Catholic Charities of Spokane and its housing partners plan to break ground this year on multiple developments with a construction value approaching $60 million that would provide nearly 500 low-income apartment units in the Spokane area.

Preliminary plans include a $40 million, 382-unit affordable housing complex at the Sisters of the Holy Names convent property in northwest Spokane; an $8.5 million, 52-unit apartment project targeting homeless families in Spokane Valley; and the previously reported $10.3 million, 51-unit Father Bach III apartment building downtown.

Additionally, the nonprofit wants to build three other apartment projects in the Father Bach Haven series in the next few years.

The plans are part of Catholic Charities’ ambitious goal to provide housing for the working poor and eliminate homelessness in the Spokane area, says Rob McCann, executive director of Catholic Charities Spokane.

McCann says Catholic Charities plans to acquire 33 acres of the Sisters of the Holy Names convent property in August, where the nonprofit and a development partner, Spokane-based Inland Group, plan three new permanent housing projects and a transitional housing renovation project.

The site is located on a peninsula formed by the Spokane River east of the Spokane Falls Community College campus.

One project there would be Copper River Apartments, which would include 240 units of affordable family housing that would be constructed, owned, and managed by affiliates of Inland Group.

“It will be workforce housing for low-income wage earners,” McCann says. “It will house people who are doing all the right things but can’t afford rent, especially on minimum wages.”

In other components of Copper River at Holy Names, as the entire proposed development is being called, Inland Group also would construct two projects to be owned and operated by Catholic Charities.

One would be a 75-unit affordable housing project for even lower income, potentially chronically homeless families, McCann says.

“It’s basically housing for the working poor and very poor,” he says.

The other would be a 75-unit low-income senior housing project. “Seniors living on the same site will give it an intergenerational feel,” McCann says.

Catholic Charities plans to use the 49-year-old, 30,000-square-foot convent building for transitional housing for its Rising Strong program, he says.

“It will be a place where parents at risk of losing their children to Child Protective Services will receive comprehensive services from staff in a residential setting,” he says.

When those families become more stable, they will be moved to permanent housing, McCann says.

The Copper River at Holy Names preliminary development plans are under environmental review by the city of Spokane and regulatory agencies.

The environmental application submitted by Whipple Consulting Engineers Inc., of Spokane Valley, says construction could begin this summer, with occupancy potentially starting in late 2017.

Elliot Drive, an interior road that connects to Fort George Wright Drive, would be extended to serve the housing projects. Fort George Wright Drive links to Government Way to the west and Northwest Boulevard to the east.

The applicant estimates 670 people would live in the development, generating 2,300 average daily vehicle trips, including 170 trips per hour during peak morning hours and 210 trips per hour during peak evening hours.

The development would include a total of about 650 parking stalls.

The environmental application says the project wouldn’t include shoreline development.

Spokane County has designated about 31 acres of the 65-acre Sisters of the Holy Names property as high priority for adding to its Conservation Futures program, which acquires and protects open and environmentally sensitive space and resources for the benefit of the public and wildlife.

Homeless housing

McCann says Catholic Charities plans to begin construction this summer on Pope Francis Haven, a 52-unit apartment project that will target extremely low-income families in Spokane Valley.

The project will be located at the northeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Conklin Road, within the Central Valley School District.

“Pope Francis Haven will serve homeless families,” McCann says, adding that the Central Valley School District has one of the highest rates of homeless students in the state.

The Washington State Housing Finance Commission recently approved $8.6 million in tax credits to construct the Pope Francis Haven project.

The commission also recently approved $10.3 million in tax credits for Catholic Charities’ Father Bach Haven III project to be constructed at the former farmer’s market site at 24 W. Second.

As reported recently in the Journal, construction also is expected to begin on that 51-unit project this summer.

McCann says contractors and architects haven’t been selected yet for the Pope Francis Haven and Father Bach Haven III projects, although Nystrom+Olson Architecture, of Spokane, has handled some preliminary design work on both of them. 

Catholic Charities developed its first Father Bach Haven housing model three years ago with a four-story, 51-unit apartment building at 108 S. State.

Father Bach Haven II, which has been renamed Buder Haven, is scheduled to open in coming weeks at 201 E. Second, McCann says. Buder Haven is adjacent to The Marilee, which is a similar project that Volunteers of America Eastern Washington is developing. Inland Washington LLC, of Spokane, is the contractor on the Buder Haven and Marilee projects, and Nystrom+Olson Architecture designed them.

The intent of the Father Bach Haven concept is to provide housing for the chronically homeless. “Housing is the first and most important thing a homeless person needs,” McCann says.

Looking ahead, Father Bach IV is on the drawing boards and would be constructed adjacent to Father Bach Haven III, McCann says.

McCann says Catholic Charities also hopes to develop Father Bach V and VI within the next few years.

“We know there are about 350 chronically homeless people in the Spokane area,” he says. “By 2020, we hope to have built an apartment for just about every one of them.”

Federal income tax credits provide private developers with incentives to build or rehabilitate affordable multifamily housing, McCann says.

“We have access to brick-and-mortar funding,” he says.

Continuing operations at the housing complexes, however, rely on subsidies from other sources.

Catholic Charities receives some housing funds from the Spokane Housing Authority, the city of Spokane, and Spokane County in the form of vouchers and subsidies.

“It allows residents to live in the Father Bach Haven model basically rent free,” McCann says. “We never ask for more than 30 percent of income for rent. If their income is zero, 30 percent of that is zero.”

He says the nonprofit also can generate some rental revenue by helping tenants obtain benefits that homeless people often don’t realize they’re eligible for.

Catholic Charities manages more than 1,000 units of low income housing throughout Eastern Washington.