Housing Options is the fourth not-for-profit tenant at the Civic Center. Latino Resources, the Northwest Center Against Sexual Assault and North Shore Senior Center all rent space on the lower level of the building at 2100 Ridge Ave.
The rent, available only on that level and for not-for-profits, is $1/square foot per month.
Other than being a not-for-profit entity, the City has no set qualifications for prospective tenants, said Deputy City Manager Erika Storlie. Nor does the City advertise. “People just hear about it,” Ms. Storlie said.
For Jay Terry, interim executive director of Housing Options, and Mary Ellen Poole, chief executive officer, the move may seem a bit like going home.
Mr. Terry worked for the City for nearly 20 years and retired as the City’s director of Health and Human Services. Ms. Poole served a housing planner for the City.
“It’s been interesting walking in to a building I haven’t been in for seven years,” Mr. Terry told the RoundTable. He said he noticed several improvements to the Civic Center, particularly the new employee break-room on the lower level.
The lower level was largely vacant since the City closed the clinical part of its health department several years ago, but is now fully rented, Ms. Storlie said.