Cantwell, Murray tout Lincoln Place

Share and the Vancouver Housing Authority looked toward already existing housing first facilities in Portland and Seattle when designing Lincoln Place.

Housing first has grown organically, said Daniel Malone, executive director of Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Service Center. He said homeless people are often pitied, ignored or scorned.

“Those individuals are going to not only move indoors and have a safe, stable place to live, but they’re going to be surrounded by care, love and support,” Malone said. “Of course, that’s what we all need.”

DESC has also helped out with projects in Alaska and will speak next month at the Housing First Partners Conference in Los Angeles.

“Homelessness has been a more visible issue lately. Those who experience barriers to housing because of income or disability or other special need have to be treated with dignity,” Murray said. “Yet so many have become invisible people on our streets. While it’s important to provide transitional housing and support services and shelters, it’s clear we have a lot more to do.”

Those who are homeless and struggling with substance abuse or mental illness end up in a cycle of instability, she said. Lincoln Place will have on-site providers that connect people with needed services. For one, Share will have a 24-hour staff presence. The tenant services provided by Share will cost $260,760. Building and maintenance expenses are expected to be under $120,000.

Community Services Northwest will have a full-time substance abuse counselor and a part-time mental health counselor, said director Bunk Moren. The nonprofit is already familiar with the area and the clientele, having offices at Share House across the street and nearby at Open House Ministries, a family shelter.

Some of the people moving into Lincoln Place are already clients, Moren said. He acknowledged that there can be a reluctance to engage in services, so the counselors will be tasked with building residents’ trust. Nobody will be forced to seek services, but the counselors will be a constant presence. The idea is that residents will be able to discuss problems without fear of getting kicked out.

“It’s based on their strengths and their desires and what their goals are,” Moren said.

Tax credits

The biggest source of funding for Lincoln Place was low-income housing tax credits, the federal government’s primary tool to encourage the development of affordable, low-income housing through private equity investment. The program is approaching its 30th anniversary.

Two months ago, Congress approved a bill that set the minimum rate at 9 percent of eligible construction costs. It did away with variable rates that made financing less predictable, which Cantwell, one of the bill’s backers, called a “critical fix.”

“Patty and I are going to work very hard to protect this program in the future,” said Cantwell, D-Wash. “Not only do we want to protect it, we’re going to look at extending it. That is to make more money available for the tax credit so more units can be built, not just in Washington but across the country. We think that Lincoln Place and the state of Washington are a model for how to solve the homeless problem.”

Lincoln Place has 27 standard units that are 331 square feet, and three ADA-accessible units that are 462 square feet. Each one has a bathroom and kitchenette. The studios feature reinforced walls, drains in the floors, sprinklers and bedbug-resistant beds. If residents bring in their own furniture, there is a decontamination room near the entrance to Lincoln Place that heats up high enough to zap bugs.

Throughout the building — but not inside any of the units — there are 30 security cameras. The windows in each unit have a small vent to let in fresh air, but the windows don’t slide open. There’s a secured entrance, and guests have to sign in, so the building staff know who’s in the building at any given time.

“This project regardless of income status helps give people the ability to have hope for the future by being in a secure facility,” Cantwell said. “Offering long-term stability allows residents to rebuild their lives for success instead of struggling to meet basic needs.”

Lincoln Place is Vancouver’s first housing first apartment complex but not its last. Freedom’s Path is under construction on Vancouver’s Veterans Affairs campus. The 50-unit housing community for homeless and disabled veterans is slated to be done in late July or early August and will cost about $13 million. The building follows the same philosophy of stabilizing people’s lives through housing first before addressing issues such as substance abuse.

It sits on 1.3 acres of a former parking lot adjacent to the campus entry at 1610 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., allowing for quick access to other veterans’ services on the VA site.