Bellingham, Whatcom help Mercy Housing step in to save these families from homelessness

Bellingham Herald - 7/5/2022

Jul. 5—Bellingham, Whatcom County and state officials acted quickly last month with several million dollars and a loan to help a nonprofit housing agency buy a Barkley-area apartment complex and keep it affordable for lower-income residents.

Some 143 units at Evergreen Ridge Apartments near Sunset Drive and Woburn Street, many of them occupied by families with household incomes well below the Whatcom County median, were in danger of being sold as market-rate housing.

A 30-year deed restriction on the property was about to expire, and rents were likely to rise by $500 to $600 a month because the complex was being offered for sale at market prices, said Tara Sundin, economic development manager for the city of Bellingham.

"It was really important to staff and our elected officials to step in and help," Sundin told The Bellingham Herald.

Bellingham City Council members recently approved $2.5 million from its federal pandemic-relief funds and $1.8 million from the Bellingham Home Fund, a voter-approved property tax for affordable housing.

Whatcom County Council added $2 million of its federal pandemic-relief funds and $600,000 from its sales tax for housing-related services.

Just this week, the state Department of Commerce added $1.2 million for the purchase.

But what sealed the deal was a $4 million "bridge" loan that the Bellingham council approved last week, said Joe Thompson, president of Mercy Housing Northwest, a nonprofit organization with several projects completed or underway in Whatcom County.

Mercy Housing recently made the winning bid, agreeing to buy Evergreen Ridge for $33 million, according to a city of Bellingham report attached to the June 20City Council agenda.

That deal closes soon, Thompson told The Bellingham Herald.

"We were the only (bidder) that was going to keep it affordable. Those families literally would have nowhere to go," Thompson said.

Putting so many people on the street at once would have caused a chaotic "ripple effect" throughout Whatcom County's social services system, he said.

Some 60 to 70 homeless families are living in motels every week in Whatcom County, Sundin said.

"My concern is that we'd see that increase even further if (Evergreen Ridge) was lost. In a time when housing affordability is so important, we just can't lose ground," Sundin said.

"Mercy Housing could never have pulled in all of its sources to get this in a few weeks. That bridge loan was instrumental in Mercy Housing's ability to compete in an open market," she said.

Thompson praised Bellingham and Whatcom County's support for low-income housing.

"Especially for a community the size of Bellingham and Whatcom County, it is a highly unusual level of commitment. It says so many good things about the city and county and the people of Whatcom County," he said.

If the sale closes as expected, Evergreen Ridge will provide another 50 years of housing for lower-income residents, according to a June 14 memo from Ann Beck, human services manager in the Whatcom County Health Department, to County Executive Satpal Sidhu.

At least 90% of the units will be occupied by tenants earning no more than 60% of the area median income and up to 10% of the units may be occupied by households earning between 60% and 80% of the area median income, Beck said in a May 17 memo.

An income that's 50% of the area median is $45,350 for a family of four, and an 80% income is $72,550 for a family of four, according to limits set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported by the Bellingham & Whatcom County Housing Authorities.

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