The Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) got its start in the summer of 1940, thanks to a state law that allows cities and counties to form a public housing authority. The Tacoma City Council, responding to new federal initiatives and looking for solutions to a shortage of safe, sanitary, and affordable homes in the city, passed a resolution creating THA on August 16.
Less than two years later, the new agency’s mission changed dramatically, as global events brought the city’s housing needs into even sharper relief. World War II brought in a rush of new families to serve in military bases or work in factories and shipyards across the Puget Sound, and created an overwhelming demand for rental housing in the Northwest.
In response, the federal government commissioned the design and speedy construction of large-scale housing developments throughout the region. THA would host one of the largest, with 2,000 units at Salishan.
The history of THA, from its beginning to the present, is very much the history of Salishan.
By the war’s end, THA had provided 3,723 dwelling units in coordinated efforts with the City of Tacoma and the military, managing Salishan and other developments in Tacoma.
In the years following, the federal government transferred much of this housing to private interests or other agencies. While about 50 acres of Salishan went to the Metropolitan Parks District, THA received the balance of the original Salishan community, with nearly 900 units on 188 acres, for use as public housing to fulfill THA’s original mission of serving the needs of low-income households in Tacoma.
Over the years, Salishan become a vital piece of Tacoma’s housing landscape. From its opening, it was one of the city’s first racially integrated neighborhoods, and since the Vietnam War, it has been an important gateway community, the first American home for generations of new Americans arriving from overseas. Salishan has long been distinguished by a resident population that is wonderfully diverse by race, ethnicity, language, national origin, age and abilities.
In rebuilding Salishan, THA renewed its mission.
Over the years, THA acquired a few other properties in the city, such as Hillside Terrace on Tacoma’s Hilltop, but most of its effort went to managing the increasingly worn-out buildings at Salishan. Hastily built during a wartime emergency, the dwellings had outlived their intended useful lifespan while federal did not keep up with their growing maintenance needs.
By the 1990s, Salishan’s sewer system, electrical distribution system, and water delivery systems were all failing, and the whole neighborhood was in need of renewal. In response, THA entered into a new phase, seeking out a $35 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to demolish and rebuild Salishan starting in 2003.
The decade-long, $225 million represented the largest development in Tacoma’s history, except for Salishan’s original construction. New Salishan emerged as a mixed-income community with 1,000 low-income households, an elementary and middle school, a health clinic, a 370-acre public park, and about 350 single-family homes for sale. THA then turned to its other properties, redeveloping all of Hillside Terrace and embarking on a period of acquisitions and new construction that continues to this day.
THA has expanded its portfolio to serve all of Tacoma.
Salishan comprised the only dwelling units in THA’s portfolio until the 1960s, and still accounted for all but a few dozen units in the early 2000s. THA has grown since then. But THA has been growing steadily in the last few decades, expanding to own more than 2,000 units throughout the city, including townhomes and high-rise apartment buildings for families, seniors, and people with disabilities. We operate properties on the Hilltop, North, and South Tacoma, and we are continuing our efforts to increase and diversify our portfolio.
In addition to providing its own housing for rent, THA has managed programs that help families rent housing on the private rental market. It has done this in partnership with thousands of private landlords. The HUD Section 23 Leased Housing Program was the first of these programs. This program authorized THA to lease houses and apartments in Tacoma from private owners. THA then sub-leased those dwelling units to eligible applicants.
And while THA began as a manager of public housing developments, the majority of our clients today receive subsidies to rent housing on the private market. It has done this in partnership with thousands of private landlords.
THA also has programs that help people purchase their first home.
Our mission is not only to develop and manage property, but to build and strengthen communities. To that end, THA also provides supportive services to help our households succeed.
Altogether, THA provides housing or housing assistance to over 12,000 individuals, or about 6 percent of the population of the City of Tacoma. The great majority of these persons are minor children, seniors, or people with disabilities.
THA also provides or arranges for supportive services to households participating in its housing programs, helping them succeed as tenants who live independently. These programs also help families succeed as parents, students and wage earners in the hope, and expectation, that they will become less dependent on subsidized housing.
THA is also changing.
THA has no taxing authority. It is not part of the city or state government and receives no regular budgetary allocation from them. It has relied traditionally on program income, mostly from the federal government. This money, however, has been diminishing. THA now uses an array of funding sources, public and private.
New Salishan is an example. Most of its $225 million cost came through partnerships and support from private sources. THA has also sought to diversify the type of property it builds and manages to include more mixed-income and mixed-use developments. It also understands its mission is not only to develop and manage property but also to build and strengthen communities. To further these efforts, the City of Tacoma in 2008 designated THA as a public development authority.
Our challenge today is to navigate these changes while remaining focused on serving our communities’ neediest persons and families, and to do so while advancing our mission to help those communities become safe, vibrant, prosperous, attractive and just.