$49.3M affordable housing project in Renton breaks ground
(The Center Square) – Renton’s Sunset Gardens, which provide 76 affordable housing units for veterans, persons with disabilities and seniors, broke ground.
Renton Mayor Armondo Pavone was joined On June 29, by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, King County Executive Dow Constantine and others to celebrate the ambitious affordable housing project.
Near $49.4 million was collected through various outlets for the project; $22.8 was given to the project from the low income housing tax credit equity through the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. King County gave $3 million to the project. JP Morgan Chase sent $12.5 million. The City of Renton used $1.5 million from its House Bill 1590 funding.
The $1.5 from HB 1590 makes Sunset Gardens the first project in Renton to utilize funding from the house bill since it was authorized in 2020. HB 1590 was created to use the funds solely for affordable housing construction as well as mental and behavioral health facilities.
The Sunset Gardens affordable housing complex is also the seventh affordable housing and infrastructure project in the Sunset area since 2012, according to Pavone’s office.
“Over the last 10 years, the city, the Renton Housing Authority (RHA), the Renton School District and our partners…have invested more than $150 million in completed Sunset area projects,” Pavone said at the press conference in Renton. “With an additional $230 million investment in projects needed in the next several years.”
Executive Constantine spoke after Pavone about how he had toured homeless encampments in Auburn and Kent right before the press conference and the difference he has seen in efforts to provide homes for people in need.
“It is really heartening to be able to come from that experience directly to a place where a city is doing the positive things to help us turn the corner on the terrible housing shortage in our county,” Constantine said.
The Sunset Gardens project also had $984,130 waived in development and impact fees by the city of Renton, as well as a $1.768 million grant that the city received from the Washington State Department of Commerce.
RHA was unable to tell The Center Square the maximum number of tenants who could reside in Sunset Gardens.
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