Non-Profit Group, Developer Seek Diverse Housing Project

A nonprofit organization and a Spokane developer are working together to create more affordable housing in the Spokane Valley.

Northwest Regional Facilitators and Greenstone-Kootenai Corp. president Jim Frank hope to create an 11-acre neighborhood where low-cost housing and traditional housing coexist, and people from a variety of income levels mix and mingle.

“That’s the kind of diversity we’d like to create,” said Frank, who believes developments shouldn’t be built exclusively for executives or for sales clerks.

Frank is working with the county to get permission to subdivide a parcel in the southwest Valley. He and NRF also are seeking zone changes to allow some multi-family units, and permission to build a small neighborhood park on the land.

They hope to begin construction of the homes late this year or in early 1999.

While details haven’t been finalized, the development would probably include about 30 single-family homes and about 24 multi-family units, Frank said. Half to two-thirds would consist of lower-cost affordable housing.

The idea for the development originated last year, when Frank was working with the non-profit group to find land for its moderate-income home building program. The program assists families with too much income to qualify for Habitat for Humanity, but not enough to buy their own house without help.

“They’re always scrounging. They’re faced with buying some of the worst lots in town at some of the highest prices,” he said.

By working together and building mixed-income neighborhoods on larger parcels of land, Frank believes nonprofit housing groups can get more for their money.

The Valley project will be the two entities’ first try at this idea.

Frank believes a neighborhood with a wide range of house sizes and values is more stable than a homogenous one. The variety allows people to remain in the neighborhood as their families grow or shrink, he said, and as their housing needs change.

“It’s an opportunity for people to interact … and get exposed to a variety of things in life,” Frank said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WANT TO LEARN MORE? Northwest Regional Facilitators will hold an informational meeting about the proposed mixed-income subdivision and affordable housing next Thursday. The public is welcome. The meeting, at University Elementary School, 1613 S. University Road, will start at 7 p.m.