The City of Renton is planning to contribute $217,088 to the South King Housing and Homelessness Partners (SKHHP) Housing Capital Fund to help finance affordable housing in South King County communities.
SKHHP was established in 2019 through an interlocal agreement to address the affordable housing challenges facing the sub-region as a coordinated coalition. SKHHP currently has 11 member jurisdictions including the cities of Auburn, Burien, Covington, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Maple Valley, Normandy Park, Renton, Tukwila and King County.
In 2019, a state law was enacted allowing jurisdictions to establish a local sales and use tax for the purpose of supporting affordable housing. In 2021, eight of the nine SKHHP member cities entered into a second interlocal agreement for the purposes of pooling sales tax receipts authorized by state law, with SKHHP to create the Housing Capital Fund.
In 2022, SKHHP awarded two projects in South King County almost $1.4 million during the first annual funding round.
According to a resolution document that came before the Renton City Council’s Planning and Development Committee on March 11, the SKHHP Executive Board requests approval to use $217,088 of the total $246,643 contributed funds from 2023 from the City of Renton primarily for upkeep of the Multi-Service Center’s Victorian Place II in Des Moines.
According to the document, the Multi-Service Center-managed Victorian Place II in Des Moines has 20 units of housing and has a projected development cost of $785,125. Multi-Service Center is a nonprofit organization serves families dealing with poverty and homelessness in South King County.
According to SKHHP, Victorian Place II is a multifamily preservation 20-unit rental project in Des Moines. Since 1996, the nonprofit Multi-Service Center has owned the two adjacent buildings that comprise the project, which includes five units for households earning up to 35 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), 10 units for households up to 40 percent of AMI, and five units for households up to 50 percent of AMI.
SKHHP reports that the 20 three-bedroom, two-bath affordable rental units are in active use and the target population is families with children. The original request was for $500,000 in the form of a grant. Initial estimates were based on a 2018 construction estimate.
SKHHP funds were requested to “support the rehabilitation of the two buildings including: landscape improvements, staircase repairs, installation of new railings, seal coating the parking lot, upgrading external lighting, recoating tenant decks, installation of new siding, replacing gutters and downspouts, replacing windows, replacing sliding glass doors, replacing unit entry doors, and replacing baseboard heating with energy-efficient heating systems.”
The project is expected to begin in mid- to late 2024 and end in mid- to late 2025.
According to funding documents used by the city, Renton will be and has been the largest contributor to the Multi-Service Center – Victorian Place II in Des Moines as the city already contributed $246,643 to the project in 2023. The next largest contributor in 2023 was the city of Kent with $212,655 contributed.
