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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane area housing projects receive funding from state

Two projects in Spokane were part of a $9.9 million grant and loan program announced Thursday by the Washington state’s Department of Commerce.

The Hifumi En apartments, near the South Perry District, has 41 apartments reserved for people age 62 and older, as well as disabled individuals who have very-low or extremely low income. The complex was purchased and first made into affordable housing for first-, second- and third-generation Japanese people in Spokane in the 1960s with money raised by Spokane’s Japanese community and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds. It is now owned and operated by the Spokane Housing Authority and no longer serves the Japanese community primarily. It received $171,000.

The Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners received nearly $430,000 for its Riverwalk Point I apartment complex just east of the Hillyard neighborhood outside of city limits on the Spokane River. The 53 units are reserved for the recently homeless, families with children and low-income people.

The new funds, which come from the state’s Housing Trust Fund, will go to 23 projects across the state, and preserve 1,179 multifamily rental and shelter units. Nearly 800 of those will be occupied by households earning 30 percent or less of the area median income.

According to the state Commerce Department, the estimated total cost to complete such preservation work exceeds $64 million, and the state estimated that each dollar it invests will leverage more than $5 in additional funding from other private, public, nonprofit and community organizations.