the 66 units, 14 would be reserved for unhoused people. Fifty two would be for those who aren’t unhoused. Thirty three would be units at or below 30% AMI and the remaining 33 would be units at or below 50% AMI.
The housing project will be open to anyone in Snohomish County.
“It’s a really good location,” Opina said. “It has a lot of amenities surrounding it.”
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Point-in-Time Count results for 2024 show that 25 percent of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness were 55 years old and up. Older adults experience homelessness for reasons such as lack of accessible and available housing, medical problems or financial insecurity.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose mission is to prevent and end homelessness in the United States. It is based in Washington, DC.
“Seeing how fast that population is struggling, we wanted to get a property out there that specifically met the needs for that population,” Opina said.
The total price tag for the project is about $39.4 million. Other funding sources such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, City of Everett and Snohomish County will cover the rest.
Housing Hope owns and operates around 600 affordable housing units at 24 locations throughout Snohomish County, according to its website. The organization also offers case management and employment services, among other programs.
Its first project in South Snohomish County is Madrona Highlands at 8215 236th St. S.W. in Edmonds. It has 52 units and is next to public transit and a grocery store.
Angelica Relente is a Murrow News Fellow covering housing and related issues in South Snohomish County for the My Neighborhood News Network. Contact her at angelica@myedmondsnews.com.
I see it will also need Federal Funding. I wouldn’t count of that as Ferguson is fighting our Federal Government. I assume we will be cut off soon from all funding..
The ONLY applicant that applied in Snohomish county?.. How can that be? (“Housing Hope was the only applicant located in Snohomish County. It received about $3.9 million from the state and $1.1 million from the federal government.”) And considering Snohomish County will be one of a few to put up the rest of the needed funds, (“Other funding sources such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, City of Everett and Snohomish County will cover the rest.”) it’s even more confusing to not have more than one applicant. What am I missing?
Char, there were many more applicants, but Dept of Commerce does not report the names of unsuccessful applicants in their press release. They do let us know that applicants applied for $355M in funding and $94M in funding was awarded. The funding reported in this article is one of the smaller sources in Washington State for subsidies to build low income housing. If you’re interested in learning about more developer activity to get funding, read the data published by the State for the LowIncome Housing tax credit. That’s got many more projects, and you’ll find Snohomish County projects there.
It does say the only applicant. Perhaps it means the only applicant awarded?
Angelica, can you please clarify for those of us in the comments who are questioning the “only applicant”? As affordable housing and funds that the cities are able to receive, this topic will grow, and the importance and necessity of the benefits, to both lower income and the city coffers, is worth tackling. Thanks!
Housing Hope was the only Snohomish County applicant to receive funds. A few other groups based in Snohomish County also applied for this but did not receive them. I hope this helps clarify things.
I believe that will be true for some time, as our governor and AG are spending all of their time opposing. It’s difficult even using the term affordable housing when the mechanism that makes it affordable is a reliance on government monies at a city, state or federal level. All three are broke. Once again, high costs are not addressed.
Elon????