After losing her job during the pandemic and living on the streets, Ruviselia Martinez and her family were among the first residents to move into the new Millworks affordable-housing complex along the Bellingham waterfront.
“When we moved in it felt like home right away,” said Martinez, who grew up with her immigrant parents in affordable housing provided by the nonprofit Mercy Housing Northwest.
Martinez, a mother of two, lost her job after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then, the bills started piling up for her and her husband. They couldn’t pay rent.
“It was too much to catch up,” Martinez said. “It was a lot of money that was behind.”
When Gov. Jay Inslee visited the four-story development on the former Georgia-Pacific site on May 14, Martinez told him that she was shocked to find herself back in Mercy Housing, but grateful for the opportunity.
Whatcom Community Foundation spearheaded the project on some of the most prime real estate in the city in partnership with the Port of Bellingham and Mercy Housing Northwest, which manages more than 550 affordable units throughout the county.
Phase one of the Millworks project, which broke ground in late 2022 and completed in March, provides 83 units of affordable housing, a child care center and various services to enrich residents’ lives. All units are pre-leased with 36 families having settled into their new homes by mid-May.
Because of an “explosion” in the number of families who are homeless in Whatcom County, Mercy Housing voluntarily set aside preference for 20% of the units to go to families coming out of unhoused situations, explained Joe Thompson, the president of Mercy Housing Northwest.
“We also prioritize them in the lease up process,” he said.
One of the most difficult parts of the process is the intensive paperwork required to determine household income eligibility and asset eligibility. Millworks offers units to households at 30%, 50% and 60% of area median income — about $92,000.
“I wish it was a quicker process,” Thompson said. “It literally involves inches of paperwork.”
Millworks, more than housing
In addition to providing housing, the $37 million project was designed to foster community and provide resources to residents. Fundamental to the design was the inclusion of a six-classroom early childhood education center operated by Whatcom Family YMCA.
Whatcom County is considered a child care and early learning desert, with childcare costs among the highest in the state, according to Mercy Housing Northwest. The childhood education center seeks to be part of a solution with a capacity for about 100 kids.
“In addition to the affordability and the stability that that provides families, we have really comprehensive resident services,” Thompson said.
These services help residents with financial stability, health and wellness and community building.
Martinez said she was excited about taking a class about finances, as well as learning how to build credit.
“I don’t know how to do that kind of stuff, I never learned,” Martinez said, noting that her Mexican parents don’t know how credit scores work and it wasn’t something she learned in high school.
There is also an intensive academic success program, known as Mercy Scholars, available to youth, said Thompson. The program is set up at eight of Mercy Housing’s properties with dedicated staff who work with the kids to help them achieve academic success.
Staff also work with caregivers to help them be effective advocates within the education system, Thompson said.
The people from staff to residents also are expected to be key to the Millworks experience.
Martinez said she was grateful to see how multicultural the community was, it’s the type of environment she wants her daughter to grow up in.
“I want her to learn different cultures,” Martinez said. “I want her to know that there’s more than you know, eating enchiladas every night.”
Vision for Bellingham’s Waterfront
The Whatcom Community Foundation originally approached the Port of Bellingham with the idea of a local food campus for the Millworks parcel, but were asked to think bigger.
“We know that waterfront redevelopment is truly a once in a multiple-lifetimes opportunity,” said Mauri Ingram, the president and CEO of the Whatcom Community Foundation. “So, we really looked at expanding.”
The goal was to create a project that generated maximum economic and community development benefits for residents in alignment with tackling some of the biggest challenges facing Whatcom County: housing, childcare, economic prosperity and development, equity, community health and regional resilience.
The Community Foundation led the fundraising efforts for the initial $2.5 million needed for the project, even providing a $1 million grant.
The addition of affordable housing helped unlock state funds.
“The state ended up putting about 25% of the project cost in, counting the cleanup money,” Ingram said.
In 2019, the Port secured a $200,000 “Healthy Housing” Grant from the Department of Ecology and Department of Commerce to evaluate the potential for an affordable housing project on the parcel, explained Mike Hogan, the port’s public affairs administrator.
Based on that work, it secured a $2.9 million grant from the Department of Ecology and completed the environmental cleanup, removing contaminated soil.
“Affordable housing is an important part of the community’s vision for the downtown waterfront and a priority for the Port of Bellingham,” Hogan said.
Thompson pointed out that as the area is redeveloped it will become increasingly difficult to make affordable housing financially viable, making it all the more important to do it now.
Phase two of Millworks development
Across the parking lot from the Millworks affordable housing is an empty gravel lot slated for phase two of the project. This next development, which is still in the design phase, will be a seven-story building with a food campus on the ground floor, a nonprofit hub on the second floor and housing above that. Plans also call for an event space and rooftop deck.
Construction is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2025 for the estimated $100-million project and be completed about two years later.
While not everyone who lives in the buildings will be working in the vicinity, Ingram said the job opportunities created can reduce transportation pressures.
“It’s just one win after another once we get this thing all done,” Ingram said.
The project will demonstrate what is possible when it comes to the integration of community and economic development for long-lasting impact, she said. The hope is that similar projects that take a holistic approach to meeting community goals are on the horizon.
While Marinez was visibly excited about the plans and opportunities for Millworks, she also has her own plans for the future.
She said she wants to prepare her children so they don’t have to face the same hardships she has.
“I love this place, but I don’t want to be here all the time. I want to have my own home,” Martinez said. “I want the cycle to break.”
Online correction: A previous version of this story described the size of the phase two project. It also misstated the percent of the overall project paid for by the state. The story was updated to reflect this change on Tuesday, June 4, at 4:46 p.m. Cascadia Daily News regrets this error.
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
