PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson County commissioners unanimously approved staff to draft a grant agreement with Olympic Community Action Programs for $500,000 to $600,000 for the affordable housing project at Seventh and Hendricks streets.
The funds would be taken from those set aside in House Bill 1590, a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax for affordable housing, which the county approved earlier this year.
The commissioners discussed the motion during their afternoon meeting on Monday.
The Seventh and Hendricks Project is a proposed 43-unit, low-income housing project that would cost an estimated $15.2 million.
Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) proposed it to help address the affordable housing crisis in Jefferson County.
The grant agreement with the county would fill a remaining funding gap in OlyCAP’s plan, after the organization has been promised an $11.3 million grant from the Washington Trust Fund to go along with additional funding sources.
But if the $400,000 to $600,000 funding gap is not filled, the previous funding is in jeopardy, said Philip Morley, county administrator.
“This is a keystone part of the funding to really allow the project to move ahead,” he said.
It’s projected that revenues from the new sales tax that began April 1 after being approved in December will be between $300,000 to $400,000 this year and about $600,000 for 2022, for a total of about $950,000 to $1 million, so the $600,000 maximum for the grant to OlyCAP would still leave more than $300,000 available for other housing projects, Morley said.
Securing the funding will allow OlyCAP to begin the permitting and potentially building process of the project, he said.
County officials talked with the five housing providers in Jefferson — Bayside Housing & Services, Dove House Advocacy Services, Peninsula Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity and OlyCAP — about the proposed funding, Morley said.
All agreed that the project fit the affordable housing plan and supported funding the project, he said.
The Housing Task Force and the Joint Oversight Board also approved of the funding.
District 3 Commissioner Greg Brotherton, who is also the chair of the OlyCAP board of directors, said the funding does more than fill the funding gap. It also enables OlyCAP to receive about $1.6 million in bank financing.
“It’s not just the money. It’s the promise of the money so we can complete getting the rest of the funding,” Brotherton said.
Commission Chair Kate Dean approved.
“I’m really supportive of this project,” she said. “It is a perfect use for these funds.
“I could not think of any reason why we would not choose to leverage these funds for this purpose.”
No specific date has been set for the grant agreements to return to the commissioners, but it will be within the next couple of weeks, Morley said Wednesday.
Monday’s full discussion can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/PDN-HendricksGrant.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
