From the Director...

City Council Budget Decision:

OFFICE OF HOUSING CONTINUES

City Council approved the 2012 budget on Nov. 21, voting to keep the Office of Housing (OH) intact. While Council chose to keep OH as a standalone department, instead of merging it with the Office of Economic Development as was proposed, it did approve a package of budget cuts affecting OH. These cuts primarily have internal impacts, such as moving OH's personnel function into the City's centralized system and reducing our IT capacity. Also, the deputy director position was eliminated but a vacant manager position will be filled at a higher level.

Despite cuts, Council was able add $210,000 to OH's Rental Housing Program capital pool by shifting funding from the operating budget. Overall, the adopted budget helps to maintain and strengthen OH's ability to preserve and continue essential core services.

Understandably upset and jittery during a prolonged budget period, OH staff kept their cool and commitment through it all. And now hiring processes are moving along for our two vacant manager positions. We just hired a new lending manager, Laurie Olson, who will start at the beginning of January. The job posting for our last vacant manager position (strategic planning and projects, including incentive programs) should go out within the next few weeks.

Filling these positions comes not a moment too soon -- just check out the updates in this issue. OH is moving quickly forward on several exciting new initiatives: we are funding hundreds of new apartments, putting hundreds of people to work, and helping thousands of people access safe, affordable housing.

Starting in January, Home Base will be filled with more news relating to new initiatives.

In the meantime, to our many supporters and partners: Happy Holidays!

Rick Hooper

Laurie will start work at OH on Jan. 3, 2012. Once up and running, she can be reached at laurie.olson@seattle.gov or (206) 615-0995.

Welcome Laurie!

On Nov. 10, Mayor Mike McGinn joined OH Director Rick Hooper to announce more than $27 million in capital funding for the construction of seven new apartment buildings that will serve homeless individuals, low-income families and seniors. Funded primarily from the Seattle Housing Levy, the investment will help create 467 new permanent apartments. 

Agency representatives join Mayor Mike McGinn and OH Director Rick Hooper for the announcement of funding awards at the former Thunderbird Motel on Aurora Avenue, one of the sites of future affordable housing funded by OH.

Overall, the funding will create 206 apartments for low-income families earning between $23,000-$47,000 for a three-person household, 70 apartments for low-income seniors earning up to $37,000 for an individual, and 191 apartments with supportive services for formerly homeless families and individuals.

The OH funds leverage more than $100 million in public and private capital funding. Taken together, these resources represent a major investment in Seattle neighborhoods from Fremont to Sand Point and Capitol Hill to Rainier Beach, revitalizing these communities and providing living-wage jobs.

For more information on all the developments announced at the Nov. 10 event, read the press release at http://www.seattle.gov/news/detail.asp?ID=12263 or watch the press conference on the Seattle Channel at http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=1061176.

Late breaking news: we also have just learned that the federal government has approved two developments that OH supported early in last summer's multifamily rental housing funding process. The Low Income Housing Institute's 57-unit senior housing development to be located in Ballard received HUD 202 program support, while Community Psychiatric Clinic's Valor Apartments, which will provide 21 units for disabled persons in Lake City, received HUD 811 program support. These developments also will be supported by $3.6 million in OH funding.

On Nov. 21, HUD Northwest Regional Administrator Mary McBride announced the award of a $3 million Sustainable Communities Challenge Grant to the City of Seattle to promote sustainable, affordable development along the Central Link light rail line in Southeast Seattle.

Together with matching funds from the City, Impact Capital and Enterprise Community Capital, the grant supports Seattle's Neighborhood Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Initiative (NET Initiative), a three-year $8.9 million program that will produce and support affordable housing, as well as commercial and community space. The NET Initiative aims to ensure that new development around transit stations benefits rather than displaces the existing diverse communities in the Rainier Valley.

With support from the Office of Economic Development, the Department of Planning & Development and the Department of Neighborhoods, OH will lead the initiative, helping to implement the priorities identified in recent Southeast Seattle neighborhood planning work.

