Church hopes to offer low-cost housing

The pastor and congregation at Knox Presbyterian Church believe they can do something to provide decent low-cost housing for North Side residents.

They are studying the feasibility of developing about 30 affordable apartments at a complex that would be located to the west of the church along Knox Avenue between Post and Lincoln streets.

The Rev. Paul Seebeck, who has led the Knox congregation for three years, said establishing an affordable housing complex would serve community needs and meet the church’s challenge to help people outside the congregation.

“The church wants to build community and connections,” he said.

Knox Presbyterian is in the heart of the lower North Side, where residents are a mix of middle-income wage earners, retirees and low-income renters. Families headed by single parents often need affordable housing.

Seebeck said the church could offer its kitchen and gym for for activities among residents of the complex. In addition, some of those residents could be members of the congregation. They may also take advantage of other social services in the neighborhood, including Christ Kitchen, a nondenominational ministry that helps women in need.

“Typically, poverty in Spokane is single women and children,” said Brian Thompson-Royer, a housing consultant who has been working with Knox on its feasibility study.

The 108-member church owns land to the west of the sanctuary that is now used for parking, and a large parcel on the northwest corner of Lincoln and Knox is also available for development, he said. Other churches in Spokane have developed housing, and the trend of church-sponsored housing is being seen across the country.

The Knox proposal could include between 25 and 40 units, depending on which properties are developed. City zoning allows multifamily housing in the area, he said.

The complex would have a full-time resident manager to ensure that the facility and residents keep up neighborhood standards. It would be owned by an independent nonprofit organization with a board of directors.

Tenants would pay no more than 30 percent of their income for the apartments, which would allow them to have more disposable income, Seebeck said.

Development of the complex would occur through grants and loans from federal, state or local government sources.

Seebeck and Thompson-Royer have been meeting with members of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council as well as business representatives along Monroe Street two blocks to the west. They said reaction from residents has been mixed. Some people are concerned about bringing low-income residents to the neighborhood, but Seebeck said that low-income renters are already living there and could use the help that an affordable apartment complex would bring.

Rusty Vlahovich, chairman of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council, said residents have questions about the location, ownership arrangement, building height and number of units. “I think everybody realizes we need low-income housing,” she said.

A well-run complex would be a positive addition, Seebeck said. “It would be a catalyst for improvement,” he said.

Seebeck may be familiar to Spokane residents as a former reporter for KREM-TV in the 1980s. He also worked on radio in Spokane from 1992 through 2001. He made a career change that culminated in a master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Gonzaga University in 2003. He also served as lay pastor at East Valley Presbyterian Church in the early 1990s.