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Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Fund has created 1,450 affordable housing units and helped 1,900 households with rent since 2016

Taxpayer-supported program had awarded $51.7M to mote than 60 projects

By Mia Ryder-Marks, Columbian staff reporter

Published: March 1, 2025, 6:15am

7 Photos

After years spent homeless, Tasha Love now has an apartment in Lainie’s Crossing in Vancouver. (Photos by Taylor Balkom/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

On her first night in her new apartment, Tasha Love smiled as she slept on the tile floor. For the first time, she had a place of her own.

After years of housing instability, Love received a call from the Vancouver Housing Authority about a two-bedroom apartment at Lainie’s Crossing.

It was Love’s fresh start. She could go back to school to finish her last term of college while also supporting her brother, whom she adopted 10 years earlier when their father died.

Officials say stories like Love’s are more common thanks to a property tax levy approved by voters in 2016 to create the Affordable Housing Fund. In 2023, voters renewed the tax of 30 cents per $1,000 assessed property value to raise a total of $100 million over a decade.

Since its inception, the city has awarded $51.7 million to more than 60 projects, creating 1,450 affordable housing units and assisting 1,900 households with rental support. About $9.5 million in funding is distributed each year. This year, the city of Vancouver established a committee to recommend which projects will get the financial backing, before the Vancouver City Council approves it.

Although much of the money went to construction and acquisition of apartment complexes, such as Lainie’s Crossing where Love lives, the top two recipients of money from the fund were for a rental assistance program.

“This public funding went to good use. This was my path to stable housing, and the community did not let me down getting me here,” Love said.

Where did money go?

Out of the top 10 projects funded through the Affordable Housing Fund, six of those were for housing. Nine of the projects are led by either Council for the Homeless or Vancouver Housing Authority.

The largest share of money granted from the fund, $10 million, went to Council for the Homeless’ rental assistance program called Prevention Consortium in three separate installments. This program offers rental assistance through a network of local nonprofit partners like Share Vancouver and Lifeline Connections.

“When the pandemic happened, we saw a huge, significant and overwhelming need for rental assistance for folks that were facing eviction,” said Sunny Wonder, chief operating officer at Council for the Homeless. “It’s really important for us to have these interventions available.”

Vancouver Housing Authority was behind the largest apartment projects underwritten by the fund: Lainie’s Crossing, which received $2.9 million for its acquisition, and Lincoln Place II, which is currently under construction in the Esther Short neighborhood with a $2.3 million award. Columbia Non-Profit Housing — a subsidiary of VHA — also received $2 million for Laurel Manor, which houses seniors.

A new Council for the Homeless housing project called Claudia’s Place received $2 million. Wonder declined to provide specifics on the project because it’s still in the early stages of planning. According to the fund’s database, the project is in the Orchards area.

Colas Development Group was awarded $1.2 million for a new 95-unit affordable housing project at the Vancouver Waterfront Gateway.

The city of Vancouver’s four Safe Stay sites, which each have 20 two-person sleeping sheds, received just over $1 million.

Other projects

The Affordable Housing Fund also paid for projects focusing on homeless prevention and apartment preservation.

Council for the Homeless received $1.2 million for its new Everybody IN campaign to raise awareness and mobilize the community around the issue of affordable housing.

“The idea is to increase our system capacity and bring more folks into the conversation,” Wonder said.

She said Council for the Homeless is using the money to work with the Vancouver Housing Authority, as well as Vancouver’s Homeless Assistance and Resources Team and Safe Stay shelters, to help people progress from those programs to affordable housing.

XChange Recovery, a Ridgefield-based housing nonprofit, received about $84,300 to staff its recovery homes.

Share Vancouver received $156,600 toward improvement of its downtown shelter.

Smith Tower in downtown Vancouver received $1 million for renovation.

Proud Ground, a Portland-based nonprofit, and Evergreen Habitat for Humanity each received $500,000 for their affordable homeownership programs.

Competitive edge

Samantha Whitley, the city’s housing programs manager, said the fund helps agencies to be more competitive when applying for state funding.

“Projects are able to show that they have local commitment,” Whitley said.

