Building Housing. Supporting Communities.

GS Consulting, in partnership with Ally Community Development, is developing the Rainier Beach Family Empowerment Center for East African Community Services (EACS) in South Seattle.  EACS has been providing cradle to career services for low income immigrant families for 22 years.  As many members of their community are being displaced by rising housing costs, EACS is moving into the affordable housing space.  

This is their first project, which will have an early learning facility, classroom space for school aged children, social services for families, and a community gathering hall on the first floor with 69 units of housing on upper floors.  The housing units will be studios, one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units affordable to households with incomes at 30, 50, and 60% of the area median.  Six studio units are for youth involved with the criminal justice system diverted from incarceration.

Environmental Works Community Design Center is the architect and Compass Construction is the general contractor.  The project is seeking funding from the Seattle Office of Housing, King County Housing Finance Program, the Washington State Housing Trust Fund, the 4% low income tax credit program, a capital campaign from community donors, and various sources for the non-housing spaces.   The project is striving for securing all of its financing by January 2025, and completing construction by December 2026.

Willapa Community Development Association is purchasing and preserving this American Legion building in downtown Raymond, in rural Pacific County. The Legion will lease back their clubhouse space and commercial spaces, and the rest of the building will be renovated with 17 low income housing units and a community services center with a focus on connecting veterans to services. 

Three of the apartments will be reserved for families experiencing homelessness referred from the County’s Coordinated Entry system, and the Pacific County Health and Human Service Department will provide supportive services for these families.
 

The project has funding secured from direct allocations in the Washington State Capital Budget and the federal budget courtesy of Senator Cantwell. Additional funds have been secured from the State Housing Trust Fund, Community Development Block Grant, and loans from the Washington Community Reinvestment Association and the Rural Community Assistance Corporation. The project is in design and permitting with construction planned for the summer of 2024.

The Christian Aid Center in Walla Walla, the project sponsor, has been providing emergency services for homeless individuals and community meals for over 70 years. These programs are critical to the social safety net as the only large shelter for men in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon and the only free meals available 365 days a year in Walla Walla. Unfortunately, these programs have been housed in aging repurposed structures that do not offer the dignity or safety that CAC’s guests deserve.

The Covid 19 pandemic forced CAC to redevelop their site as the cramped quarters fell short of their guests needs during this difficult period. In March of 2022, CAC purchases the adjacent property with a land acquisition loan from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. ZBA Architecture has completed schematic design for a new building with expanded capacity, accessible shelter rooms, and a kitchen large enough for the quantity of meals produced.
 

The project has funding commitments from the State Housing Trust Fund, the State Building Communities Fund, the Federal Home Loan Bank, City of Walla Walla, and Walla Walla County. Public funding is matched with very generous private capital campaign donations.  Construction is planned for spring of 2024.

The Sno Valley Senior Center (SVSC) has lamented the lack of affordable rental housing for seniors in the Snoqualmie Valley for many years. As local farmers and other long-term residents age, the lack of housing options force them out of the area where they raised their children and spent most of their lives. There is no affordable housing option in Carnation, and no affordable senior housing between North Bend and Redmond.

In the spring of 2021, Ginger Segel conducted a feasibility study that included constructing an apartment building on land owned by SVSC just north of the center of downtown in Carnation. She found that the site can accommodate 15 one-bedroom apartments with rents affordable to households at 30 and 50% of the area median income.  The project is under construction with completion scheduled for summer 2024.  The State Housing Trust Fund, King County and the Federal Home Loan Bank, along with local charitable donations, and loans from the Washington Community Reinvestment Association and the Seattle Bank, have funded the project.