A Lynnwood housing project designed to assist Edmonds School District families is targeted to open in September 2025, the Edmonds School Board learned during its Jan. 9 meeting.

The school board in 2021 unanimously approved a resolution to declare approximately 2.2 acres of property adjacent to Lynnwood’s Cedar Valley Community School as surplus and then lease it to Housing Hope, which is developing affordable housing on the site.

In surplusing the property, located on former Little League ballfields at 19200 56th Ave. W., the board determined that the land was not currently needed or required for school purposes. The district leased it to Housing Hope at a rate of $1 per year for 75 years. The goal is to provide affordable housing for students and families experiencing homelessness – with priority going to district families.

The project is now known as Scriber Place.

Delivering the Jan. 9 report for Housing Hope, an Everett-based nonprofit, were Strategic Initiatives Manager Rachel Downes, Public Relations Manager Joan Penney and Senior Housing Developer Jeff Chandler.

Downes explained that the Washington State Legislature recognized that a student’s housing status is tied to academic achievement. The Legislature determined in 2017 that it was not a gift of public funds for school districts to lease surplus district property for affordable housing construction. The requirement is that the housing is reserved for school district students.  

If a student has unstable housing, such as living in an overcrowded home or are homeless, “they simply cannot show up to school every day and achieve the way that their peers are,” Downes said

She added that the Edmonds School District is the first in the state to successfully execute a lease with a nonprofit affordable housing provider. 

The challenge Housing Hope first faced in determining who was eligible for Scriber Place residency was that the federal Department of Education’s McKinney Vento’s definition of homeless children and youth differed from the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition. 

Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines homeless children and youth as those who are

—Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; or are abandoned in hospitals. 

— Have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

— Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings.

However, HUD defines a homeless person as an individual living outside or in a building not meant for human habitation or which they have no legal right to occupy, in an emergency shelter or in a temporary housing program, which may include a transitional and supportive housing program if habitation time limits exist.

Other characteristics are: 

— Trading sex for housing

— Staying with friends, but cannot stay longer than 14 days

— Are being trafficked

— Left home because of physical, emotional, or financial abuse or threats of abuse and have no safe, alternative housing

Downes said about 70% to 80% of McKinney Vento families have shelter that falls under the HUD definition and therefore are not eligible for other housing. However, Housing Hope was able to use the Department of Education’s definition of homelessness, which opens the eligibility to students in overcrowded housing even though they are not eligible for traditional HUD-funded housing.

Last year, the Edmonds School District had almost 800 students who would qualify as homeless under the McKinney-Vento definition.

Penney presented regional and national statistics to the board. She explained that the West Coast homelessness numbers are 11% to 15% higher than the rest of the U.S. and that it is directly related to the housing shortage and the lack of diversity in housing stock.

She said that in Snohomish County, 45.4% of residents are in the $53,000-a-year median income bracket; however, the average median house price is $799,793. 

“Again, keeping in mind 45% at $53,000,” Penney said. “Then you look at the required income to buy that house, which is $178,497 [annually]; we are leaving a lot of people behind in the housing market.”

For perspective, a dual-income family earning a combined income of $106,000 annually would still fall $72,497 a year short of being able to afford a home.

Senior Housing Developer Jeff Chandler presented the layout and construction of the Scriber Place community.

The complex will feature community amenities such as wraparound supportive services, community rooms, a health screening room and a playground. Chandler said that the apartments are centered on families, with the playground being the central hub.

Scriber Place will feature 52 apartments: 

— Nine 1-bedroom, one bath

— 25 2-bedroom, one bath

— 12 3-bedroom, two bath

— Six 4-bedroom, two bath

The design of Scriber Place will also be a milestone for Hope Housing and its design team. Chandler explained that most Housing Hope residences are studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, with some three-bedroom units.

“Given the projected size of some of the families that may be placed here, we’ve expanded to a four-bedroom capacity for the first time,” Chandler said.

The timeline and target dates for the project are:

— April 2023: Initial design work completed by Designs Northwest Architects

— Summer/fall 2023: Design review by the City of Lynnwood Planning Department

— Fall/winter 2023: Design revisions based on the city’s feedback

— Target Jan. 29, 2024: Permit applications submitted

— Target July 2024: Permits approved

— Target August 2024: Construction begins

— Target September 2025: Construction completes

Also during the Jan. 9 meeting, newly elected Edmonds School Board Director Hawk Cramer took his oath of office, administered by Superintendent Rebecca Miner.

Cramer, who ran unopposed, fills the District 3 position vacated by the retirement of Director Gary Noble.He has served as an elementary school principal in the Edmonds School District and is currently a middle school teacher.

The school board held a single reading and approved a resolution to add the Stanwood-Camano School District to the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center Consortium.

To admit the new district to the consortium, each of the existing districts’ boards must pass a resolution to admit Stanwood-Camano. 

Superintendents of districts who belong to the consortium discussed and recommended that Stanwood-Camano be included.

The consortium is comprised of school districts that include Arlington, Darrington, Edmonds, Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Lakewood, Marysville, Monroe, Skykomish, Snohomish, South Whidbey and Sultan. Edmonds was the last district admitted to the consortium — 17 years ago. 

The board held a second reading and approved revisions to the district policy on student discipline. The term “emergency expulsion” has been changed to “emergency removal.”

The next school board meeting is on Tuesday, Jan. 23. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Educational Services Center, 20420 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood, WA 98036. 

You can watch the meeting online by clicking here.

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

— By Rick Sinnett