Building Housing. Supporting Communities.

GS Consulting, in partnership with Ally Community Development, is developing Mount Zion Housing at 19th, 61 units of housing for low income seniors in Central Seattle. Mount Zion Housing Development (MZHD) was created by Mount Zion Baptist Church, which dates back to 1890 and is the largest African American congregation in the state of Washington. The neighborhood is ground zero for Seattle’s gentrification with rents escalating far faster than incomes in the last three decades. 

The Central District is the historic center of the African American Community in Seattle; but the area has gone from 70% African American in the 1970s to less than 18% today. The units will be studios and one-bedrooms serving seniors 55 years and older at 30%, 50%, and 60% of the area median income. This project will offer affordable rental units for seniors who have been displaced, or are in danger of being displaced, due to rising rents, allowing them to remain in the community where they raised their children and have called home for much of their lives. 

 
The project is financed with funding from the City of Seattle Office of Housing, Washington State Housing Trust Fund, King County, and a private loan from the Washington Community Reinvestment Association. Five of the units will be for people with severe disabilities and fifteen of the units will target veterans.
Mount Zion Housing at 19th started construction in the fall of 2021 and will be completed in 2023. 

Quixote Communities first pioneered using tiny houses for permanent supportive housing for single adults experiencing homelessness with the completion of Quixote Village in Olympia in 2013. In 2021, they completed Orting Veterans Village in rural Pierce County, and Shelton Veterans Village started construction in 2022 with completion scheduled for June 2023. 

Thirty 176 square foot single room occupancy units with living spaces and a full bathroom are in fourplexes, arranged around a central courtyard. A large community building has a shared kitchen and dining room, recreational space, and staff offices.

The tiny house model is less expensive than traditional permanent supportive housing units, with very small personal spaces and ample shared spaces for community building, peer support, and staff engagement with residents. The site will have a large garden designed by the Mason County Conservation District. 

Olympic Engineering did the site plan and civil engineering, MSGS is the architect and Forma Construction is the general contractor. The Washington State Housing Trust Fund is the primary funder, with funds also from Mason County and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines. The site is provided by the City of Shelton through a low cost long term lease.

 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 a direct allocation in the Washington State Capital Budget and the in the federal budget courtesy of Senator Cantwell. Additional funds are being sought from the State Housing Trust Fund and Community Development Block Grant. The project is expected to be fully funded in January 2023, and start renovation in the fall of 2023.

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 City of Walla Walla, Walla Walla County, and has applications pending with the Federal Home Loan Bank, the State Building Communities Fund, and the State Housing Trust Fund. Public funding will be matched with private capital campaign donations, with full funding expected in the spring of 2023, and construction expected to start in the fall of 2023.

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 proposed to be funded by the Federal Home Loan Bank, King County Housing Finance Program, and Washington State Housing Trust Fund with construction planned to start in the 2023.