Published October 2001

Officials pair affordable housing with transit hubs

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

Affordable housing, always in short supply, is getting new attention and respect from both government and private sectors in Snohomish County.

Ironically, the county's transportation snarls are helping to spur that interest in low-income housing, interest that centers around transit-oriented development (TOD).

For instance, new transit areas such as the Everett Station, Lynnwood's developing business district and the city's large park-and-ride lots, plus the new Opus Northwest development that broke ground north of Lynnwood two weeks ago are all creating new opportunities to build affordable living quarters at hubs where living, shopping and working activities converge.

An exchange of ideas for increasing the supply of housing for lower-income residents in the county captured the attention of more than 60 representatives of housing agencies, nonprofits, city and county governments and the private sector at last month's breakfast meeting at the Monte Cristo Hotel ballroom in downtown Everett.

The Housing Stakeholders' Affordable Housing Forum, sponsored by US Bank, focused on ways to continue building and financing low-income housing in the county, with an emphasis on emerging opportunities around transit centers. Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel and a key assistant, Steve Holt, moderated the meeting.

Guest speaker Steve Norman, Executive Director of the King County Housing Authority, told the group The Village at Overlake Station in King County is an example of how the public and private sectors can — and must — work together.

The $38 million project involves several floors of living space over a 500-vehicle parking garage built on a former park-and-ride lot owned by the county.

"We took a site that was only a parking lot, and we're turning it into affordable housing designed to provide people an opportunity to get to nearby work, schools and shopping by foot, bicycle, cars or local transit," he said. "Transit buses pick people up right where they live, including access for handicapped riders."

The housing authority made the faltering project successful by bringing tax-free bonds and other government financing options into the mix.

"We were brought in to help keep the project viable, but it would never work without private-sector expertise and resources also coming to the table," Norman said. "It takes cooperation to move these types of projects forward."

Everett city planner Dave Koenig said the new Everett Station, a multi-modal facility, is expected to attract development for the surrounding area in a variety of ways.

"Housing Hope is already planning 20 units of affordable housing just up the hill from the station. This will be a major site for transit services and neighborhood redevelopment, not only for housing but also for the industrial businesses displaced by the station," he said.

The 64,000-square-foot, four-story station, expected to open in December, will primarily offer transportation services. But there also will be education programs and employment services in the facility, a concept that fits well with the idea of developing urban centers with complementary components.

"We're at a key crossroad in our decision making. That's why the EDC is bringing city and county leaders to a discussion about creating urban centers at an Oct. 3 EDC luncheon at the Embassy Suites in Lynnwood. Rather than waiting for urban centers to happen, we need to make them happen over the next five to eight years," said Steve Clagett, Centers Project Director for the EDC.

Other transit-centered developments discussed at the meeting included downtown Lynnwood's efforts to create an enhanced central business core, bringing both transit and more business into the area.

"We're excited about the new commercial and office development in downtown Lynnwood. We have more than 18,000 jobs in downtown and an abundance of office buildings being built. Also, we're at the center of four major highways and we have large park-and-ride lots for transit," said Lynnwood Mayor Tina Roberts-Martinez.

With retail and office space developing near both the downtown core and the park-and-ride site at 164th Street SW, Roberts-Martinez and others urged careful study of how affordable housing and other needs could be created around those sites.

"Shaping growth is a key element in our planning at Sound Transit," said Dave Earling, Board Chairman of Sound Transit. "Both King and Pierce counties are seeing a lot of development springing up around new transit centers. In Snohomish County we have new transit centers in Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds, and the communities are studying surrounding development. We want to be partners with cities where we can spend Sound Transit dollars logically for the maximum benefit."

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (10th Legislative District) told the group, "affordable housing is finally being talked about in the Legislature as a major issue.

"For a long time it wasn't talked about. We also know that housing is a major issue in small cities in the county and that transit services are also very important to them," she said.

Although there are challenges in meeting the need for affordable housing in the county, there are encouraging events happening, too.

Larry Springer, Manager of Snohomish County's Office of Housing and Community Development, told the group the Gates Foundation was focused on the county's needs, too, an interest reflected in three awards from the foundation recently.

In July, Housing Hope's 20-unit Maple Leaf Meadows facility received a Gates grant of $150,000; Intercommunity Housing received $377,000 for Lincoln Way II, a 49-unit addition to an existing low-income housing facility near Lake Serene; and the Snohomish County Housing Authority was granted $330,000 to help acquire a 120-unit project, Edmonds Highlands, for an affordable-housing venture.

Ed Peterson, Executive Director of Housing Hope in Everett, said the Snohomish County Housing Trust Fund, formed in 1989, had contributed $2.4 million for 22 low-income housing projects, leveraging the fund's dollars into $27 million worth of housing projects for such groups as Housing Hope, the Everett Gospel Mission, Counterpoint and Homestead Alternatives.

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