PORT TOWNSEND — More than $10 million for affordable housing is coming to Jefferson County non-profit organizations thanks to grants from the state Department of Commerce, which awarded more than $312 million statewide.
The department’s Housing Trust Fund announced last week that four grants were awarded to Bayside Housing and Services, Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County and Olympic Housing Trust to support affordable housing.
Commerce awarded $8.6 million to Bayside for Vince’s Village, a new construction project of 19 units for households that include one or more people with special needs and four units reserved for tenants earning 31 percent to 50 percent of area median income (AMI).
The median family income for Jefferson County in 2023 is $83,400, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Bayside hopes to begin site work for the project this summer, according to Heather Dudley-Nollette, the group’s deputy executive director, and it could expand the project if additional funding is secured.
“This will be an apartment building of permanent supportive housing,” Dudley-Nollette said. “It’s a model of permanent housing that continues to provide ongoing case management support, the kind that’s often provided in transitional housing.”
The new project will be located at the current site of Bayside’s tiny home village called Pat’s Place at 1777 10th St. Pat’s Place will be relocated, Dudley-Nollette said, to a new site that is yet to be determined.
Bayside hopes to start leasing units 18 months after site work begins.
Bayside is also working with the City of Port Townsend to determine if there’s additional capacity at the site which could expand the project if additional funding is secured.
“With additional funding, we could create a little more density and diversity of (housing) units, and really create a diverse community at that site,” Dudley-Nollette said.
Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County was awarded two grants, one for $880,000 for affordability and the other for $564,795 for down payment assistance and affordability.
Habitat builds and sells homes at below market rate to people whose income qualifies for the program. The grants awarded by Commerce will reimburse the organization for the money that has helped people purchase those homes and to people in the process of getting into homes through Habitat.
With the reimbursement, Habitat will be able to build additional affordable homes, according to Maria Drury, Habitat EJC’s director of engagement.
“This is a really wonderful acknowledgment by state Department of Commerce of the need that is in our county,” Drury said, referring to the all the grants awarded in Jefferson County.
“The combination of those four awards really allows us to meet needs across the spectrum of shelter needs,” Drury said.
Most of Habitat’s homes covered by the grant are in Port Townsend, but two are in Irondale, said Jamie Maciejewski, executive director of Habitat EJC.
“This really is important,” Maciejewski said of the grants. “How expensive it is to build and what’s affordable for people to buy. They’re not giveaway homes.”
The two grant awards will cover 17 homes, Maciejewski said, nine of which are already occupied and another eight that are under construction.
Commerce also awarded $500,000 to Olympic Housing Trust for its Dundee Hill project, a new construction effort that will place five green-built, Northwest-modern townhomes next to the neighborhood’s community garden. Two townhomes will be sold to households earning 51 percent to 80 percent of AMI, and three to households earning 81 percent to 100 percent of AMI.
“Dundee Hill is an ecologically conscious, permanently affordable housing project that will provide homeownership opportunities while complementing our community’s values and the work of our fellow housing providers,” said Kellen Lynch, OHT’s outreach and development manager, in a statement.
The $312 million statewide awarded by the Department of Commerce aims to increase the state’s affordable housing stock by 3,913 units.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
