New Tri-Cities housing partnership to help homeless, seniors, veterans and families
For years the Kennewick and Pasco housing authorities in the Tri-Cities have worked together on individual cases, but now they’re entering a partnership that will allow much better coordination.
It also means they will be able to apply for grant funding that will consider the entire Tri-Cities area rather than city by city.
On Tuesday, the two housing authorities finalized an agreement to form the Benton Franklin Housing Consortium, which will serve residents of both counties.
Matt Truman, the executive director of the Housing Authority of the city of Pasco and Franklin County, said this agreement will allow them to capitalize on inter-agency cooperation.
“It’s really a partnership between both of our organizations, it’s not a merger,” Truman told the Herald. “We’re partnering in a way that allows us to share a few resources, share knowledge, and be able to apply for certain grants because then we’d be looked at as a bigger agency as the entire Tri-Cities.”
Truman said it will also help coordinate across the river. In the past they’ve worked together on a case-by-case basis, but the consortium will allow them to work together without having to reach out, as they’ll be sharing information and resources from the onset.
The housing authorities currently operate a variety of programs aimed at helping people who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of losing their place to live.
They have different programs tailored to fit the needs of seniors, veterans, families and individuals.
Truman said their first priority will be to look at best practices at each organization and optimize the new consortium with what is working well for each.
“I think really our first goal is to get the agency to share best practices, to find the best practices from both agencies and bring those together,” he said. “And second, to provide a better, more seamless experience for people who are in need and are looking for affordable places to live, so we can do that in a faster and better way.”
On a practical level this agreement could help in instances where the Kennewick has funding to get someone into housing, but can’t find a landlord with an open unit, but Pasco has one.
On a larger level, it means the consortium can apply for grants as a 300,000-plus population metro area, rather than individual cities with populations shy of 100,000.
Many other larger Washington cities already do this. For example Spokane’s city population of 230,000 gets boosted to more than 600,000 for the purposes of their multi-county housing authority.
That could be a significant consideration when it comes to federal funding, as it would bump the Tri-Cities into the appropriate bracket for funding based on community size.
“We will still be separate agencies, but we’ll be looking for ways that we can apply for grants that will benefit both of our strategic plans,” Truman said. “We’re both committed to the same mission to increase the affordable housing stock in our community.”
The Housing Authority of Pasco and Franklin County will take the lead in administration for the consortium. The initial agreement is for five years, but they hope it will be a long lasting partnership.
“Our goal with this partnership is to make lives better, increase the quality of our services and get people housed in a faster way,” Truman said.
Some projects the housing authorities operate include a tiny home village in Kennewick, a planned apartment complex at the corner of 10th Avenue and Gum Street and an apartment complex in Pasco.
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
