LIHI volunteers helping to assemble furniture for the new apartments (Image: LIHI)
A design rendering of 506 10th Ave E
Dozens of new neighbors are moving in just off Broadway.
The Low Income Housing Institute announced its 10th Ave E building, one of three under construction, market-rate Capitol Hill developments purchased last year by the city for affordable housing, has opened for leasing as “Permanent Supportive Housing” and began welcoming its first residents as February began.
“Buying a newly constructed building saved precious time during the pandemic to stand up critically needed PSH housing for homeless people,” LIHI executive director Sharon Lee said in a statement.
“We did not have to search for land, securing financing and wait for permits and construction to get completed. We saved three or more years,” Lee said.
Residents of the 10th Ave E building include people transitioning out of tiny houses, homeless young adults referred from the Seattle Indian Center, ROOTS, YouthCare, Urban League, REACH, and other agencies, and people exiting the Executive Pacific Hotel, one of two city-leased hotels utilized last year as a “shelter surge” effort to move more people out of encampments during the pandemic. The Executive Pacific shelter effort was slated to end last month.
LIHI said it was able to open the building thanks to a last minute push from volunteers coming in to help with finishing touches including assembling furniture for the building’s 36 studio units.
CHS reported here on the city’s combined $48 million in Capitol Hill real estate transactions that scooped up the three under-construction buildings. The purchases worked out — roughly — to a cost of about $290,000 per unit — a fair deal.
The studio units include full kitchens with dishwashers, stoves and microwaves and the top floor units include sleeping lofts. The apartments and roof deck atop the five-story building are described as having “spectacular views of downtown, Space Needle, and Puget Sound.”
The total cost of acquiring and finishing the building netted out to $12.2 million, LIHI reported, and was powered by funds from the City of Seattle Office of Housing ($6.5M) and the State of Washington Department of Commerce ($5.7M).
The Low Income Housing Institute continues to be busy in the city’s core. Last month, CHS reported on its purchase of the Squire Park Plaza apartments on Jackson. A year ago in February 2021, LIHI announced it was buying the newly constructed, seven story, 76-unit Clay Apartments development in the 600 block of E Howell, setting a template for grabbing planned market rate developments for repurposing as affordable housing.
The opening comes amid continued rising housing costs in the city despite the pandemic and as Mayor Bruce Harrell weighs the next deadline for again extending Seattle’s moratorium on evictions on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.
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Maybe rather than have volunteers build furniture for the units you could have new residents do that. Ownership of your situation is important for people to make progress. Contributing to your living environment increases a sense of ownership. A missed opportunity.
I don’t think assembling furniture is going to give ownership over their situation. They took ownership over their situation when they decided to make appointments, start working, and move their things. Your privilege shows… Coming from someone who is a housing navigator for this specific population of individuals
Glenn, this attitude in which we ask people that are already living life on hard mode to do additional work to “contribute” is really silly. People who have been living unhoused don’t need more tasks. Giving them extra stuff to do takes focus away from time they need to heal, to go to their appointments, to go to work, to plan for the future…and…and I know this is going to be crazy talk – to maybe have some fun, indulge in a creative outlet, to just be? They already have plenty of requirements and hoops to jump through to access services. They already have plenty to do without someone asking them to put furniture together out of some fuzzy aspirational idea that it will give them “ownership” – why do you assume they lack ownership?
That model is good enough for Habitat for Humanity, but apparently these people need to spend more time having fun and healing. All while they enjoy free, or near free, housing and services. Works for me.
I agree! The previously-homeless residents are being provided with nice apartments in a brand-new building (purchased with taxpayer money), at little to no cost to themselves, in units which would otherwise rent for around $1500/month. The least they can do is express their gratitude by helping to assemble their furniture.
Will there be any on-site support and services, similar to what Plymouth is providing at their buildings (medical care, counseling, substance use treatment, etc)?
First of all, these people are not homeless if they are housed, so the title to this article is demeaning, increasing fear of people in recovery. Seattle is soooo conservative!!! I love how people just sit and complain about the issue is homelessness and when a solution plays out, it’s the “not in my backyard” bigoted rhetoric disguised as liberalism.