Vancouver Housing Authority is in the process of purchasing Jens Pointe Apartments in east Vancouver. Half of the units will be for residents who earn 80 percent or less of the area median income. Eighty percent of the area’s median income is $60,202 annually for an individual. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Vancouver Housing Authority is beefing up its middle-income housing supply with the purchase of a 240-unit apartment building in the Cascade Park neighborhood.
VHA CEO Andy Silver said the agency is buying Jens Pointe Apartments, 333 N.E. 136th Ave., for $76 million. The complex includes 16 garden-style buildings with a mix of one- and two-bedroom units. Half of the units will be for residents who earn 80 percent or below the area median income, that is, about $60,202 annually for an individual or under. The other half will have no restrictions on them and be at market price.
Not only does Vancouver need more low-income housing, the shortage of middle-income housing is also dire, Silver said.
A March report showed 24 percent of Vancouver’s middle-income renters have housing costs that pinch their monthly budgets.
“The community is facing a mismatch between the cost of housing and the income in the community,” Silver said.
Silver said the problem has two parts.
“One is: Do we have enough apartments available that rent that’s affordable for each income band?” Silver said. “And then two: Are those apartments really available for those people who need it, or are other people who could afford higher rents living in those apartments?”
He said adding middle-income units will balance the agency’s portfolio “so somebody who has income of 120 percent of the area median income can’t take the apartment from somebody making 75 percent of the area median income,” Silver said.
Occupancy at Jens Pointe is currently about 50 percent. Silver said no one will be displaced when VHA purchases the complex.
“We will finish renting the remaining apartments and as people naturally move out and move into the apartments, that’s when we will attach our affordability requirements,” Silver said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the correct cost of the apartment building.
This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj.
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