Pasco getting more farmworker housing

PASCO – The vacant three-acre lot on Spokane Street in east Pasco doesn’t look like much yet.

By next summer it will be home to a $5.8 million affordable farmworker family housing complex.

Excavation has just begun on Bishop Topel Haven to house 43 farmworker families.

Catholic Charities Spokane is building the complex after demand for its first housing project, Tepeyac Haven in Pasco, proved more than the one complex could satisfy, said Monique Kolonko, Catholic Charities Spokane associate director for seniors and housing.

Alicia Toledo, Tepeyac Haven’s manager, estimates she has 1,000 people waiting for one of its 45 units to open.

“I have a long, long waiting list,” she said, noting she gets about four to five calls a day checking on vacancies.

The demand is here year-round, Toledo said. Tepeyac Haven at 915 N. 22nd Ave. opened in 2007. At the time the units rented for $500 to $600 a month.

Bishop Topel Haven at 1534 E. Spokane St. will be Catholic Charities Spokane’s third farmworker housing project. The nonprofit also owns Desert Haven in Othello, Wash., which opened in 2004.

The nonprofit, which also has senior and family housing units throughout the diocese, is using the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s tax credit exchange program to fund the latest project.

The complex will include four townhouse buildings, adding up to 43 units, and one community center.

The units have two to four bedrooms and are two stories, except for two units that are fully accessible for individuals with physical disabilities, Kolonko said.

There will also be a playground in the center of the housing complex.

And like Tepeyac Haven, Bishop Topel Haven will be built to the standards of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, which is a national “green” building rating system, Kolonko said.

The LEED standards mean that residents will have lower utility bills, and green-built housing involves less chemicals and fumes, she said. For example, the washers and dryers in each unit are high efficiency and use less water.

The housing will likely be ready for residents next spring or early summer, Kolonko said.