King County Executive Girmay Zahilay unveiled a proposed $19.5 million in new funding for permanent affordable housing and transitional shelter on Monday, a major milestone toward achieving a goal of building 500 new units within his first 500 days in office. The budget proposal came at the same time that Zahilay announced new public private partnership between King County and the Schultz Family Foundation that is expected to result in another $10 million investment over the next three years to directly address youth homelessness.
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Some of the new funding would come from a potential countywide 0.01% sales tax set to be taken up by the King County Council later this week. Directly authorized by the state legislature earlier this year, the dedicated funding source is targeted at services that benefit children and families. If approved, it would generate approximately $10.3 million in 2027 for King County.
However, that amount could diminish in the future if other cities across the county opt to use the same sales tax authority to fund services of their own due to a provision capping the total that can be levied in any one jurisdiction at 0.01%.
"I think that there is no issue that is of a greater priority to our administration or to the public at large than affordable housing," Zahilay said Monday, announcing the funding package at a press event at the Mary's Place Family Center in Seattle's Denny Regrade. "And so if there's any issue that we should be spending our money on, even during constrained budget periods, I think it's this one."
Out of the $19.5 million, $5 million is earmarked for a new 80-unit tiny home village in the Central District, to be sited in an underutilized corner of the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center campus at 12th Avenue and E Spruce Street. The facility would be run by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) with 24/7 staffing, on-site amenities, and 30 homes set aside for families with children.
The City of Seattle has been leaning heavily on LIHI to help achieve Mayor Katie Wilson's ambitious goals around expanding shelter capacity, targets that were recently scaled back to 1,000 new units of shelter by the end of 2027. Earlier this month, LIHI broke ground on a 20-unit tiny home village with space for an additional 72 RVs in West Seattle, on a site owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The Spruce Street site would be LIHI's first tiny home village on King County property.
"Over the years, we've had City-owned property, Port-owned property, and private property, even Sound Transit property, and so we're thrilled for the first time to have property from King County," Sharon Lee, LIHI's Executive Director, told The Urbanist following the press conference. "It's on vacant site. It's been sitting vacant for many years, and now it's going to be transformed into a tiny house village with 80 tiny houses, including families with children, as well as singles and couples and people with pets. So we're very excited about this, and we hope to get going right away."
Other new dollars announced by Zahilay will assist affordable housing projects that are already in the works. For example, $4 million will fund 18 two and three-bedroom units at the Pacific Tower Quarters Buildings in Beacon Hill, adding to $1.5 million that King County already allocated to the project. Intended to be an intergenerational affordable housing campus, the Quarters project requires coordination between the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, and involves retrofitting existing structures that were originally built to house medical staff at the 1933 U.S. Public Health Service Marine Hospital.
Additionally, $3 million would be put toward a new joint development between Mercy Housing Northwest and Mary's Place along Ambaum Way in Burien. Planned with 200 shelter beds – replacing 150 that Mary's Place previously operated on the site – the project also includes approximately 90 units of permanent affordable housing, 30 of which are being set aside for families who are directly exiting homelessness.
Earlier this summer, the portion of the site being constructed by Mary's Place topped out, on track for a 2027 opening.
Mary's Place will also receive $2.4 million to keep the 140-unit shelter in Seattle's former Glen Hotel on Third Avenue open. Without that funding, King County would have been poised to lose those beds, even as Mary's Place opens new beds on the Mercy Housing Campus in Burien.
A $1.8 million allotment is tabbed for 100 transitional housing units for veterans in Kirkland, part of the larger Veterans Service Hub that is being funded through the County's Veterans and Human Services Levy.
And finally, King County is committing an unspecified amount to a long-planned affordable housing project in the International District. Located on the site of a former gas station, the 701 S Jackson Street development is advancing as a public-private partnership with O.Z. Navigator – a collaboration between the developers Nitze-Stagen and the Housing Diversity Corporation. Plans currently call for 111 total units to be built on the site, with site remediation already completed.
On top of those County investments, the matching dollars from the Schultz Family Foundation are intended to maintain existing 12 shelter beds and bring on another 80 specifically targeted at children and young adults. According to King County, around 1,000 residents under 18 years old are currently experiencing homelessness with a severe shortage of shelter specifically available for that youth population.
Zahilay told reporters that the County looks to be on track to achieve the goal of building 500 units of some type of subsidized housing in 500 days that he set back in March, as part of his administration's "Breaking the Cycle" initiative. Those units could lay the groundwork for an even larger, countywide housing levy that Zahilay floated earlier this year, with a report due by the end of the year laying out that potential measure's feasibility.
"Housing continues to be the challenge of our time," District 2 Councilmember Rhonda Lewis said at Monday's announcement. "Finding affordable housing is an uphill battle for families in all parts of King County, and some families are facing a greater struggle than others. Whether it is due to medical issues, financial strain, unexpected changes of events, we have neighbors who don't have housing. In this time of history, in this country, this is unacceptable."
Zahilay is expected to release the rest of his proposed budget, an update to an already approved two-year county budget, this Thursday.
Doug Trumm
