On March 6, the Auburn City Council authorized allocation of $293,789.54 from the city’s contribution to the South King Housing and Homelessness Partners capital fund to finance affordable housing projects in South King County communities.

According to the city, Monday’s action will now become a yearly thing with SKHHP and participating member jurisdictions.

King County and 11 city governments including Auburn entered into an interlocal agreement in 2019, creating SKHHP to address housing needs in South King County.

In 2019, a state law allowed jurisdictions to capture a portion of existing sales tax for the purpose of affordable housing. The funds are a recapture of a portion of taxes collected, so this action does not raise the sales tax.

That same year, the Auburn City Council approved a resolution and ordinance to capture this sales tax. And in 2020, the Auburn City Council enacted a resolution to pool this money and transfer it to SKHHP to support its capital housing capital fund.

The Advisory Board later recommended funding $1,393,308 for two projects. One project is $63,257.27 for 20 units of Habitat for Humanity of Seattle-King and Kittitas Counties in Burien. City of Auburn funds represent 21% of SKHHP funds proposed for this project. City of Auburn funds represent 0.7% of the total development costs.

The second project is $230,532.27 for 89 units of Mercy Housing Northwest – Burien Family Housing. City of Auburn funds represent 21% of SKHHP funds proposed for this project. City of Auburn funds represent 0.5% of the total development costs.