FORKS — Funding for a housing project for veterans on the West End has been added to a Senate bill.
The Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill contains $500,000 for the purchase and remodeling of a two-story apartment building in Forks to convert it into a transitional and permanent supportive housing project for homeless veterans and their families, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, in a prepared statement.
The bill will go before the Appropriations Committee, of which Murray is a senior member, and then before the full Senate.
If it passes, the bill will return to the House of Representatives for reconciliation — meaning the House will vote on the changes, such as this one, that the Senate made.
“This is a good day for us,” Cheri Fleck, West End Outreach Services housing coordinator, who is heading the effort to start up the apartments, called Sarge’s Place.
“This has been a massive collaborative project which spanned two counties and incorporated a lot of people at a lot of agencies across the state.”
Clallam, Jefferson vets
Fleck said that she and several others have been working on the project — which will provide services to veterans on the West End in both Clallam and Jefferson counties — for more than two years.
Up to 10 jobs would be created during construction.
The building, which is at 260 Ash Ave. in Forks, is a 1970s apartment building that will eventually house eight men and four women, with three apartments for families, Fleck said.
The building will cost $199,000. The organization has $82,000 in hand already, and the balance of the funding after the purchase of the apartment building will go toward renovations, Fleck said.
“To bring it up to standard for usage, it needs some freshening up,” Fleck said.
“We will need to do some work to the bathrooms, and the apartments upstairs need new carpet.
“The downstairs units we are completely reconfiguring . . . to accommodate the beds, and they will also be completely ADA-accessible.”
Fleck said she believes the funding could be secured by mid-fall.
“Likely, we will really get started in spring 2010,” she said.
Currently, no transitional or supportive housing units for veterans exist on the West End of Clallam County despite having the highest concentration of homeless veterans in the county, Murray’s statement said.
“This is an important boost to Clallam County’s efforts to get homeless veterans into stable housing,” Murray said.
“With new service members returning home every day and the economy sputtering, we must step up our efforts to provide all veterans with housing and the dignity that comes with it.”
“[Murray] worked to include this funding in the bill and is going to continue fighting to keep it in as it moves through the process,” said Eli Zupnick, Murray’s deputy press secretary.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
