'The fastest we have ever brought housing online': Seattle to buy 3 new buildings to house homeless

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'The fastest we have ever brought housing online': Seattle to buy 3
new buildings to house homeless
By The Associated Press

Seven-story modern looking apartment building with a few small trees
around it.

Developer's rendering of an Seattle apartment building the city and
the state of Washington are buying to house young adults exiting
homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

SEATTLE -- Three new buildings in Seattle with 165 studio apartments
that were supposed to be rented at market rates will instead house
people leaving homelessness and people at risk of becoming homeless.

The nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute will buy the buildings on
Capitol Hill for about $50 million, with city and state housing
programs sharing the cost equally, The Seattle Times reported. Seattle
is using federal COVID-19 relief funds for their part, Mayor Jenny
Durkan said this week.

Two of the buildings will be managed by LIHI for adults. The third
will be managed by YouthCare for young adults. Each will have a
live-in case worker, Sharon Lee, LIHI's executive director, said.

The deals will house people quickly and cheaply, relative to the time
and cost required to develop low-income projects from scratch, Durkan
said. The three buildings should be occupied by the end of the year,
according to the city.

"This is the fastest we have ever brought housing online," Lee said.

Affordable housing in Portland

Tent encampments in parks and greenbelts have grown in Seattle during
the coronavirus pandemic partly because the city has lacked shelter
and housing spots, Durkan said.

LIHI will move people into the buildings from tiny house villages it
manages for the city, which should open more of those houses for
people living on the streets, Lee said.

-- The Associated Press
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