The expansion of light rail to the Eastside and opening of Judkins Park Station may be slightly delayed but growth and development in the area has already moved quickly ahead. A development on Yakima Ave S and a 15 minute walk from the station is hoped to help provide new homes for buyers to help slow displacement and rising costs in the area.

Mayor Bruce Harrell was on hand last week to cut the ribbon in front of the new Village Gardens development where ten of the new homes are reserved for income-restricted buyers and six are being sold at market rate in a project built on land provided by the City of Seattle for affordable housing, and funded by a public investment of $2.3 million including $1.2 million from the Seattle Housing Levy.

The homes will be the first in the city to be sold under Community Preference Policy, creating opportunity for those with historic ties to the neighborhood the first opportunity to purchase.

CHS reported on community preference and its hopes for shaping other housing developments in Seattle including Broadway’s Pride Place, an affordable housing development dedicated to serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer seniors. In addition to 118 units of studio and one-bedroom apartments, the eight-story building will feature 3,800 square feet of commercial retail space and a 4,400-square-foot senior and health services center.

The Village Gardens’ partnership included the Homestead Community Land Trust, Edge Developers, and Africatown Community Land Trust. The group says Black contractors secured $1 million in subcontracts on the project — 20% of the budget for the project. The total Women and Minority Owned Business participation in contracts was 40%, the groups say.

Eight of the affordable homes are available to residents who make less than 80% of area median income, and two of the homes are available to people who make 60% of the median income and are experiencing housing insecurity.

In addition to growing pressure and rising costs on housing in the area, decades of redlining and racial covenants shaped land ownership across the Central Area, Capitol Hill, and other areas of the city.

“The Black Community has called the Central District home for almost 140 years. It is absolutely critical that our community have access to affordable homeownership such as the homes at Village Gardens in order to be part of the future of the neighborhood,” K. Wyking Garrett, President and CEO of Africatown Community Land Trust, said in an announcement of the opening. “Homestead and Edge were responsive to the messages from the community about what is built and who it built for and who it is built with. This project represents a light on the path, and that another future is possible.”

All of the townhomes in the development are also certified Built Green Four-Star.

Funding for the affordable homes was provided by the City of Seattle, Washington State Department of Commerce and the Federal Home Loan Bank.

Village Gardens is located at 1318 Yakima Ave S. You can learn more at villagegardenstownhomes.com.

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