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Newsletter - Building Community
Awards & Recognition
Contact Us
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Low Income Public Housing |
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New SHA goal -
263 accessible housing units
SEATTLE—November
30, 2007—A
total of 263 dwelling units will be built or remodeled
over the next eight years to be fully accessible to
people with disabilities. Seattle Housing Authority
has agreed to reach this goal by 2014 in cooperation
with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This will result in five percent of SHA's housing units
being accessible under Uniform Federal Accessibility
Standards. According to Executive Director Tom Tierney,
“This is a good outcome for SHA and for disabled people
in Seattle.”
Subsidy for
Housing Choice Vouchers increased
SEATTLE—April 30, 2007—SHA has increased its Housing Choice Voucher
payment standards, which govern the amount of subsidy
that is available to support rentals by participants in
the program. It has been nearly two years since SHA's
Board of Commissioners increased these payment
standards. Lisa Cipollone-Wolters, SHA’s Director of
Rental Assistance Programs, noted that the agency raises
the Voucher Payment Standards as needed to keep up with
rising rents in Seattle.
Click here for details.
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SHA to partner
with Dearborn group, add housing to Goodwill site
SEATTLE—April 30, 2007—Seattle Housing announced in early April that it
will partner with Dearborn Street Developers in their
mixed-use project that will take place on the current
site of Goodwill, just south and east of downtown.
Seattle Housing will assign at least $20 million in New
Market Tax Credits to the project. These tax credits are
intended to spur commercial development in under-served
areas and promote access to growth and urban and rural
communities. SHA will build low-income and affordable
housing on the site.
Click here for details.
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SHA joins
development partners to build workforce housing on Qwest
Field parking lot
SEATTLE—July 7, 2006—Seattle Housing Authority
has joined Seattle development firm Nitze-Stagen and
Minneapolis-based OPUS, as part of a team that will
develop four acres now being used for surface parking.
SHA's part will be to build and manage 140 one- and
two-bedroom apartments for downtown workers. To learn
more about this exciting development,
click here.
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SEATTLE—February 26,
2006—Low-Income Housing Institute's Denny Park
Apartments and Capitol Hill Housing's Pantages
Apartments are providing housing to low- and extremely
low-income families in Seattle. Both were built to high
environmentally-conscious standards and 15 of their
units provide Holly Park replacement housing.
For more information,
click here.
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Public Housing rent policies
may change
SEATTLE—May
6, 2005—SHA is considering new
policies that would affect how much rent is paid by residents
in public housing.
The
goal of the policy change is to continue to support
residents' efforts to gain employment while treating all
residents equitably. A
public hearing on the proposed changes is scheduled for 6 p.m.
on May 19 at the Yesler Community Center,
917 E. Yesler Way. For an explanation and details of the proposed
changes,
click here. |
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SEATTLE—July
20, 2004—Seattle
Housing is now offering applicants the opportunity to
apply for housing on the Internet, using a new on-line
application developed by SHA staff. According to
PorchLight director Kathy Roseth, "This will make it
simpler and easier for our computer-literate customers to
apply." The new application is believed to be one of
the most innovative and easy-to-use systems nationwide. To
learn more about the new application, or to apply,
click here.
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SEATTLE—December
16, 2003—Today the SHA Board of Commissioners unanimously passed
new policies that will make it easier for people to move
through the long wait for subsidized housing. According to
PorchLight Director Kathy Roseth, "The new
preferences continue to give first priority to the very
lowest income households, and at the same time remove
administrative barriers that have prevented many needy
people from gaining access to SHA resources under the old
system. We expect that the application process – when
the changes are fully implemented – will be simpler,
faster, and more logical from the applicant’s point of
view." To learn more about the new preferences,
click here. |
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SEATTLE—July
30, 2003—Renovation of the first of three residential apartment
buildings at Tri-Court is nearly complete. Residents are
now moving
back to clean, smoke-free apartments that will support
their efforts to stay healthy in spite of respiratory
ailments. The renovation is a result of a policy passed in
2001 by the SHA Board of Commissioners, designating
Tri-Court as a smoke-free environment in order to better
meet the needs of residents with respiratory problems. To learn more,
click here. |
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SEATTLE—January
23, 2003—Funding
to operate public housing remains a low priority in
Washington, D.C. as lawmakers wrestle with continuing
resolutions and conflicting budget needs. Due to a
miscalculation by HUD in funding for the current year,
housing authorities face possible shortfalls of up to 25
percent or more in the next fiscal year. For the Seattle
Housing Authority, this could mean budget cuts in the
range of $3 - $4 million. To learn
more about these possible cuts,
click here. |
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SEATTLE—November
20, 2002—The Seattle Housing Authority will
host a public meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21, to hear from
community stakeholders regarding its proposed new waiting list
preferences. The proposed new rules would give first priority to
extremely low-income residents and maximize resources by integrating SHA more
fully into the city’s housing continuum. The
hearing will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 21
at SHA's PorchLight housing center, located at 907 NW
Ballard Way, Suite 200. The new rules, or "waiting list preferences," will be
considered by SHA’s Board of Commissioners in December. For
details on the proposed policy change,
click here. |
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SEATTLE—November
19, 2002—The PorchLight housing center has adopted both customer
service and program innovations to make it easier for
people to apply for and receive the housing they need.
These include making applications available in six
languages for downloading from the Web site and creating a
self-service computer station where applicants can learn
about housing opportunities and regulations. To read the
details of these innovations,
click here. |
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SEATTLE—September
20, 2002—Among
the many plastic-wrapped buildings around town this summer
were two of SHA’s public housing high rises – Beacon
Tower, the lone skyscraper on the Beacon Hill skyline
between Amazon.com and the VA Medical Center, and Olive
Ridge on Capitol Hill. While the wrapping was inconvenient
for residents, it allowed construction workers to apply a
new weatherproof exterior finish to address chronic
leaking and water intrusion problems. The repairs also
included installation of double-pane, tilt-and-turn
windows. These two projects are the first in a program of
comprehensive weatherization and exterior finish repairs
scheduled in coming years for eight of SHA’s 28 high
rises. For more on these upgrades,
click here.
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