The Opportunity Council’s Laurel Forest housing development is set to open this spring, providing 50 new units of housing for low-income seniors in downtown Bellingham.
In total, the building has 56 one-bedroom units; six are set aside as permanent housing for people exiting homelessness through the council’s coordinated entry process. Located at 1000 N. Forest St., the building also will include a child care center.
Nicole Baughn, regional property manager at Opportunity Council, said they’re expecting to receive the certificate of occupancy the first week of April.
Demand for units in the building has been huge, Baughn said. Applications for the building opened on Dec. 1, 2023, and the Opportunity Council closed applications after they received 100 and then went through the list, on a first-come, first-served basis. They’re in the middle of the certification process to ensure applicants’ incomes fall within the range that’s required, Baughn said.
“It’s really, really unfortunate to see that these seniors have such low income with social security,” Baughn said. “There’s people that call us every day knowing, I see that your interest list is closed, is there anything I can do?’”
According to a 2023 City of Bellingham report, 63% of seniors who rent in the city are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income for rent.
Laurel Forest is part of the low-income housing tax credit program, the largest federal funding resource for affordable housing in the country. Through this program, the state sets rental prices based on the area median income (AMI), not individual household income. That can pose challenges for seniors on a fixed income.
Half of the units in Laurel Forest are 30% AMI units, meaning a person’s income must be under 30% of the AMI to be eligible for the unit. The other half are 50% AMI units. The 30% AMI units at Laurel Forest are renting for $540, while the 50% AMI units are renting at $900, based on rates set by the state for Whatcom County.
For one person, 30% AMI would mean a person is making $20,160 a year, while 50% AMI would mean a person is making $33,600 a year.
Baughn said this system allows the building to serve a greater number of seniors as it will provide housing for both extremely low-income and very low-income seniors. She said it has been made clear from “day one” that the rents are decided by the state and seniors should expect to see rental increases.
“Unfortunately … we need to be able to sustain the buildings for the next people that need them,” she said. “Rent increases just kind of come with the territory but we do our best to make sure they are reasonable.”
The building will also host a child care center, also run by the Opportunity Council. It’s separate from the housing facility, but Baughn hopes some seniors in the building will volunteer in the center.
David Webster, the director of Early Learning and Family Services at the Opportunity Council, said the child care space will have three classrooms. He said they’re intending to have one toddler classroom and one preschool classroom, and evaluate the market need to determine what to use the third classroom for. The facility will serve between 55 and 66 students.
Demand for child care is high across the county, Webster said, and the biggest shortages are in toddler care. He said they hope to be able to fill some of that need with this new facility.
Webster said the Opportunity Council is looking for ways to do more intergenerational projects where people of all ages are able to interact.
“Seniors that are going to be sitting out on the patio can see the kids playing out in the playground,” Baughn said. “There’s going to be that sense of a circular community.”
Baughn said the agency’s next project, currently in the works, will be an all-ages building with another child care facility.
A previous version of this story misstated David Webster’s last name on one occasion. The story was updated to reflect this change at 2:11 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Cascadia Daily News regrets this error.
