On Dec. 15 the Seattle City Council passed a bill in an effort to create more housing for low-income residents. Two projects planned for Ballard are seeking to do the same thing.

In late February the Compass Center, with the help of loans from United Way of King County and the city of Seattle, purchased the property at 1753 N.W. 56th St. from the Low Income Housing Institute with the intent of constructing low-income housing for single adults.

Rick Friedhoff, executive director of the Compass Center, said the project is in the early stages of development but it will most likely be a six-story, 50,000-square-feet building housing 60 to 75 residents. Construction should start in fall 2010, he said.

The Compass Center provides housing and services to low-income and homeless adults in King County. They operate about 16 sites, including a 26-person veterans center in Shoreline and a 32-unit residential building in the Cascade neighborhood. Construction is set to begin on a residential building in Renton that will be similar in size to the Ballard project.

In July the Crown Lutheran Church at 1501 N.W. 90th Street dissolved as a congregation and gave the property to the Lutheran Alliance to Create Housing (LATCH), said LATCH senior housing developer Beth Boran.

Boran said LATCH is looking to build a 40-unit building for families making 50 to 60 percent of the median income. LATCH has built similar housing developments but none in the Seattle area.

The development is on hold for the next one to two years and LATCH, based at Crown Lutheran Church for the past decade, will use that time to get more involved in the community and build awareness for what they do, according to Boran.

"Even though we've been here for 10 years, we haven't had much presence in the community," she said.

The Compass Center and LATCH serve two different groups of low-income residents that both need the help, Boran said.

LATCH serves people who make between $22,000 and $25,000 per year, a group some people call the working poor, she said.

The Compass Center serves the other end of the spectrum and is more of a service project, Boran said.

Friedhoff said there will be supportive services including mental health and drug addiction counseling onsite at the Ballard Compass Center location.

Ballard needs more affordable housing, and it's great that that the two new projects will serve both ends of the low-income spectrum, Boran said.

Friedhoff said the Compass Center chose Ballard for its new development because of the benefits the neighborhood can offer its residents.

"The huge advantage for us is that within a short distance from the site there are grocery stores, drug stores, community parks and bus transportation," he said. "There are all the things that make a really vital neighborhood. We see this project as something that will contribute to the vitality of the neighborhood."

Boran said neighbors' reactions to low-income housing vary depending on the community.

Neighbors of past Compass Center projects have been pleased with how they turned out, Friedhoff said.

"When we start this project, we will definitely do outreach with the community and get their input for the design of the building," he said.

Boran said once neighbors see what LATCH is about, their concerns tend to go away.

Friedhoff said the Compass Center's building in Ballard will not negatively impact property values or safety in the neighborhood.

"A: it's going to be a really nice building," he said. " And, B: it's going to be staffed 24 hours a day."

According to a study released this month by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, the value of properties within 500 feet of low-income housing do not drop when it opens and show steady growth in the years afterward. Properties within 500 to 1000 feet of low-income housing show a decline in value when it first opens, but steady growth in the years that follow.

The study was based on 123 developments from 1985 to 2003.

The Affordable Housing Incentive bill passed by the City Council Dec. 15 allows developers to build taller if they set aside a portion of their living space for low-income residents or pay a fee to the city to be used to build low-income housing.