Vancouver, Washington is looking for a private or nonprofit developer to build affordable rental housing alongside a social services facility, a partnership model the city is using to tackle a homelessness crisis that has roughly doubled in Clark County since 2017.
The project reflects a decade of compounding pressure. As tech-driven housing costs in Portland pushed residents across the Columbia River, Vancouver's median home price climbed from around $230,000 in 2015 to more than $500,000 by 2022. Rents followed, and the city's homeless population grew with them. Vancouver, with about 200,000 residents, sits in an unusual squeeze: Portland-level housing costs without Portland's more established affordable housing infrastructure.
The city's approach centers on the housing-first model, backed by federal research showing that stable housing is a prerequisite for treatment success. By co-locating mental health care, substance use treatment and case management in the same building as apartments, the goal is to remove the gaps that let people cycle back into homelessness.
To make that kind of project financially viable, Vancouver is bringing public resources to the table, whether land, funding or support navigating city approvals, in exchange for a developer who will build deeply affordable units. Vancouver voters renewed and expanded the city's Affordable Housing Fund in 2023, approving roughly $10 million annually specifically designed to leverage this type of partnership. Washington state has also made housing investment a priority: Gov. Inslee's 2023-25 budget included $519 million for affordable housing through the state's Housing Trust Fund.
The RFP model Vancouver is using has become the standard vehicle for delivering supportive housing across Washington, with similar projects recently completed or underway in Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane.
The city has posted the full solicitation, which includes the specific site, unit count and partnership terms. The city has not publicly disclosed those details in its initial announcement. Once a development partner is selected, the project will move into design and permitting, with construction timelines to follow.
