Morgen White | FāVS News Reporter
SEATTLE — St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral has received a $150,000 grant from Trinity Church NYC for affordable housing development, part of more than $1 million Trinity has awarded to three Seattle-area churches for similar projects since 2020.
St. Mark’s will use the $150,000 grant to develop and establish an innovative community-based asset model focused on affordable housing. The project’s plans include adding more than 100 affordable housing units at 10th Ave. E. and E. Galer Street.
Affordable housing project at St. Mark’s
In September 2022, a committee was formed to explore the possibility of an affordable housing project, with John Hoerster as chair. Over the years the committee explored the project as a possibility to figure out if it was feasible. The site they plan to use for the project is directly north of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral.
The property has changed hands several times since opening as St. Nicholas School, a girls’ school, in the 1920s. It later served as Lakeside’s middle school campus and then housed Cornish School for the Arts before St. Mark’s purchased it in 2003.
“The vestry concluded a few years ago that affordable housing appeared to be likely the highest and best missional use of the property,” Hoerster said.
Hoerster was the chancellor of St. Mark’s for 20 years and was involved in the property’s purchase. The building’s first use was as a rental. The parish leased the property to different schools. Currently the building is used by the Seattle Amistad School, a bilingual program for ages 1 through 14, Operation Nightwatch; an overnight women’s shelter; and administrative operations for St. Mark’s.
“If we were going to move forward, we wanted to do it with an affordable housing development partner. May of this year, we entered into a memorandum of agreement with Redwood Housing,” Hoerster said.
In the next two years they anticipate having the financing sorted and the transfer of the property to the partnership that is going to be pursuing the project solidified. The partnership will be Redwood Housing and a St. Mark’s affiliated organization. Both the MOA and joint development agreement for the project have a timeline for completion in 2029, with the understanding that unexpected challenges could arise.
The project timeline calls for seeking city permits by year’s end, followed by securing financing in 2025, likely through low-income housing tax credits. St. Mark’s has already selected an architectural firm and general contractor to prepare for construction, Hoerster said.
When it comes to who the community-based organization (CBO) in the partnership will be, Hoerster said it made sense to consider St. Mark’s itself because of its long history working around a variety of housing related issues, but one concern is that the church is made up of a largely white congregation.
The church’s largely white congregation doesn’t reflect the communities most harmed by housing discrimination on Capitol Hill, Hoerster acknowledged. That gap led St. Mark’s to create an affiliate organization that would leverage the church’s housing expertise while better representing those communities. This organization is still in the process of being set up.
“We wanted to figure out a way to move forward that would take the benefit of the work that St. Mark’s has done in the housing area over time, but to also support the development of a program that would be more representative of the communities harmed by housing discrimination,” Hoerster said.
Hoerster noted the hope for the CBO in the long term is that it can be involved broadly in issues of housing justice, beyond this project.
The church envisions the CBO playing multiple roles in housing justice beyond this single project. St. Mark’s has hired consultant Kendall Clawson to help design the organization’s structure and recruit a majority-BIPOC board of directors, Hoerster said.
The grant from Trinity Church NYC will be put toward planning and establishing the CBO. Hoerster said St. Mark’s learned about Trinity Church NYC from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, also in Seattle.
St. Luke’s, which also received Trinity funding for affordable housing pre-development work, has served as a resource for St. Mark’s throughout the planning process. This marks St. Mark’s third grant from Trinity, with the CBO model attracting the funder’s interest as a potentially replicable approach for other churches pursuing affordable housing nationwide, Hoerster said.
Trinity NYC funds affordable housing projects across the country
Beatriz de la Torre is the chief philanthropy officer at Trinity Church NYC. She said St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Ballard, and The Church Council of Greater Seattle in Rainier Valley, have each received grants since 2020 for a similar purpose.
“Awards were given to advance highly missional redevelopment projects that would to increase the supply of affordable housing and access to childcare services for residents in the greater Seattle area; and provide discernment and community organizing training to help faith communities determine the most equitable way to develop their underutilized real estate,” de la Torre said.
With an endowment of $6 billion, Trinity sets aside a portion every year to support philanthropic work along five strategic initiatives: housing and homelessness, racial justice, leadership development and Lower Manhattan. They have quadrupled their philanthropic giving since 2020, providing more than $200 million to almost 500 organizations.
“Churches play a critical role in tending to the spiritual, social and emotional well-being of communities. Trinity Church NYC’s Mission Real Estate Development Initiative (MRED) is a ministry of Trinity Church NYC to support faith-based organizations across the country to reimagine opportunities to utilize their land and buildings in ways that better serve the broader community while creating a sustainable revenue to enhance ministry and church administration,” de la Torre said.
Trinity’s philanthropies team receives an average of 75 grant requests a year, and the application process is competitive.
“We are grateful for the continued support and generosity of Trinity Church NYC to help Saint Mark’s broaden its capacity to address housing disparities in restorative and reparative ways.
Saint Mark’s hope is that the cathedral’s affordable housing development can become a hub of
community, support, resources and stability for more than 100 households, including families
with children,” said the Rev. Steven L. Thomason, dean and rector at St. Mark’s.
“Neighborhoods matter to the fabric and well-being of families, and Saint Mark’s, alongside the CBO, will be focused on creating lasting change in affordable housing access in an area that has experienced the historical legacy of racial discrimination on Capitol Hill.”
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