Dignitaries including King County Executive Dow Constantine, and District 8 King County Council member Jan Drago came to speak and turn the ceremonial shovels of dirt at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the first project in the Strength of Place Initiative (SOPI) low income housing project on Sept. 15. in White Center.

SOPI is a construction project of 30 units of affordable rental housing near the business district, close to public transit, shopping and services.

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Executive Constantine said, " It's an exciting project bring affordable housing into the district in partnership with DNDA, Capitol Hill Housing and the White Center Community Development Association. King County is a small partner, about 2.5 million dollars. This is an opportunity for us to help people stabilize their lives so they are able to get to the task of raising their kids, get their careers going and ultimately to get out of the homelessness and into being a productive part of society."

In his prepared remarks he noted that six of the units would be for homeless families with supportive services provided by Wellspring Family Services. Constantine also drew some chuckles when said, "Taking a chance on a property with a troubled history The Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (...) purchased the land with the hope of giving it a new life. The DNDA and the WCCDA joined with them on working on a new residential project. Then last year Capitol Hill Housing (...) joined them. This resulting partnership shows how local non-profits can combine forces like the Superfriends or the Power Puff Girls. Powers unite!"

SOPI will be built on the corner of SW 100th Street and 13th Avenue s.w. and will have 30 apartments ranging from one-bedrooms to three-bedrooms for low-income families making less than about $55,000 per year. SOPI will also deliver living-wage construction jobs to White Center and will be green built to the Washington State Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard.

Aileen Balahadia, Executive Director of the White Center Community Development Association spoke and was happy to finally see the project get underway. "This groundbreaking event means a whole lot to us. It's the culmination of lot of work, a lot of great persistence and great commitment to serving our community of White Center."

White Center resident Laushonda Barquet spoke about her gratitude to have the ability to have her children live in a safe and secure place close to schools, and a bus line.

This project is one of five projects in Washington State that received American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Tax Credit Assistance Program funding administered by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. In a time when low-income housing tax credits are scarce, the partnership’s combined strengths made it feasible for the project to secure tax credit equity and this stimulus award. Capitol Hill Housing is the lead housing developer, the White Center Community Development Association is the local sponsor and Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association secured the site in 2008 and will provide construction management services for the project. The project is currently owned by a tax credit Limited Liability Company in which all three non-profit organizations have an ownership stake.

Funding for this project is provided by King County, the State of Washington, Washington State Housing Finance Commission, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Tax Credit Assistance Program, National Equity Fund, Bank of America, Washington Community Reinvestment Association and the Bill & Melinda Gates Sound Families Initiative.

Construction will begin soon. The project is scheduled to open in approximately one year in summer 2011