A project to provide housing at 22nd and Union from the Low Income Housing Institute and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd could grow with help from the newly approved legislation
As city leaders gear up a legislative process to re-brand so-called “single family” zoning in Seattle, the Seattle City Council passed new rules Monday that will essentially upzone properties owned by religious institutions in return for building new affordable housing.
Monday’s vote could be especially meaningful for the Central District and Capitol Hill where there are dozens of potential sites owned by churches and religious communities. CHS reported here on one example at 22nd and Union where the Low Income Housing Institute and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd are planning Good Shepherd Housing, an affordable housing development with 75 of its 100 units reserved for homeless residents.
Under the legislation passed Monday, affordable development on properties owned by faith-based organizations would be granted extra height and density in return for affordability with units reserved for households making less than 60% of the area’s median income. The restriction will be in place for 50 years.
City planners believe the new faith-based affordable development incentives will help address issues of affordability and displacement in Central Seattle communities.
Earlier this year, CHS reported on faith-based properties in the Central District including 19th and Madison’s Mt Zion where the congregation is planning an affordable senior housing project on its campus currently home to its house of worship and a large surface parking lot.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Harvard Ave’s Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church has sat empty since its congregation disbanded in 2019 following years of dwindling attendance.
Planners say religious organizations own more than 300 acres in the city.
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This could be quite interesting given the city’s definition of “control.”
It is also worth noting that the vast majority of church properties that would be suitable are in the CD, which already is home to multiple tiny villages. Seems like “progressive” seattle is helping to ensure that the homeless folks all get funneled our way. Nice to see our “progressive” city council deciding this is a problem that a historically black neighborhood gets to deal with. How convenient?
People living long-term in affordable apartments are not homeless. I fail to understand your concern.
CD Resident is a noted blog troll that is creepily obsessed with the homeless (and likes to remind us about it) and openly hates Seattle, to which they go out of their way to disparage it whenever they can.
Note how they accuse the Council of harming a historically black neighborhood, when anyone that read the first sentence of this article can clearly see the upzoning is city-wide. Note they only pretend to be concerned with historically black neighborhoods because they felt they could use it to lob some “zingers” at the Council.
Like you mentioned, the homeless issue they mentioned is irrelevant to this article, but they can’t help themselves by sharing their obsession with the homeless.
This is exciting to see–lots of churches across the city have been trying to figure out how to better utilize property they own as congregational needs/demographics shift. Churches like 1st Pres downtown or University Pres–who have both done a lot to support our houseless neighbors over the years could make a huge difference in terms of being able to provide affordable or transitional housing for the communities they’re already serving with more limited options–constrained by what they can currently affordably do on their existing property.
Tabernacle Mission Baptist Church (2801 S Jackson St. in Leschi) has large amounts of empty or barely utilized property all around it. It’s been that way for decades. Maybe this will prompt some action? I suspect, though, that they’re keeping that property for parking. Isn’t there a way to keep the church and add housing?
Also, one thing I never hear anything about with respect to the housing crisis is Yesler Terrace. Seems like they’re just adding one building at a time, and it’s going to take a decade or more to be completely done, from start to finish. Is there really no way this can’t be sped up?
Hallelujah and amen!!!