The Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC) recently awarded $6.3 million in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) reservations to six new developments. These developments will create or rehabilitate more than 350 affordable housing units across the state.

This is the second group of projects from the 2016 LIHTC competition approved by the governor-appointed WSHFC.

“Many of these projects address Washington’s dire homelessness crisis,” said WSHFC chair Karen Miller. “We’re proud to help by allocating this important resource.”

The six developments receiving LIHTCs at the end of March include:

  • Athene in Kirkland: With an estimated $14.8 million in LIHTC equity, Imagine Housing will create 91 affordable apartments for seniors;
  • Building 9 North in Seattle: Mercy Housing Northwest will use the estimated $8.2 million in LIHTC equity for 40 of the project’s planned 148 family apartments that are part of the redevelopment of dilapidated former military barracks;
  • Father Bach Haven III in Spokane: Catholic Housing Services of Eastern Washington will create 51 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless men and women with an estimated $10.3 million in LIHTC equity;
  • Reliable Homes in Centralia: With an estimated $7 million in LIHTC equity, Reliable Enterprises will create 35 one-bedroom, service-enriched apartments primarily for the homeless and the disabled;
  • Valley Homeless Families in Spokane: Catholic Housing Services of Eastern Washington will use an estimated $8.6 million in LIHTC equity to create 51 permanent supportive-housing units for extremely low-income families in the Central Valley School District; and
  • YNHA Tax Credit 6 in Wapato: The Yakima Nation Housing Authority will use an estimated $14.5 million in LIHTC equity to rehab 88 homes built in the 1960s and 1970s on the Yakima Indian Reservation.

Earlier this year, WSHFC allocated 9% LIHTCs to Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) in Seattle for Estelle Supporting Housing. The 91-unit development is DESC’s 12th “housing first” building for the chronically homeless.