In a good-faith effort to provide affordable housing in Jefferson County, the Housing Authority of Clallam County plans to consolidate with its Jefferson counterpart.
Pam Tietz, executive director of Clallam County’s housing authority, told the three Clallam County commissioners in Port Angeles on Monday that her agency has nothing to gain by expanding into a Clallam/Jefferson County Consolidated Housing Authority.
Rather, it’s a way to provide low-income housing and more programs for Jefferson County residents who are being underserved by the smaller and less robust Jefferson County Housing Authority, she said.
“What it is really boils down to is doing the right thing,” Tietz said. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
Commissioners Mike Doherty, Steve Tharinger and Mike Chapman endorsed the idea of expanding the housing authority in Monday’s work session.
More grants
Doherty noted that a larger housing authority could mean more grants.
“There are many funding sources who believe regional agencies are much better in small areas because they have more capacity,” Tietz said.
Talks between the two housing authorities have been ongoing since last spring. Details of the expanded housing authority, such as the composition of its board, have yet to be worked out.
Tietz estimated that it would be this summer or early fall before both housing boards and both sets of county commissioners approve a regional housing authority.
Jefferson County Housing Authority has a board of commissioners but no programs. It lacks the resources and capacity to offer the programs available in Clallam County, Tietz said.
“They’re so small, they just don’t really have the capacity to do something on their own,” she said.
“So they are requesting that we consider forming a consolidated housing authority between the two counties that would cover both counties.”
Rental assistance
Jefferson County Housing Authority has already transferred its rental assistance program to Clallam County.
It had a management agreement with the Bremerton Housing Authority for the administration of its housing choice voucher and tenant-based rental assistance programs. That agreement ended last July.
Bremerton’s housing authority expressed a willingness to absorb the Jefferson County programs, but that plan would have kept the Port Townsend office open just one day per week.
Jefferson County Housing Authority opted to explore other options, including a partnership with Housing Authority of Clallam County to manage Jefferson County’s housing vouchers and tenant-based rental assistance programs.
A 10-year interlocal agreement was approved by both housing authorities, the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in November.
“So we’re administering those vouchers,” Tietz explained.
“But throughout this, we’ve had a broader discussion about how Jefferson County can have a housing authority that would be more proactive than what they have had to date.
“We really needed to extend that hand to Jefferson County citizens, because if we did not it wouldn’t have been good for the citizens of Jefferson County.”
500 units
The Housing Authority of Clallam County owns about 500 units for low-income residents in Port Angeles, Sequim, Forks and unincorporated Clallam County.
It puts people into homes and pays a portion of the rent to local landlords.
Clallam County’s housing authority has quadrupled in size since Tietz took her post 15 years ago.
It purchased the vacant Lee Plaza — the former Lee Hotel at 112 W. First St. in downtown Port Angeles — in 1998 and opened 48 affordable housing units and 8,000 square feet of office space in 1999.
The agency has a sweat-equity program for home builders similar to Habitat for Humanity, but requires a prospective homeowner to work 32 hours per week on the property.
In the coming years, the Housing Authority of Clallam County plans to redevelop the Mount Angeles View neighborhood in southeast Port Angeles.
“In general terms, I think we work quite well with Jefferson on other multi-jurisdictional, intergovernmental type boards for specific purposes,” Doherty said.
Tharinger asked Tietz if consolidation would spread Housing Authority of Clallam County’s resources too thin.
There may be start-up strains early in the process, Tietz said, but more staff will be added as more housing programs get off the ground.
“More and more, it’s better for us to look at the North [Olympic] Peninsula,” Tharinger said.
“We’re trying to do that with economic development, we’re trying to do that with tourism, and I think it just makes sense into the future to consolidate more.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
