King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci on Tuesday secured $900,000 in the County mid-biennial budget for a new endeavor by Together Center to redevelop its downtown Redmond campus to expand wraparound human services and add 280 affordable housing units, all in one transit-oriented location.
Together Center claims to be a first-in-the-nation facility that brings together over 20 diverse human services providers all under one roof. This unique model gives those providers the opportunity to more efficiently and effectively collaborate and aims to significantly lower the barriers to accessing essential services.
“This project brings together so many critical needs in one place — housing, services, and community space, all within walking distance of high-capacity transit,” Balducci said. “We are fortunate that the Together Center created its original trailblazing model for co-locating nonprofits on one campus and that it continues to grow and evolve to meet the needs of our diverse community.”
The transformed campus will include an expanded Together Center human services hub on the ground floor and the additional 280 units of affordable housing on the upper levels of the new development. The human services hub will bring together a full suite of vital services, including: a community healthcare and dental care clinic; mental health, behavioral and substance abuse support; therapies for children and families of diverse abilities; job training; cultural resources; and many others.
Together Center currently serves over 30,000 East King County residents annually. This number is expected to increase significantly in the new campus, which will feature 25% more space for human services providers.
“An individual’s needs are unique, interdependent, and intricately connected, and the network to truly and fully meet those needs must similarly be unique, interdependent, and intricately connected to achieve whole-person health and economic self-sufficiency,” said Karin Duval, Together Center Board Member and Capital Campaign Chair. “Our community needs this solution now more than ever.”
Duval said the new infrastructure that Together Center is building will deliver “synergistic, thoughtful solutions to address systemic causes of inequity in our region.”
Two hundred of the new units of workforce housing will be for households earning 50-60% of Area Median Income and 80 units will be for those earning 30-50% of Area Median Income, along with onsite, culturally competent case management for residents. Roughly 62% of the units will feature two and three bedrooms to effectively serve families and multi-generational households.
The campus will also feature community spaces for all nonprofits in the region, including a teaching kitchen, a conference and event center, a coworking space and a community art gallery.
