Olympia City Council to award $2.5M sub-grant to Family Support Center

The Olympia City Council is slated to pass a resolution approving an award of a $2.5 million sub-grant for the Family Support Center’s affordable housing project.

The project will create 62 new homes for extremely low-income families in Olympia, the city council stated, with the grant paying for costs associated with the extension of new drinking water, wastewater or stormwater connections for the affordable housing units.

 The city is the recipient of the Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program (CHIP) grant through the Washington State Department of Commerce which it received Feb. 23, 2022.

The Legislature created the grant program to facilitate the development of affordable housing construction.

To receive the CHIP grant funds, the city must execute a grant agreement with the Department of Commerce,.In addition, the city must execute a sub-grant agreement with the Family Support Center to disburse the funds to the center.

According to the Department of Commerce the funding for this program is provided from two accounts:

• For waived system-development charges, funds are from the State Building Construction Account. The grants will be governed by state building construction account rules. Projects under this fund may only be used to cover eligible costs incurred from May 18, 2021, thru June 20, 2023;
• For infrastructure improvements, funds may only be used to cover eligible costs incurred from March 3, 2021 thru Dec. 31, 2026. The funds are from the state’s allocation of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) from the federal American Rescue Plant Act (ARPA) stimulus funding provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The approval of a resolution ratifying the application and accepting the CHIP grant for the Family Support Center Project is included in the city council meeting agenda on April 19.