It is well established that South King County has a critical shortage of affordable housing.
On March 3, the Auburn City Council green-lighted the allocation of $161,487 to South King Housing and Homelessness Partners’ (SKHHP) Housing Capital Fund for projects the latter’s executive board has recommended — and “to execute all documents necessary to enter into the agreements for the funding.”
In addition to Auburn, SKHHP’s member jurisdictions — Burien, Covington, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Maple Valley, Normandy Park, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila as well as King County — have pooled more $11.2 million to low-income housing in South King County since 2019 to rehabilitate deteriorating multifamily buildings.
Even though Auburn has already contributed funds to the 2024 Housing Capital Fund’s funding round, council approval is needed to authorize the allocation of funds to specific projects.
In 2019, a new law in Olympia allowed jurisdictions to enact a local sales and use tax to support affordable housing.
South King County Housing and Homelessness Partners was established that year through an interlocal agreement to form “a unified, coordinated, and collaborative coalition,” funding the construction and preservation of affordable housing in South King County.
In 2021, eight of the nine original SKHHP member cities entered into a second interlocal agreement to pool sales tax receipts authorized by the state with SKHHP to create the housing fund.
The establishing interlocal agreement and pooling interlocal agreements established the SKHHP Housing Capital Fund, set parameters for the process for the selection of awards involving pooled funds, and determined the approval process. In 2024, an additional member city entered into the pooling interlocal agreement.
The SKHHP Advisory Board, which reviews applications and provides a funding recommendation based on adopted priorities of its executive board, concurred with the recommendation for funding four projects totaling $4.1 million:
White River Apartments Auburn and Habitat for Humanity
Mercy Housing NW – Burien Family Housing in Burien
Pandion at Star Lake in Kent
