PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County will apply for grants for two housing projects which could receive $2 million each from the state Department of Commerce.
At their regular meeting Monday, commissioners approved a motion directing Jefferson County Chief Strategy Officer Brent Butler to submit grant applications for funding to support the Caswell-Brown Village and the Port Hadlock Motel.
Commissioners directed Butler to submit two grant applications to DOC’s Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program, or CHIP, which provides funding to pay for water, sewer, stormwater and rights of way for projects that provide affordable housing. The CHIP program offers grants every two years and currently is funded with $55.5 million statewide for the 2023-25 funding biennium with $2 million available per project.
The grant program requires projects to provide new affordable housing units; that 25 percent of the units are affordable at 80 percent or less of the Area Median Income and that the funding connects infrastructure to the housing project.
The grant program requires no matching dollars from the applicant, but the housing project’s readiness to move forward, including funding, are considered among the criteria for the grant.
Commissioners selected the two projects out of a list of six compiled by Butler and scored based on eligibility criteria including the percentage of units to be made affordable, level of affordability, cost and readiness to proceed.
Projects considered include Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County’s Mason Street Project; Bayside Housing and Services’ affordable housing expansion adjacent to the Old Alcohol Plant; Olympic Community Action Programs’ second phase of its South Seven project serving older adults; the Caswell-Brown Village and Peter’s Place, both administered by OlyCAP, and sewer connections along Chimacum Road that could potentially support up to four additional housing projects, one of which is the Port Hadlock Motel, also run by Bayside.
Butler said he reached out to local affordable housing developers to determine if any of them were interested in partnering with the county and how ready their projects were.
The Caswell-Brown Village was selected because it already has considerable funding support, Butler said, increasing the project’s readiness to move forward.
“I’ve seen the commitment letters,” Butler said of the funding. “The only area of question is will it be competitive vis-a-vis the other projects that are concerned.”
In August 2022, commissioners signed a 42-year lease with OlyCAP to manage the Caswell-Brown Village, a homeless housing project that began as an encampment. OlyCAP is planning to upgrade and expand the site including the construction of an emergency shelter with permanent supportive housing attached.
Bayside purchased the old Port Hadlock Motel in 2021 to provide permanent supportive housing by converting motel rooms into long-term housing. Butler said Bayside has concept plans for how to improve the motel, but he has not seen funding commitments for that project.
Grant applications are due at the end of the month and Butler said projects that scored high on preparedness would be more competitive for the grants.
Depending on how many applications DOC receives for CHIP grants, it is possible the county could be awarded funding for both projects.
If approved, projects must begin construction by December 2025.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
