Kat's Corner - April 2026
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Welcome to Kat's Corner for April 2026. I have a ton of very exciting updates to share with you this month as we move solidly into Spring.
AD WEST
On April 1, 2026 we welcomed Ad West Realty as our new property management company on 24 of our properties. They have done a fabulous job getting offices set up, setting new office hours and working a new staffing plan throughout the portfolio. We are excited to support them and see them successfully operate the portfolio! Stay tuned for lots more exciting updates on Ad West to come.
CONVERSION
On April 6th and April 9th, we hit two major milestones in our new property developments. Madrona and Twin Lakes Landing II converted from construction financing to permanent financing. While this may seem like not that big of a deal, it’s really quite huge! Many developers of affordable housing have struggled to be able to stabilize properties that were in development during and just after COVID. Expenses have sky rocketed in the last several years mainly insurance, repairs and maintenance and salaries and wages. This made it difficult for properties to show that they could maintain the level of permanent debt that we had planned on in the initial underwriting. Many developers of affordable housing in Seattle and King County had funding opportunities that allowed them to seek reductions or complete elimination of permanent debt on these developments (https://housing.seattle.gov/seattle-announces-investment-in-2116-affordable-homes/). We didn’t have this option in Snohomish County so we have worked hard over the past several years to stabilize and convert these properties. This also signals a finality of the development phase of these projects, and they now can operate similarly to the rest of our portfolio with stabilized income and expenses. We are happy to make it to these milestones!
CROSSROADS SALE
On April 16th, Housing Hope sold the Windermere Crossroads property. As many of you may know, this was the very first property that Housing Hope bought in 1988 to start housing homeless families in Snohomish County. It really is the cornerstone of where it all started for Housing Hope. As I reflect on this point in our history, I feel an immense sense of pride of where Housing Hope has come over the last (almost!) 39 years. The crossroads house was struggling in operations as it housed our shelter program and the property was in need of significant deferred maintenance and repairs. We move forward now with a new model of developing and providing affordable housing with 50+ unit properties using the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. We will always remember the grassroots, humble beginnings of Housing Hope but we move forward with great ambition of providing more and more units of housing!
STONE SOUP 2026
I hope you will all join us for our annual Stone Soup gala on Friday, May 16th at Tulalip Casino Resort. We have a fabulous program planned that I guarantee you will not want to miss. We will be featuring our project Scriber Place for all to learn just how special our partnership with the Edmonds School District is and hear real stories of homeless students that we will have the opportunity to serve. It’s not too late to register - get your tickets here:
That’s it for updates in April! Hope to see you all at Stone Soup and stay tuned for Kat’s Corner in May - one year of Kat’s Corner!
