Construction on a $22.7 million affordable housing complex with an unusual name begins later this year in east Kennewick now that a complicated combination of funding sources has been secured.

The “Bubble on Gum – Home Sweet Home” development is planned at the corner of Gum Street and 13th Avenue.

The Kennewick Housing Authority will break ground on the 3.7-acre city-owned property in the fall.

The 58-unit affordable multifamily project will offer mostly one- and two-bedrooms, with some three-bedroom units. They will house very low to extremely low-income individuals and families who are at 50% of area median income or below, said Lona Hammer, executive director of the housing authority.

A handful of units will be set aside for veterans and those with disabilities.

Rising rents continue to make finding affordable homes difficult for families living on a thin margin, Hammer said.

The units will be “home sweet home” to “folks working at Walmart, who are working in the service industry, or who are cooks, or working in retail, and just can’t quite pay for all those high rents that we have,” she said.

Kennewick rents average more than $1,200 a month, a 1.7% increase over the previous year, according to the most recent data from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington.

“We’ve seen rents go up $500 a month for a lot of folks, which puts a lot of folks kind of at risk of homelessness that are just work-hard, minimum-wage folks,” Hammer said.

Initially the Kennewick Housing Authority planned a modern, more industrial looking development, but those who lived nearby wanted something different — they wanted it to fit into their neighborhood.

| Courtesy Kennewick Housing Authority

The region had few affordable housing options available when the city of Kennewick conducted a market study in 2022 to determine vacancy and rental rates. The study also noted rent increases were outpacing income. The city council gave a green light for the affordable housing project after commissioning the study.

The Bubble on Gum project’s scope has changed since then.

Initially the housing authority planned a modern, more industrial looking development, but those who lived nearby wanted something different — they wanted it to fit into their neighborhood. 

The housing authority went back to the drawing board for more traditional looking homes with modest yards and trees.

“I think that was a good suggestion. I always think that getting input from those around who might potentially be impacted is really good,” Hammer said.

Initially the housing authority hoped to develop 10 acres to accommodate 110 units but scaled it back given the complexities and costs of moving city services, Hammer said. The city’s 10th Avenue shops and laydown yard, an outside storage area for equipment and materials, are located on the property.

“It’s pretty exciting to see that this actually could work, that you can look at old sites that cities have that potentially would make sites for housing and really explore how that’s done and see what you need to do to get environmental clearance and see what you need to do to facilitate cities and housing authorities to work together on a kind of shared model for affordable housing. And in this case, I think it’s been really a great process. The city has been so darn good to work with,” she said.

Bubble on Gum's unique name

Hammer said the project got its unusual “Bubble on Gum – Home Sweet Home” name after talking with officials from Sen. Patty Murray’s office. They advised the housing authority to “pick a project name that’s catchy so it catches the senators’ ears” and stands out among others being considered. 

“It did kind of ring,” she said.

Money for the development is coming from a variety of sources: $5 million from the state Department of Commerce’s Housing Trust Fund and $1.4 million from its Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program; $3 million from the federal Community Projects Fund; $400,000 from Benton County; and $382,000 from a Community Development Block Grant. 

The housing authority is investing $13 million in bond capital, which comes with tax credits.

Meeting affordable housing needs

“I always look at these as a complicated three-dimensional puzzle to put together. You have to get one piece, and then another piece, and another piece, another piece, and it’s amazing if it all falls together,” she said. “But we’ve been really lucky thus far.”

Hammer said her agency, created in 1946, has been able to launch three housing projects offering 76 units of affordable housing in less than 10 years.

The 32-unit Nueva Vista opened in 2016, and the 28-unit Nueva Vista II opened in 2019. The apartments are at 386 and 334 N. Union St.

Lilac Homes, completed in 2021, is a 16-unit tiny house development at 128 E. 13th Ave. for the homeless population.

“Since Lilac Homes is as the crow flies about three blocks from (Bubble on Gum), we didn’t think that we needed to have more units for the homeless since we have a 100% homeless housing project right around the corner,” Hammer said.

The housing authority manages 274 units of authority-owned or -managed properties, and it also administers Section 8 vouchers across both counties. The federal government program assists low-income families, the disabled, and the elderly with housing.

“We put out over $600,000 a month in rental assistance out to private landlords. So that really provides assistance. And of course, that doesn’t include Pasco, which also has vouchers that they put in the community, but I think that speaks a lot to the economic engine that the housing authority provides in terms of income within this community,” Hammer said.

Hammer said this all translates into housing many people in the community in need of a home.

“There’s a lot of families and typically you have families with multiple children. One of our buildings is a senior disabled building for 66 units of housing, but our family units we probably have, oh, gosh, the last time I looked we had 194 kids in 124 units,” she said.

'The impact is huge'

Hammer retires at the end of February and she’s excited to watch the pieces to the Bubble on Gum project fall into place — she knows it’s important work.

“I think housing authorities nationwide provide a vital link to folks not being homeless. I wish we could build more affordable housing. The development we do is just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed. I don’t know how many units are needed here in the community. I’m thinking that it’s well over 1,000,” she said.

She also knows the new homes will serve the community for decades to come. She pointed to the authority's Sunnyslope Homes, a collection of duplexes off West Fourth Place. “It’s provided housing for 70 years for 124 families. I mean, the impact is huge,” she said.