Tacoma church might become shared young adult housing. Neighbors have mixed feelings
A rare glimpse of sunlight streamed through the windows of a historic chapel in Proctor on Thursday afternoon as building owner Julie Cain gave a tour of the building, pointing out areas she hopes to convert into affordable young adult housing in the next few years.
Pending the appropriate permits, the church built in 1908 at 2213 N. Warner St. might get a new life as a shared community housing project. The building was most recently home to the Rock Revival Center and Peace Assembly church. Cain and her husband purchased the building in April 2021 for $1 million, she said.
Citing a lack of affordable housing in Tacoma as well as more young people living with their parents and feeling isolated from the community, Cain paints a vision of communal living where young adults can rent shared or single rooms and enjoy shared bathrooms, a large kitchen, common areas, fitness room and recreation room. The project also would breath new life into a historic building in a walkable neighborhood, she said.
Although it is in its early stages — with a conditional-use permit to be discussed at a public meeting Feb. 22 — some neighbors have pushed back, worrying about the impact of traffic, parking and neighborhood change with up to 50 new tenants down the block.
The target demographic for the Warner House Amici Project is people ages 18-26 who are recent high school or college graduates in the midst of completing education or apprenticeships, Cain said. A resident director would live on site, overseeing and facilitating group activities. Preliminary rents would range from $500-$900 or more a month, she said. The faith-based campus would be dry, with no alcohol or drug use permitted, and prospective tenants would apply, interview and be vetted for 6-12 month leases, Cain said.
Although Cain described the community as based in the Christian faith, she said applicants from all denominations would be welcome.
“We’re going to be bringing a lot of people together from lots of different walks of life, and one way for us to get to know each other is to talk about life,” she said. “We’re going to have weekly small groups, with mentors from the community that do talk about faith.”
Cain said she and her husband work with young adults and have for decades through ministry work. Her husband Andrew has also been a middle school principal at Cedar Heights Middle School in Port Orchard for more than 16 years, and Cain has been a high school, collegiate, middle school and club soccer coach in the state for many years, founding several inner-city soccer programs in Seattle as well.
In the last five years or so, Cain said, they’ve heard more young people lament that they can’t afford to move out on their own and often feel isolated without the social activities and community of high school and college.
“There’s so many young adults that are so skilled, so smart, so qualified and talented, but it just takes time and they need a launching pad,” Cain said. “So I think if we embrace them as a community, we will set them up for a successful career and to be successful neighbors and a great part of our wider community.”
Cain, a small apartment developer based in Port Orchard, said communal housing is a concept that’s been around since ancient times but has lately been gaining popularity. The size and number of bedrooms and shared spaces would be programmed based on interviews with young adults about what they’d like to see, she said.
The Amici House development group’s model has seen success elsewhere, including in an apartment building in Silverdale, Cain said. In Port Orchard, Cain said the group bought an old church to convert into a similar model of young adult housing, which is expected to open in September, Cain said.
The Warner Street Amici House project is within walking distance of the University of Puget Sound and Proctor Commercial District and is also within one block of major transit lines connecting to UPS, University of Washington Tacoma, Evergreen State College, Tacoma Community College, Bates Technical College, all major Tacoma hospitals and many other employers, Cain said.
Cain said the plan is to convert the nearly 10,000-square-foot building into 11 bedrooms, with varying bed sizes in each room. A parking lot next to the church could likely accommodate 14 parking spaces, and Cain said other improvements include on-street angled parking, new sidewalks and two new curb ramps. The building would also be made wheelchair accessible, she said.
“One thing that really attracted us to this church is that it has such a history and such a community, and we would love to see that community conversation, that faith conversation continue,” Cain said. “That’s part of the history, right?”
Project under review by the city
Maria Lee, a spokesperson with the city of Tacoma, said the city would be reviewing the project to see “if and/or how it can be compatible with the neighborhood while still providing the owner with options for reasonable use.”
