LONGVIEW — The Kelso City Council cleared the way Tuesday for more than half a million dollars in funding for the affordable housing planned for the Catlin and Main intersection.
The $19 million, two-part housing project will be managed by Lower Columbia CAP once it’s finished. The development will offer 40 unit to rent for people with low incomes or who qualify for affordable housing, along with housing the Kelso Public Library and a community event space on the ground floor.
The Catlin and Main project received a $551,896 grant from the state Department of Commerce’s Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program, a program created by the Legislature in 2021 to cover the cost of utility hookups at affordable housing projects.
In order to accept the grant funding, the city had to waive the utility system development charges that would normally apply to a housing project.
The ordinance approved by the Kelso City Council Tuesday night allows the city’s Community Development director to waive the development charges for affordable housing projects. The waiver only applies if the city has received a grant large enough to cover what the charges would have cost.
At the Tuesday meeting, the City Council also discussed spending an additional $87,125 from the federal HOME funding that is annually provided to cities on the Catlin and Main project. Last year the council put just over $70,000 of HOME funds into the construction as an early sign of commitment to the project.
The allocation would be the entirety of Kelso’s HOME funding this year. The other group that applied for the funds was Community House on Broadway, who asked for up to $29,000 for its rental assistance program. The public hearing and final vote on the federal spending will be at the first Kelso council meeting in May.
Last week, Longview City Council denied Community House’s request for $50,000 of that city’s HOME Funds because staff said the nonprofit is already sitting on almost that much money from last year’s allocation.
A majority of Kelso councilmembers seemed on board Tuesday with giving the full amount to Catlin and Main. Councilmember Jim Hill argued the city should do something to provide immediate support to Kelso residents struggling with housing.
