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Pierce County Council approves $15.8 million in affordable rental housing awards
Summary
The council unanimously approved Resolution R2024-253 to accept 2024 NOFA recommendations and allocate roughly $15.8 million across seven projects, prioritizing immediate readiness and racial and geographic equity in future rounds.
The Pierce County Council on Feb. 11 unanimously approved Resolution R2024-253, accepting the 2024 affordable rental housing Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) recommendations and authorizing the expenditure of roughly $15,800,000 for affordable rental housing development and operations in the county.
The funding pool combined three sources: the document recording fee fund created under Pierce County Resolution 2000-396, the affordable sales tax fund established by Ordinance O2019-57s, and the Maureen Howard affordable sales tax fund established by Ordinance O2022-81s. Carrie Waterland, staff for the council, told members the human services department opened the NOFA for 60 days and received 22 eligible applications — 19 for capital projects and 3 for operations and maintenance — and that an application evaluation committee recommended funding seven projects (five capital projects and two operations and maintenance projects).
Why it matters: The awards direct limited local housing dollars to projects judged most likely to deliver units or preserve affordable housing in a constrained funding year. Council members pressed staff on readiness, geographic distribution and equity scoring as they considered how to deploy the county’s sales-tax and recording-fee revenues.
Pierce County Human Services staff and the application evaluation committee (AEC) reviewed applications, scored them and forwarded the recommendations. Brian Schmidt, who joined staff at the meeting, told the council that the AEC met in July and Aug. 2024, reviewed project eligibility, and averaged committee scores before finalizing recommendations on Aug. 1, 2024. Total requests across applicants exceeded $53 million; available funding was about $15.8 million.
The AEC recommended six proposals for their full requested amounts and one proposal for a partial award. Schmidt and Waterland told council members that two of the recommended projects were immediately shovel-ready: the Pierce County Housing Authority’s Hidden Firs acquisition project and a project proposed by Urban Black Community Development. Other recommended projects — Beacon Development Group, Mercy Housing and Bridge Meadows — were described as likely to reach financing and permitting later in 2025.
Council members focused questions on scoring and geographic equity. Council member Kuver asked whether readiness factored into scoring; Schmidt said readiness, timeliness of delivery, leverage, AMI levels served and geographic priorities were all part of the rubric and that staff were reviewing the scoring process ahead of the 2025 NOFA. He described racial-equity scoring elements as affirmative marketing plans, outreach to underserved communities, and developer contracting plans to include women- and minority-owned businesses, plus an equity-index placement measure.
Public comment: Riley Guerrero, representing the Pierce County Housing Authority, spoke in support of the Hidden Firs project. Guerrero said Hidden Firs is an acquisition of 56 existing units outside Tacoma city limits, with few renovation needs and “almost fully leased up,” and asked the council to approve funding so the authority can continue operation of those units as affordable housing.
Council direction and next steps: Multiple council members said they wanted subsequent NOFAs to emphasize projects outside the city of Tacoma and to shorten and expedite the 2025 NOFA timeline so ready-to-build projects do not lose financing windows. Staff said a revised 2025 NOFA is in development and council will receive a copy before it is released.
Vote: Council member Denson moved approval; the motion passed on a roll-call vote of 7-0 (Council member Denson — aye; Council member Herrera — aye; Council member Yambe — aye; Council member Ayala — aye; Council member Kuver — aye; Council member Murrell — aye; Council member Hitchen — aye).
The council packet lists project-level recommendations and a de minimis fiscal note; the funding recommendations begin on page 21 of the packet and the equity note is on page 14, per staff.
