Firm news
$14 million for eighty permanently affordable homes
Pierce County Housing Authority was divesting eighty single-family homes. Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity had one chance to buy them and convert them to permanently affordable homeownership, and needed a direct state appropriation to do it.
Today the Governor signed the 2023–25 capital budget. Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5200, Chapter 474, Laws of 2023, section 1020(8), reads: “Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat Affordable Housing (Pierce County) . . . $14,000,000.” It is the largest single item in that section of the Housing Trust Fund project list.
Getting there took the interim. We drafted the Pierce County support letter that went to the House and Senate capital budget committees over the signatures of the County Executive, the Council Chair and all six councilmembers, and secured sign-on from the entire Pierce County legislative delegation, five districts, both parties. We booked and led the delegation meetings through the autumn, and took the request directly to the chairs who decide the capital budget.
The homes are 1,200 to 1,400 square feet, three and four bedrooms, in Spanaway, Parkland, Bonney Lake, Elk Plain, Graham, and the Peninsula. Alongside $1.5 million from the Pierce County Council, the appropriation anchors a $43 million project.
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