A decision on permit reviews might be issued in early May, Lee said in an email. Currently the site is zoned as single-family residential with a low scale residential land use as a church building. The new proposed use would allow group housing at this site under the single-family residential zoning for up to 51 people, according to paperwork submitted to the city of Tacoma by Warner Street Amici House LLC.
When reviewing conditional use permits, among the general criteria the city of Tacoma considers is whether there is a demonstrated need for the use in the community at large, whether the use is consistent with the goals and policies of local comprehensive plans and whether the use shall be located, planned and developed in a way that is not a detriment to the health, safety, convenience or general welfare of people working or residing in the community, according to Tacoma municipal code.
A public land-use meeting will take place in City Council chambers on Feb. 22 at 5:30 p.m. with a remote option. Public comments are due March 4, according to the city.
Neighbors have mixed feelings
Whitney Stevens lives across the street from the church and said she attended a “very heated” meeting Wednesday night among neighbors about the project.
Stevens said she’s not opposed to the project, but as a parent to two children ages 3 and 5, she said she had concerns about parking, speeding and increased traffic in the neighborhood. She also expressed worries about public drinking, litter and noise.
“We have probably 12 or more kindergartners in a two-block radius here. There’s a lot of small children in the neighborhood,” Stevens said. “We’ve lived here for almost six years and gone through three congregations across the street, and each one comes with its own set of problems. We’ve dealt with all those problems that I just listed in different forms … it’s just part of living with that building across the street.”
Stevens said she went to UW Tacoma and her husband went to UPS, and they ended up staying in Tacoma to raise their family. At the time, it was a big stretch for his parents to afford to send him to UPS, and since he graduated he’s noticed dorms that have been torn down and not rebuilt, she said.
“We both worked our way through school. We didn’t come from money. And we want that to be possible for our kids as well,” she said. “That really delights me to think that some kids might live across the street, go to school, and then decide to do, like, a year in AmeriCorp and build a life here. And if they have some place affordable to live, that makes that possible.”
Stevens said more housing and housing density are good, and that this is a great location for a housing project like this. Based on a five-minute conversation she had with Cain, Stevens said Cain seemed receptive and excited to talk about problems and solutions.
Other neighbors and attendees at Wednesday’s meeting don’t share her views and worry about problems that might go unaddressed, Stevens said.
“From talking to my peers in the neighborhood … the feeling is, would this be the project we picked? Maybe not. But we have the opportunity to shape this. And let’s do that,” Stevens said. “And if this doesn’t go through, what is going to come along next year? Because it’s going to get reused somehow, and they could tear it down and put a whole building up. Who knows?”
Neighbor Derek Woodworth told the News Tribune on Monday he is concerned about the impact of 50 more people in the neighborhood and questioned whether the development would be truly affordable, especially if run by a for-profit entity.
Not knowing the answers to questions like the cost of renovations, floor plans and demographic of the people who could live there also make him apprehensive, he said. Another main concern is the precedent that could be set if the city did approve re-zoning for group housing here, Woodworth said.
“You have a lot of caring people in this neighborhood and in super close proximity to the church, and we really are passionate about affordable housing, we just do not think this is the answer,” he said. “In my mind it’s not just a little church project anymore ... it’s caught a lot of people’s attention and it could be a really big decision. It’s not just going to impact 24th and Warner.”
Cain said some of the main concerns she’s heard from neighbors have been related to parking and traffic. Others have had the misconception that the project would house people or youth experiencing homelessness or in rehabilitation programs, she said.
Cain said future tenants would be required to abide by community rules, including noise ordinances and the fact that it would be a dry campus. Residents would also have access to mentorship and neighborhood service opportunities to ensure a positive impact on the community, she said.
“We’re doing studies and figuring that out. I would want people to know that we want to be a good neighbor,” Cain said. “We want the culture of the house to be to love the neighborhood and to serve well and to be a part, to engage, so that when they’re out on their own they know how to build your community and be a part of a community.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2024 at 1:55 PM.
