The King County Council approved the the sale of a piece of surplus county property in Bellevue to be affordable housing just before the Bellevue City Council approved additional funding for the men’s homeless shelter and permanent supportive housing that will be sited there.
The property, owned by King County’s Solid Waste Division and located on 13620 SE Eastgate Way in Bellevue, will be transformed into a campus that will include a permanent men’s homeless shelter, permanent supportive housing, and workforce housing.
The King County Council unanimously approved the purchase and sale agreement for $18,885,000 on July 13.
“This property sale will enable the first and only permanent men’s shelter on the Eastside, and it will go further, with the first permanent supportive housing constructed on the Eastside and affordable homes for hundreds of families,” said King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci, who has been a longtime champion of the project.
Balducci called local governmental support of the project “critical” to the project’s fruition via a press release statement.
On July 19, the Bellevue City Council approved $3.6 million for the shelter project and $400,000 for the permanent supportive housing project. This funding provides the final pieces of financing which leverages the funds already committed from the Department of Commerce, King County, and other Eastside cities, along with more than $130 million in private investments and loans, all of which allows for closing on the sale of the property and construction to begin.
“The physical buildings combined with supportive services are key to Bellevue’s success in addressing homelessness. The new permanent shelter is just one key piece of our ongoing work to support our community,” said Bellevue Mayor Lynne Robinson via written statement.
The project was instigated by Congregations for the Homeless, a Bellevue nonprofit that has been serving men on the Eastside experiencing homelessness for nearly three decades, who will operate the shelter. Plymouth Housing, a non-profit developer and operator of supportive housing for homeless individuals, will operate the permanent supportive housing and Inland Group, a Spokane-based developer of affordable housing will build the workforce housing.
Plans for the facility include: a 100-bed men’s enhanced shelter and services center, 92 permanent supportive homes for homeless individuals being referred from Eastside shelters, and 360 homes for low-income wage earners. Part of the campus will also include a 10,000 square-foot early learning center.
The approval of the sale of the property by the King County Council and the funding by the Bellevue City Council marks the culmination of over eight years of collaboration among non-profit groups and local and state governmental leaders to expand East King County services and permanent housing options for people experiencing homelessness, as well as preventing homelessness for individuals and families by expanding affordable housing options.
“The Eastgate campus will be a shining example of what we can accomplish when the private, nonprofit and public sectors do what they each do best,” said Darin Davidson, President of Inland Group in a written statement.
Construction of the three projects is expected to be completed in 2023 at a combined cost of about $186 million.
