Members of the Sno-Valley Senior Center in Carnation are making a final push, just weeks ahead of a funding deadline, to secure the remaining dollars need to build the first income-restricted housing for seniors in the lower Valley.
Since 2018, the Sno-Valley Senior Center has been pushing for a three-story, 15-unit affordable apartment complex to be built next to its current building downtown. The project would bring the first income-restricted housing for seniors in the Valley outside of North Bend.
The complex would fill a huge need. Senior residents in Carnation and Valley-wide have been disproportionately burdened by high housing costs for decades, often being forced out of the community.
As of this month, despite a recent assessment showing an increase in projected costs, the center has raised a majority of the money needed through grants to build the $7.4 million apartment complex.
To bring the project to fruition, the center will have to raise an additional $1 million of its own money by a Sept. 1 deadline. If that requirement is met, the state has committed to fund the remaining $1.7 million needed for the project.
The center is well on its way to clearing that hurdle. After fundraising efforts this summer — including one resident who donated their Duvall house for the endeavor — the project needs to raise just $150,000 more by September to guarantee state support.
Right now, any donation made toward the project (up to $20,000) will be matched by Michael and Gina Fisette of Fisette Financial. Any donation of $1,000 or more will come with an engraved brick that will be used in the apartment’s walkway, and can be inscribed with anything donors like.
“We would love our residents to be part of this,” said Lisa Yeager, executive director of the senior center, who has been working on a senior affordable housing project as far back as 2005.
Yeager said she has recently been reminded how urgently the project is needed when speaking with seniors. Some, she said, moved away, but would like to return. Other seniors are living with relatives because they can’t afford to live on their own or would like to be closer to downtown and its resources as they age, she said.
Reaching the $7.4 million milestone would represent a huge accomplishment in a city where home prices over the last two years frequently exceed $800,000, according to real estate website Redfin. Those costs and a lack of ability to downsize have forced more seniors out of the community.
The apartment complex would sport 15 one-bedroom, income-restricted apartments for seniors 62 and older. Eight of those units will serve people making 30% or less of the area median income, while four units will serve those making 50% or less and three units will serve those making 60% or less. Five units will be reserved for income-eligible veterans.
In a 2021 feasibility study, the Sno-Valley Senior Center, which serves about 1,000 people each year, estimated a quarter of its patrons have incomes at or below 30% of the area median income. In King County, 30% of the area’s median income in 2021 was just over $24,000 a year for a single person.
“This is something that is long overdue,” Mayor Kim Lisk told the Valley Record in June. “This has been a dream of both the city and the senior center … we want to make this dream come true.”
