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Council approves $440,600 from ARCH trust fund to support regional affordable-housing projects
Summary
Mercer Island authorized $440,600 to ARCH's East King County housing trust fund for a set of projects ARCH recommended; ARCH said awards will help create or preserve over 500 units across five cities and explained grant vs contingent-loan tradeoffs.
The Mercer Island City Council approved the use of $440,600 from the city's contributions to the ARCH East King County Housing Trust Fund on Feb. 3, authorizing the city manager to execute related agreements.
ARCH presentation and scope: Lindsey Masters, executive director of ARCH, and Jeff Thomas, Mercer Island's CPD director, presented an overview of ARCH's funding round and its recommendation to support several projects across East King County. Masters said ARCH received a record number of applications and that the recommended awards will help create or preserve more than 500 units of affordable housing across five cities. She highlighted projects ranging from family-size homeownership in a land-trust model and preservation/rehabilitation projects to deeply affordable units serving people exiting homelessness.
Funding terms: councilmembers asked why ARCH uses a mix of grants and contingent loans. Masters said terms are tailored to project capacity: some projects cannot service debt and therefore receive grants, while other projects can carry limited loans that can be repaid or recycled into the trust fund later. She added grant terms can trigger prevailing-wage rules in some cases, which factors into ARCH's decisions.
Motion and vote: Council member Reynolds moved to authorize use of $440,600 from the city's contributions to the ARCH Housing Trust Fund as recommended by the ARCH Executive Board and to authorize execution of related agreements and documents; Council member Weinberg seconded. The motion passed on a unanimous roll-call vote.
Why it matters: ARCH leverages local contributions to attract larger state and private funding and to advance projects that provide a range of housing types (preservation, family homeownership, supportive housing). The council discussion emphasized the city's role as an ARCH member and the balance between local inputs and regional housing priorities.
Next steps: staff will execute agreements per the council action and ARCH will work with project sponsors to finalize financing and move projects into construction or preservation phases.
