Watch us grow! (Construction photos)

Northaven Senior Living broke ground on Monday, October 19, for 82 units of new affordable senior housing in the Northgate community.

The project is a partnership between Northaven Senior Living, which has been providing affordable senior housing in the Northgate area for 50 years, and HumanGood, a senior living provider with communities up and down the West Coast.

District 5 Councilmember, Debora Juarez, sent a congratulatory message in which she said, “When rent almost doubles, it contributes to the affordability crisis of the region. Especially for our seniors living on fixed incomes, this affects their quality of life. Our elders should be enjoying their retirement and spending time with their loved ones, not worried about how they’re going to pay rent. That’s why this investment in affordable housing for seniors is such an incredible success for the District and Northaven.”

The project has been designed by VIA Architecture and will be built by Walsh Construction.

This development in affordable housing is made possible with funding from the City of Seattle, Office of Housing, Enterprise, a national nonprofit that addresses America’s affordable housing crisis, WaFd Bank and HUD. Additional funding from Washington State, through a grant secured by Senator David Frockt, made possible infrastructure updates needed to build this new building.

The project will be completed in 18 months and the new residents will enjoy the programs and services provided to the rest of the Northaven campus.

Workforce housing and day care to come

This is the first of two new buildings. In the next couple of months, Gaard Development will begin construction on a new workforce housing community on land carved out of Northaven properties.

That development, in addition to providing housing for working individuals and families, will also support a day care. It represents a decision by the Northaven Board of Trustees to create an integrated, multi-generational community in which elders, working parents and individuals as well as children can live together and enrich each other’s lives.