(Image: Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor)

(Image: Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor)

A project in the works for more than five years to add new housing around the Central District’s New Hope Missionary Baptist Church broke ground over the weekend with Mayor-elect Katie Wilson joining church elders and affordable housing leaders to celebrate the milestone in a neighborhood still marked by the city’s history of racist redlining.

The New Hope Family Housing development will create two new buildings around the 21st Ave church — the west building will include 70 apartments with a mix of studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units while the east building will add 5 studios, 6 one-bedroom units, and 11 two-bedroom units. The development will also create new church offices, community gathering space, and a new street-level retail space for Clean Greens Farm and Market, a Central District-based nonprofit.

The project was designed by Weber Thompson

CHS reported here in 2021 as then-District 3 representative Kshama Sawant led the Seattle City Council in approving a resolution supporting the development hoped to right a wrong in the city’s past actions against Black property owners in the neighborhood and redlining in the 1960s that ripped away property from the church.

Financing for the project included $13 million in funding from the Seattle Office of Housing, plus support from the Department of Commerce Housing Trust Fund, and state and federal funding.

Developed by the New Hope Community Development Institute in partnership with the Low Income Housing Institute, the mixed-use project will provide housing for individuals and families earning up to 50 and 60% of the area median income.

The development comes as many Central District houses of worship have sold property and moved amid dwindling congregations including 23rd Ave’s Mount Calvary Christian Center that left the neighborhood and sold its property for redevelopment.

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