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| The City of Shoreline purchased the site to use as a staging area for construction equipment during the completion of the Aurora Corridor project, which was still in process when this photo was taken by Google. |
“Shoreline is doing its part to tackle the regional housing crisis,” said Shoreline Mayor Will Hall. “We continue to work with our partners on more effective ways to provide housing for those in our community and in our region who are most in need.”
Shoreline is contributing the property for the project, located at the intersection of N 198th Street and Aurora Avenue. King County is providing funding support from the voter-approved Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy.
“Our collaboration with the City of Shoreline will create much-needed housing for people exiting homelessness, while giving us the opportunity to pilot the speed and cost effectiveness of modular construction to help tackle our region’s serious shortage of affordable housing now, and in the future,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine.
The City Council’s decision to collaborate with King County is driven, in part, by the increasing cost of housing, which is contributing to the rising number of people experiencing homelessness. There is a demonstrated need for more affordable housing, both locally and regionally. This year’s annual “Point-In-Time” count identified 12,112 people experiencing homelessness in King County, with 6,320 of them unsheltered. The Shoreline area saw a 330% increase in unsheltered individuals over last year’s count.
Community Psychiatric Clinic (CPC) provides an array of accredited outpatient mental health treatment and counseling services that serve the community. CPC has a proven track record of owning and operating supportive housing programs, such as the one proposed for this location. Supportive housing provides not only housing, but also connects individuals receiving housing to support services to improve long-term success in moving out of homelessness.
CPC also anticipates opening a community health clinic offering both physical and mental health services on site. These services will be open to the public and will expand the health care network in Shoreline. Shoreline has an unmet need for mental health services in the community. Many residents already access CPC’s Northgate and Lake City Way clinics.
Catholic Housing Services (CHS), which will lead the development and management of the property on behalf of CPC, also has deep experience in affordable housing and supportive housing development in King County and across Washington. CHS will have staff on site 24 hours a day 7 days a week to quickly respond to residents’ needs. Both CPC and CHS, as well as Shoreline and King County, have committed to a transparent and open development process, which will include public meetings and working with local neighborhoods to respond to questions and concerns.
One additional feature of this project will be the use of modular housing construction methods. King County is interested in seeing if this approach might bring affordable housing online more quickly and save money. “Modular construction” refers to the way a contractor builds a building. The contractor builds portions of the building off-site and then assembles it on site. The result will look like any other multi-family residential building.
Visit Shoreline Projects for more information. For questions, contact Intergovernmental Program Manager Jim Hammond, 206-801-2215.
Beware the Homeless Industrial Complex. Having lived through the past five years of lies, misleading statements and outright slight of hand switches in Seattle I do know just what can be done to make this smell better to the residents. There is money to be made on the homeless and so far Shoreline seems to have been left out of the free for all. BEWARE
ReplyDeleteHow tall will these structures be? This would be a logical location for the MUR70 (7 stories) apartments that we have been told, or sold, that Shoreline needs. Better than building them in our neighborhoods that have been zoned Single Family Residential for 50+ years until our Shoreline City Council slipped a MAJOR RE-zoning that actually allows for the approval of buildings up to 14 stories.I think that 198th and Highway 99 is better suited for the high-rise buildings they want built, than our recently Single Family Residential zoned neighborhoods. Also, fewer trees will be sacrificed on this site than the clear-cutting we've been seeing in our neighborhoods with old-growth stands of trees now gone.
ReplyDeleteWill this be a low barrier housing facility? Will alcohol and hardcore drugs be allowed? Criminal background checks?
ReplyDeleteThis makes me so mad. This area already has enough problems with the bus hub being there. I live nearby and echo lake park is messed up with weirdos and drug use. There is also already a transitional housing for homeless veterans right across from the Costco gas station. We don’t need the mentally ill hanging out in Aurora village and making the park and surrounding areas worse. I worry about my kids and now no way they can be allowed to head out that way. I left Seattle due to this BS and now it looks like I have to move again to find a decent place to live and raise kids.
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