City of Bellingham: First Steps to Develop Affordable Housing or Shelter Grant

The City of Bellingham invites organizations to apply for the First Steps to Develop Affordable Housing or Shelter Grant, aimed at enhancing housing options for low-income residents. Interested parties should submit an Expression of Interest Form, followed by a Statement of Intent to ensure proper coordination with funding opportunities. Predevelopment funding up to $60,000 is available for projects with a known site, supporting sustainable development efforts in the community.

The City of Bellingham welcomes all groups or agencies considering preserving or adding to the inventory of housing or shelter available to low-income residents. We welcome all inquiries, and our goal is to help project proponents connect to partners and leverage funding to move forward in as coordinated a fashion as possible. Most project proponents have been talking about and working toward a project concept for well over a year before they are ready to respond to one of the applications for funding (NOFA) for Housing Production or Preservation. In order to help us understand your concept and connect you to funding and partners, we ask that you start by reviewing the following.
Predevelopment Application –Limited funding (up to $60,000) may be available once a project has a known site. Please review and submit this application to the City if interested. Note that if a project successfully moves forward, this predevelopment funding will be rolled into permanent project financing.Countywide Funding Coordination – The City of Bellingham works closely with Whatcom County on coordinating a pipeline of affordable housing projects throughout our region that anticipate utilizing public funding. Project proponents moving forward within the Bellingham city limits are asked to submit forms directly to the City at cd@cob.org. We encourage starting this process about 2 years prior to actual project development and to review the graphic of the full countywide coordination and prioritization process. Following are links to the forms required in the first steps of the process.Expression of Interest – this form notifies us of the interest in developing and ensures coordination about funding opportunities.Statement of Intent – this form is the next step, with more detailed information about the project, and attachments required, including the Attachment A (Excel Spreadsheet).

Eligibility

Expression of Interest Form should be submitted first.