County funds new housing project

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Editor’s note: A previous story published in the Leader incorrectly reported the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners approved $75,000 for a proposal by Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) to build 44 units of affordable housing. The county’s joint oversight board on affordable housing had approved this funding, but the Commissioners did not until their meeting on Sept. 8.

Advocates for low-income housing say there has been no construction of affordable apartment buildings in Jefferson County in the last decade, a drought the County Commission took steps to end this week, more than a year after declaring an affordable housing emergency.

The Jefferson County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 8 approved the sale of a parcel of land at the corner of Hendricks and 7th Street in Port Townsend to OlyCAP to build 44 units of affordable housing with an early childhood education center.

The Commission also released $75,000 from the county’s affordable housing fund—collected from transaction recording fees—to help OlyCAP demonstrate to federal agencies that it has support and funding to get started.

The last affordable housing project in Jefferson County was South Seven Senior Village near Port Hadlock, built in 2006, according to a press release from OlyCAP.

The funding was previously approved by the Joint Oversight Board on homelessness and affordable housing, which includes members of both the county commission and city council and prioritizes solving the affordable housing crisis in Jefferson County.

The half-acre property is adjacent to the county’s Department of Community Development and QFC. It was originally purchased in 2002 for $3.1 million with two other parcels which currently house DCD and the county’s public health department.

Most recently, the parcel has been used by Jefferson Healthcare for parking. It was recently valued at $362,280 by the county assessor.

The county is selling the property to OlyCAP for $36,200, which is just less than 10 percent of the assessed value. Selling the property at 10 percent of assessed value will help OlyCAP in seeking grant money for the project. State law allows the county to sell the property for less than its assessed value if there is a public benefit, such as providing affordable housing, said county Central Services Director Mark McCauley.

The project will focus on very-low and low-income families and individuals with incomes at or less than 50% of the area median, or $32,200 annually for a family of four said Dale WIlson, OlyCAP’s director. Half of the building’s units will be for families or individuals with incomes at or less than 30% of the area median, he said.

According to Mark Blatter, the project manager who is working with OlyCAP on development of the units, there will be six studio apartments, 19 one-bedroom apartments, 15 two-bedroom apartments and four three-bedroom apartments to make a total of 44 units. There will also be parking on the ground floor of the building.

During a public hearing at the commissioners meeting, Wilson addressed concerns about the lack of parking for the hospital.

“We’re building a community, we’re not building parking,” he said. “This community has to do something about its housing problem. Sometimes there are just going to be impacts. We believe in the end, it will be a positive impact.”

While adding 44 units of housing to the Castle Hill neighborhood will increase parking issues in the neighborhood, it was not the height of commissioners’ concern.

“Getting people out of cars, not building more parking, is the issue in my mind,” said commission chair Kate Dean.

Meanwhile, Jefferson Healthcare is working to fix its parking problem. According to Amy Yaley, Jefferson Healthcare’s communications director, the hospital district bought a parcel of land next to Manresa Castle, where it hopes to build a parking lot sometime in 2020.

“As Jefferson Healthcare continues to grow, it becomes harder to accommodate parking and the burden on the local streets becomes more and more apparent,” Yaley said. “This, in addition to the promotion of ridesharing, biking and walking, is an attempt to lessen that burden on our neighbors.”

By that time, the affordable housing project is expected to be nearing its final phases, as the project is slated to take a total of four years to complete, including the year and a half OlyCAP has already spent on pre-development and design, Wilson said.

They hope to begin construction by September of 2020, with the project slated to finish two years later, said Kathy Morgan, OlyCAP’s housing director.

It will likely cost $10 to $15 million total. The majority of the funding for the project is coming from Low Income Housing Tax Credit which is a group of investors, the Housing Trust Fund, and community partnerships such as the county’s $75,000, Morgan said.

The county’s purchase and sale agreement that was approved by commissioners on Monday requires that the land be used for affordable housing for a minimum of 50 years.

“The highest and best use in our opinion is for public benefit purposes,” said Mark McCauley, the director of central services for the county.