VHA CEO Andy Silver said when the agency sought to purchase Lainie’s Crossing, state grants required a local match.

“We used the city’s money to both be more competitive in pulling in state funding but also to help close the gap of the difference between what we could get from the state and the cost of the purchase,” Silver said. “There’s an unfortunate combination going on where the need is high as it’s ever been, but a lot of the market conditions are against us in terms of being able to produce affordable housing.”

With skyrocketing interest rates and the second Trump administration talking about further federal tax cuts, other cities are stuck in limbo, Silver said.

Top 5 projects funded through the Affordable Housing Fund

1. Council for the Homeless/Share

Project: Homeless Prevention Consortium

Amount: $5,125,726

For: Homeless people

Status: Completed

Also received: $3.5 million (in process)

2. Vancouver Housing Authority

Project: Lainie’s Crossing acquisition, 4902 N.E. 94th Ave.

Amount: $2,925,000

For: Families

Status: Completed

3. Vancouver Housing Authority

Project: Lincoln Place II, 1110 W. 13th St.

Amount: $2,350,000

For: Homeless people

Status: In progress

4. Columbia Non-Profit Housing (VHA)

Project: Laurel Manor, 3333 N.E. 66th Ave.

Amount: $2 million

For: Seniors

Status: Completed

5. Housing Initiative (Council for the Homeless)

Project: Claudia’s Place (no address)

Amount: $2 million

For: Homeless people

Status: In progress

“Communities that don’t have a local fund to help are basically not able to develop affordable housing right now. But it means we can move forward with projects to continue chipping away at the need,” Silver said.

A solution

Two years ago, Renae and Gerry Rush peeled off the protective plastic from appliances in their new kitchen — a seemingly small act that, after a decade of homelessness, felt like nothing short of a victory.

For years, the Rush family, including their son Jonathan, lived in their car. They worked delivery gigs yet were continually rejected for apartments.

“Sometimes, we were just $100 short of what we needed,” Renae Rush said.

Today, they pay just over $800 a month for their two-bedroom apartment, which was underwritten by the Affordable Housing Fund. They were also able to grow their family with pets — a bearded dragon, two turtles, birds, a dog and a tank full of fish.

Vancouver Affordable Housing Fund Timeline

April 2016: The Vancouver City Council declares an affordable housing emergency, paving the way to ask voters to pass the tax measure called Proposition 1.

May 2016: Bring Vancouver Home launches its campaign advocating for Proposition 1 passage. There is no opposition campaign.

June 2016: The council votes to put Proposition 1 on the ballot.

November 2016: Proposition 1 passes with 57.64 percent of the vote.

December 2016: The city outlines a timeline for when Affordable Housing Fund applications are due and when funds will be disbursed.

February 2017: City staff propose using Affordable Housing Fund money to convert a Hazel Dell wedding venue into a homeless shelter, an idea that faces backlash and later gets dropped.

August 2017: The council approves regulation changes that encourage the development of accessory dwelling units.

October 2017: The council approves $4.4 million in funding recommendations. The council also approves expanding the Multifamily Tax Exemption program.

November 2017: The city gets applications for housing assistance and self-sufficiency services.

December 2017: The city collects the full $6 million and reviews applications.

February 2018: The council discusses funding recommendations for housing assistance and self-sufficiency services.

Summer 2018: The first new construction projects that received Affordable Housing Fund financing open.

January 2023: Vancouver voters renew the affordable housing levy by approving a measure that will raise $100 million over 10 years for affordable housing development and preservation, temporary shelters, homelessness prevention, and rental and homeownership assistance.

October 2023: Vancouver established a fund that will funnel millions of dollars from housing developers into the Affordable Housing Fund.

“We spent 10 years going through it. It was rough. At times, we were on the verge of giving up,” Renae Rush, who now works at homeless nonprofit Outsiders Inn, said. “At some point in our journey, someone told us that God had big plans for us. Now here we are, and this place is better than anything we could’ve ever imagined. It gave us hope again.”

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.

Where did money go?

Other projects

Competitive edge

Top 5 projects funded through the Affordable Housing Fund

A solution

Vancouver Affordable Housing Fund Timeline

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