Isabella Court II, a project that received funding approval by the Vancouver City Council on Monday evening, will look different than originally proposed.
The project at 3020 N.E. 62nd Ave. is being developed by Portland-based nonprofit Reach Community Development as a counterpart to the first Isabella Court. It’s designed as a four-story building with 49 apartments. But it will no longer focus on the senior population.
Due to funding gaps after a change in federal administration, Lauren Schmidt, fundraising and public relations manager at Reach, said the organization opted to reconsider its targeted service population.
“We ended up looking at this as an opportunity to look at a focus in the community,” Schmidt said.
After consulting with local service providers, Reach concluded focusing on extremely low-income families making 30 percent of the area median income or below would be better.
“We realized we could serve a larger population in need if we didn’t limit ourselves with a senior population,” Schmidt said.
Senior applicants are still welcome, she added, but the focus will be on serving previously homeless families.
When the focus of the project was still the senior population, Reach was able to secure more than $2 million in funding from the Washington State Department of Commerce. Schmidt said that when plans changed, Reach had to return that award. But they were able to secure about $2.1 million in Home funds from the Department of Commerce with the new proposal. Reach will also receive $904,282 in Home funds from Clark County.
Home funds from the city of Vancouver also shifted their Affordable Housing Fund award. Originally, the project was slated to receive $850,000 from the first allocation round of the fund. Isabella Court II still will receive $850,000 from the city, but since the project qualified for Home funding, the city reduced the Affordable Housing Fund award. The project will now get $737,500 from the AHF.
Isabella Court II is the only current project to qualify for 2018 Home funds, according to Danell Norby, community development coordinator with the city. The remaining $112,500 in Affordable Housing Fund money will likely roll over into the next year’s allocation fund, which will be discussed later this year.
With funding now secure, Schmidt said, they plan to close and start construction within the month.
