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.
Yet, by the 1990s, Salishan was worn out. The dwelling units, hastily built to address a wartime emergency, had outlived the useful lifespan their builders would have expected, while federal housing programs had never provided enough money for adequate maintenance during the intervening years. Salishan’s sewer system, electrical distribution system, and water delivery systems were also failing.
In response, THA sought and received a $35 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the demolition and rebuilding of the entire Salishan community. THA broke ground on this effort in 2003. It will finish in stages, with completion to occur sometime in 2011 or so, depending on how long it takes to assemble the financing. The first families began returning in late 2004.
When completed, new Salishan will have about 1,270 to 1,300 dwelling units, including about 350 single-family homes for sale. It will also have new infrastructure, including an innovative system of bioinfiltration swales, a new medical-dental clinic and a new education, training and retail center. The entire effort will cost about $ 225 million. It will be the largest residential development in the history of the City, except perhaps for Salishan’s initial construction.
Until the mid-1960s, Salishan comprised the only dwelling units in THA’s portfolio. THA has grown since then. Today, it owns approximately 800 other units throughout the City. These include seven high-rise apartment buildings for seniors and disabled persons, and five family communities. THA continues its efforts to increase and diversify its portfolio of properties.
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.
HUD began phasing out Section 23 in the mid 1970’s and converted it to a program that is today called the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8). This program pays a portion of the rent directly to landlords on behalf of participating households. Today, the Housing Choice Voucher Program is the national government’s primary housing assistance program for very low-income families. In Tacoma, it serves over 3,500 households by helping them afford their rent in the private rental market and brings about $25 million per year into the City in the form of rent payments to private landlords.
THA also has programs that help people purchase their first home.
Altogether, THA provides housing or housing assistance to over 12,000 individuals, which represents 6 percent of the population of the City of Tacoma. The great majority of these persons are minor children, seniors or persons with disabilities.
THA also provides or arranges for supportive services to households participating in its housing programs. These services help seniors, disabled persons and others succeed as tenants who live independently. They 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.
Salishan is an example. Of its $225 million cost, private sources will provide most of it. THA is also seeking 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.
THA’s challenge is to find ways amid these changes to remain focused on our mission of serving our communities’ neediest persons and families, and to do so in ways that make those communities, in the words of one of THA’s strategic objectives safe, vibrant, prosperous, attractive and just.