Saint Margaret's Place

St. Margaret’s Place opened for tenants in November 2023. The program features 100 residential units, space for resident services and onsite staff, and substantial community space for residents. An additional 5,500 square feet on the ground floor will be commercial leased space.

The project provides housing for single adults who are exiting homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless. Half of the residents living at the building are at or below 30% Area Median Income and half of the residents are at or below 50% Area Median Income.

Interested in Living at Saint Margaret’s Place?

Access to the program is only through Coordinated Entry for All (CEA), which is a King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) program that helps people experiencing homelessness find stable housing by identifying, assessing, and connecting them to housing support services and housing resources. CEA uses a standardized Housing Triage Tool that matches services and available housing resources to people experiencing homelessness.

The best way to get to get connected to CEA is to contact one of the Regional Access Points. The closest access point to Shoreline is:

Solid Ground – North Seattle
1501 N 45th Street, Seattle, WA 98103
206-694-6833
Hours of operation: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

Background

The City of Shoreline, in partnership with King County and Catholic Housing Services, announced plans in 2018 to develop permanent supportive housing for people that were homeless or experiencing housing instability. This includes individuals dealing with chronic mental illness. Due to a confluence of factors, including pandemic related complications, the project experienced significant delay. However, the partners worked to keep the project viable, with Catholic Housing Services (CHS) in the lead and opened for tenants in November of 2023.

Shoreline contributed the property for the project, located at the intersection of N 198th Street and Aurora Avenue. King County is provided funding support from the voter-approved Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy and other County funding sources.

The City Council’s decision to collaborate with King County was driven, in part, by the increasing cost of housing, which is contributing to the rising number of people experiencing homelessness. There is a demonstrated need for more affordable housing, both locally and regionally. The 2020 annual “Point-In-Time” count identified 11,751 people experiencing homelessness in King County, with 260 in North King County. Of the 260, 204 were sheltered and 56 were unsheltered. CHS is developing and will manage the property, as well as coordinate the wraparound support services for residents. CHS has a proven track record of owning and operating supportive housing programs, such as the one proposed for this location. Supportive housing provides not only housing, but also connects individuals receiving housing to support services to improve long-term success in moving out of homelessness. CHS has deep experience in affordable housing and supportive housing development in King County and across Washington. CHS has staff onsite 24 hours a day 7 days a week to quickly respond to residents’ needs.

One additional feature of this project is the use of modular housing construction methods. King County is interested in seeing if this approach might bring affordable housing online more quickly and save money. “Modular construction” refers to the way a contractor builds a building. The contractor built portions of the building off-site and then assembled it on-site. The result looks like any other multi-family residential building.