Island Center Homes nears completion

A fresh coat of paint is going up on the soon-to-be-complete Island Center Homes housing units in Vashon.

The project, located at SW 188th Street and Vashon Highway, broke ground in winter 2022, and local housing nonprofit Vashon HouseHold, which owns and oversees the project, expects to complete construction in October, host a community open house and ribbon-cutting in November, and begin moving residents into units in December.

After many months of work, it’s an exciting moment for VHH’s Board of Directors and its executive director Jason Johnson.

“Each time we see progress like exterior paint being applied, appliances being installed, and utilities being connected, we celebrate that 40 islanders who are in desperate need of affordable housing are that much closer to a place to call home,” Johnson said. “We are confident that Island Center Homes will be a safe, quality, dignified, beautiful and connected community asset that all islanders will be proud of. It is our hope that the people who live there will be supported by the whole community. And that the stability of housing will improve the quality of their lives in a meaningful way.”

When completed, Island Center Homes will add 40 income-qualified rental units to the tight affordable housing inventory on Vashon.

It will serve people making 30% or less of the area median income, made up of seniors, people who have experienced homelessness, people using the behavioral health system, and adults with developmental disabilities — most drawn from the organization’s waitlist.

The project is funded by the King County Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services Levy, which also requires that 20 of the 40 units be filled with veterans or their immediate family members.

The project, which began with a $12 million price tag, remains on time and on budget, Johnson said.

A look inside

Island Center Homes consists of five buildings, each with eight units averaging around 350 square feet. Each unit consists of a bedroom, private bath and a small kitchenette. Units share a common room, living space and laundry facilities, as well as a full kitchen area. All five buildings are laid out identically.

Common spaces will include room for desks, tables and chairs, said project architect Judy Tucker of Form + Function Architecture, to encourage residents to visit each other out of their rooms.

“Hopefully, they’ll make connections inside their buildings as well as with people in other buildings,” Tucker said.

This isn’t Tucker’s first rodeo with affordable housing. She worked on similar congregate housing in the 1990s and worked as a project architect on the Sunflower Community Land Trust, a series of 14 600-square foot houses on Bank Road.

What she’s learned: People benefit from a space that feels private — but which also gives them a chance to see other people and make connections organically.

“You can casually get to know each other … (and) you don’t feel like you’re all forced together in a big open space.”

The first two ground floor units of each building are designed to be accessible for people with disabilities. Linoleum flooring keeps the floors low-cost and highly durable, and the project’s solid wood cabinetry comes from Monroe-based Canyon Creek.

The middle of the property will host a “p-patch” (the term originates from the Picardo family, who owned a historic farm in Seattle’s Wedgewood neighborhood) garden — and it being Vashon, there will be a deer fence. A gardening shed, with tools, will be available to residents.

There will also be four community pavilions with picnic tables, and a bicycle shed.

According to county zoning, the property could actually accommodate 11 buildings, Tucker said — but water share limitations meant they had to limit it to five. To manage water usage, each unit uses low-flow toilets, water-controlled faucets and high-efficiency appliances.

Challenges and opportunities

Island Center Homes is one of VHH’s many attempts to make housing on Vashon — famous (or infamous) for its high rents, even relative to King County — more affordable.

And it’s also the first congregate residence project under King County code, a “demonstration project” made possible by a county ordinance passed in 2020. (Congregate residences are those in which tenants share either restrooms, kitchens or both. Residents at ICH will have their own private sleeping areas.)

“Since this project type was not currently an option in the King County Municipal/Zoning Code — we worked with them to create the code language for our project with the support of (former) Council Member Joe McDermott,” Tucker said in an email. “… Congregate Residences have been a very successful project type in the City of Seattle for years — we are just the first permitted by King County and hopefully will create a path for more projects like ours.”

A social worker will be on-site for residents. That also makes this the only other VHH property, besides the senior housing project JG Commons, to have a service element, Johnson said.

“We don’t typically think of ourselves as a service provider,” he said. “We usually contract out with Vashon Youth and Family Services to do the case management and counseling that people need.”

But this social worker will be a crucial connection to other services and to the island for residents, he said.

General contractor Alex Crowder, owner of Crowder Construction, “has done a remarkable job” using local resources and subcontractors, Johnson said, including working to find temporary and affordable housing for workers at AYH Ranch — helping workers avoid spending two hours of the day catching ferries.

On Vashon, everything takes a little bit longer and a little more planning.

For instance: Inspectors typically come to the island once a week, Crowder said. So if one inspection fails, it’s a week rather than a day of waiting to try again.

If the crews need a piece or tool they don’t have — and no one on the island has it — they have to weigh: “Do we need it today? Or can it wait until Monday?”

“But we travel for work all the time,” Crowder said. “So we’re used to it.”

Meanwhile…

Founded as a nonprofit by community activists in 1990, Vashon HouseHold works to address rental availability on Vashon. Last year, it acquired a 12-unit apartment building, launched its Home Share program and started building Island Center homes.

The organization announced earlier this year that it aims to double its portfolio of affordable housing by 2034, hoping to add at least 150 more units (including the 40 at Island Center Homes) onto its existing 126 units.

That’ll be accomplished through a mix of apartment projects like Island Center Homes, community land trust developments like Rosenballen and other projects.

“It all starts with acquiring land,” Johnson said.

Washington has a well-funded land acquisition program that VHH intends to use, but the high market value of property is a challenge, he said — along with a lack of available land in the town core area.

Politically, it also means advocating for raising the ceiling on income eligibility for those renting or buying affordable housing, Johnson said. A project that is limited to people earning only 30% of area median income is so restrictive that it leaves out a lot of islanders whose income is near the county average but still nowhere near enough to afford a place on the island, he said.

It’s especially important for home ownership, Johnson said: “Our homeownership programs cap at 80%. … It’s really a slim, narrow (range). You’ve got to earn enough to pay a mortgage and pay for everything that comes with homeownership — but then there’s this cap. … We’d love to see that (cap) bumped up to 120%, (and) 100% would be OK.”

Vashon HouseHold opened its housing waitlist last winter to hundreds of names. Those applicants are waiting for an opening at one of VHH’s 88 rental units and the 40 that will come online with ICH. Currently, there are 225 households on the waitlist, comprising more than 300 people, Johnson said.

That number — and the wait many households on the list will face to get into a home — “is exactly why Vashon HouseHold is so committed to acquiring and developing more housing,” Johnson said.

In the meantime, VHH’s Home Share program has made 22 matches in its first year, helping islanders with space to share find tenants who are willing to contribute to home upkeep in exchange for reduced rent.

“This is the equivalent of building a new 22-unit apartment building, but without the cost or time it would take to build such a project,” Johnson said.

The program could use more home providers willing to rent to people with children and pets, Johnson said — those are the households who have the longest waits to be connected in the program.

Vashon HouseHold will hold its “Raise the Roof Concert and Fundraiser” at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24 at Dig Deep Gardens, featuring local band Saint Ophelia. Learn more or buy tickets at tinyurl.com/VHHFundraiser. The organization will also host another housing forum at Vashon Center for the Arts at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

You can apply for a Vashon HouseHold unit by visiting vashonhousehold.org/apply-for-housing.

This dirt-and-gravel lot will one day host a community garden, picnic tables and parking for residents at Vashon HouseHold’s upcoming Island Center Homes. (Alex Bruell photo)