A design rendering of the building
By Jadenne Radoc Cabahug, CHS reporting intern
By summer, the northeast corner of E Denny and Harvard across from Twice Sold Tales and the Pantages House will open 93 new affordable homes for residents at risk of homelessness after YWCA’s $38 million deal to acquire a planned microhousing development.
The YWCA Seattle King Snohomish chapter acquired the new building on 800 E Denny Way to be used as permanent affordable housing designated to address barriers for low-income households that are at-risk or experiencing homelessness in Seattle. The building has 93 units that are studios and one-bedroom.
CORRECTION: CHS originally reported the building would be focused on providing LGBTQIA+ inclusive housing for women. YWCA has clarified that the building “will be open to people of all genders.”
“This is one community project that we hope will be a benefit to those that want to live in Capitol Hill, and particularly in the Seattle area where it’s very expensive to live,” Patricia Hayden, YWCA’s chief program officer of King County said.
YWCA is a social justice organization with chapters in Seattle, King and Snohomish counties that provides direct services and support to marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC women and girls. YWCA supports over 7,000 people across King and Snohomish counties through housing stability, economic advancement and providing health and safety services.
The YWCA has a variety of housing programs and owns nearly 900 units of housing where they connect program participants and permanent housing residents with community resources.
“We hope to do whatever we can so that people can not only get into the housing, but to retain their housing as long as possible as long as they choose to be there,” Hayden said.
Hayden said services will include employment services, domestic violence support or health referrals to further contribute to a higher quality of life.
YWCA acquired the building under the Rapid Acquisition Notice of Funding Ability program made possible by the federal American Rescue Plan, allowing Seattle and the Washington State Department of Commerce to leverage local, state, and federal funding.
The new Capitol Hill location is also close to other YWCA properties in the Central District and downtown area like Angeline’s Day Center.
It has a long history in the area. CHS reported on the 125th anniversary of the organization’s presence in the state and 100 years in the Central District.
The purchase of the Capitol Hill property was supported by the Washington State Department of Commerce, the City of Seattle and Brawner & Company. Hayden said the YWCA received $20 million from the City of Seattle as well as $1.2 million for the first year to cover operating costs.
The Washington State Department of Commerce invested $20 million into the project as well.
The YWCA acquisition changes the path for the E Denny project originally envisioned as market-rate microhousing from developer Karmiak and the architects at Workshop AD. The seven-story building was also designed with a small street-level commercial space that could serve as home to a small cafe or shop and add to the activity around Twice Sold Tales and Community Roots Housing’s affordable Pantages House apartments.
The new Capitol Hill location is where YWCA is focusing its efforts in the city to start renting units to tenants as soon as possible. Hayden says since the YWCA just acquired the property, they are anticipating engagement with the Capitol Hill community to hire staff and look for tenants as well a collaboration with businesses and services in the area. The hope is for the first tenants to join the building in June.
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Phenomenal.
Are Seattle area developers allergic to good design taste? My god.
They are, it looks like. I noticed that as well. It’s very disappointing.
I think it looks nice and more importantly people can live there. If we had less people legislating taste and more people building homes maybe we could get homeless off the street.
Housing is to be lived in not to be looked at.
That’s why like 40% of apartments are vacant, right? It’s not about homeless. It’s about profiting off a housing monopoly to these developers. They don’t care about homeless.
Yeah you just made up that number. “The Seattle metro’s 0.9% homeowner vacancy rate is tied with four other markets for eighth-lowest, “
Why should they care?
It’s both, if you care about the aesthetics of the city you live in.
I care more about people than things.
It’s not the most attractive building in the world, no. But it’s functional, and it’s housing. That should be enough, unless you find street encampments more aesthetically appealing.
So I get that most Americans, particularly Northwesterners, don’t have any taste in terms of architecture.
The preference is for nostalgic architecture — craftsman and Victorian-style homes/buildings are what people prefer because these are ‘what buildings should look like.’
In practice, this means that we get a lot of very, very ugly buildings that harken back to the Before Times.
We get Particle Board Craftsman monstrosities put up on the cheap, which are really not craftsman at all — they’re just cheap, boxy buildings built with cost in mind, with a few ‘craftsman’ gewgaws glued (often literally) to the exterior.
We get ugly white trim and beige siding.
Or we get cheap, McModern architecture where the corruption of the development process in Seattle — and it is very, very corrupt, with well-connected developers basically free to do whatever they want, which is often ‘put up the cheapest structure imaginable’ — means that the structure is just a sea of Hardiboard painted six different shades of gray with a gross ‘pop’ of color like a garish yellow wall, or green doors, or some other idocy that a tasteless developer thinks will be marketable.
But this building is what buildings in Seattle **should** look like. Brick is a lovely material that should be mandated for most exteriors (the reason it’s not: it’s more expensive than Hardiboard, and the developers don’t like paying for things, and the city government is corrupt as the day is long). It’s also not **too** modern: the form is that of your typical early-20th century brick apartment block, with only the spacing of the windows/cut in for the corner extrance being modern.
It’s really quite nice.
I agree!
I completely agree. I sold one of the properties to the developers.
They are any time it’s affordable housing. You can see this in the Central District as well with the affordable housing building behind Ike’s.
Why not open it up for men also?
Because men aren’t their focus. (YWCA stands for Young WOMEN’S Christian Association.) Besides, there are many more facilities for men only than there are for women.
I used to live in one of the houses torn down for this development project. I’m really happy it’s going to be used for such a great cause. The location is ideal for proximity to broadway and the light rail station.