InterIm Community Development Association Programs
Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Housing Services
Each year we provide housing search and stabilization services like eviction prevention assistance and housing counseling to 1500 unduplicated individuals, including survivors of domestic violence. We specialize in providing culturally and linguistically competent services to diverse low-income people, especially immigrant and refugee groups.
Affordable and Mixed-Use Development Housing Projects
InterIm CDA builds and renovates apartments for low-income individuals and families to help them achieve housing stability as a foundation to improve their lives. Our housing portfolio consists of five properties with 261 apartments that serve about 730 people each year. In 2013, we will begin construction on our sixth property, Hirabayashi Place, which will add another 85 units of low-income housing to serve underserved populations through a mixed-use, transit-oriented development.
Community Building
We work inter-generationally with immigrant and refugee clients and residents to build up individual household resiliency and to promote a sense of community that is culturally responsive to diverse populations. With housing stability as a foundation, we promote leadership development in the communities we work with, and we help advocate for inclusive and equitable neighborhood planning and public policy development.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
InterIm CDA was recently awarded funding commitments from the City of Seattle, King County, and the State Housing Trust Fund to finance the building of our next affordable housing development project, Hirabayashi Place. This project is situated at the corner of S. Main Street and 4th Avenue S. in Seattle’s historic Japantown, and is named after American civil liberties hero Gordon Hirabayashi.
Hirabayashi Place is an example of an urban transit-oriented development targeting a low-income “workforce housing” population, more of which is needed as our region is under pressure for more affordable housing due to a growing and diversifying population. This project is set for ground-breaking in the summer of 2013, with a completion date in the fall of 2014.
One of our organization’s greatest needs is continued support for critical housing counseling and supportive services. InterIm CDA specializes in providing housing case management services to immigrant and refugee groups because there is a significant lack of culturally and linguistically competent housing services in mainstream systems. Our specialty arises from the fact that our housing direct services are delivered in over 10 Asian languages from a staff made up of individuals who are culturally attuned to the challenges facing new arrivals to the United States. This is one of our core strengths as an organization filling a significant void within the affordable housing and community development sector.