The initiative will focus on three integrated community development strategies:

• TOD Acquisition Loans - will provide short-term financing using public and private funding for acquisition and pre-development of affordable mixed-use projects around the light rail stations in the Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill. The structure of the loan program is currently being developed; we expect the program will begin making loans by 2013. Specific sites have not been identified at this point, but the goal is to help housing developers acquire 3-4 sites that will provide approximately 200 units of affordable housing.
• Commercial Stability Strategy - will provide technical assistance to help stabilize commercial businesses within the established multicultural business district around the Othello Station. Developers may also receive technical assistance to create new affordable commercial space. The goal is to assist 30 businesses in each of the three years of the program.
• Planning for a Shared Cultural Center - will fund feasibility analysis and a community engagement to plan a multicultural center that would strengthen the existing culturally and ethnically diverse community. A specific site has yet to be determined. Community meetings will occur throughout 2012, with the goal of engaging 200 participants from historically marginalized communities. By the third year of the program, a nonprofit organization will have been identified to lead the development process.

For more information, please contact Ryan Curren at ryan.curren@seattle.gov.

On Dec. 8, the Seattle Management Association recognized OH's HomeWise program staff with the 2011 Ongoing Team Success Award. Team members include: Bryan Cook, Theresa Cortez, Maria Goncalves, Barry Henderson, Richard Krug, Bobby Lindsay, Esref Marusic, Laura Oatfield, Chris Pfohl, Aziz Rahmani, Jack Smith and Bill terKuile. Current team leader Miriam Roskin and previous team leader John Flynn shared in this honor.

HomeWise has been delivering weatherization and energy efficiency measures to Seattle's low-income homeowners and renters since the 1980s. While that certainly would be considered "ongoing success," longevity alone wasn't enough to earn the honor. Starting in 2010, this program retooled its business practices and massively ramped up its capacity upon receiving almost $5 million in federal stimulus funds through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). To date HomeWise has completed 2,258 ARRA-funded housing units, well over the target of 1,582 units.

 

But the production stats don't tell the whole story. HomeWise's mission emphasizes both social services and energy conservation. Some of our most vulnerable community members now reside in safer and more comfortable houses and apartments, and their economic condition is improved with lower utility bills. The environment is also better off, with HomeWise reducing its clients' energy consumption by an average of at least 12 percent. The local economy benefited too; in 2010, for example, HomeWise's payments to external contractors and materials suppliers totaled $4.9 million.

 

HomeWise staff got all dressed up to accept the Ongoing Team Success Award. Back row: Miriam Roskin, Aziz Rahmani, Bill terKuile, Bobby Lindsay, Chris Pfohl, OH Director Rick Hooper, Sherri Anderson and Barry Henderson. Front row: Esref Marusic, Laura Oatfield, Maria Goncalves and Theresa Cortez. Not pictured: John Flynn, Jack Smith, Bryan Cook and Richard Krug.

 

About SMA

The Seattle Management Association (SMA) is a non-profit professional association with over 300 members. Its mission is to provide managers and other leaders with practical learning experiences, access to essential resources, and opportunities to explore new ideas and build relationships with peers throughout government. Each year SMA works to achieve its mission through a series of special events and networking opportunities.

Low-income residents in the greater Seattle area can now more easily learn about and apply for multiple city, local and state-sponsored programs that support people in need. Joined by state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Secretary Susan Dreyfus, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners, Mayor Mike McGinn recently announced the availability of City of Seattle benefits on the statewide web portal, Washington Connection.

It's the first partnership of its kind in the nation between a state and a large city. Launched in December 2010, Washington Connection was expanded in August 2011 to incorporate City benefit programs, including:

• Utility Discount Program
• Child Care Assistance Program
• Seattle Step Ahead Preschool Program
• Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP)

Through mid-November, the City received applications through Washington Connection from 1,991 households applying for 4,177 City benefits.