Grantee Spotlight: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is a cornerstone of the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. For over 130 years the church has worshiped in and served the community. St. Luke’s is known for a deep commitment to its vision: “to form Beloved Community, which is welcoming and diverse, with Christian worship and service at the heart.”
St. Luke’s is a gathering place and sanctuary for all members of the Ballard community: rich and poor, housed and unhoused, young and old, those familiar with Episcopal tradition, and those with no church background at all.
Over the last few decades, St. Luke’s watched Seattle grow into a major tech hub with the development of high-cost and luxury housing at the expense of affordable homes and apartments. Rent and housing prices rose dramatically. The increased cost of living and shortage of affordable housing displaced many long-term residents and working families in neighborhoods like Ballard, leading to a devastating increase in Seattle’s unhoused population.
Responding to their rapidly changing neighborhood and realizing the existing buildings on their property were in need of costly repairs, St. Luke’s began considering how they could use their 55,000 square feet of land to better support their community and sustain St. Luke’s for the long term. The St. Luke’s congregation, neighbors, partners, and diocese came together to engage in a visioning process to identify core values, vision, and mission. This led to a redevelopment of their property in order to build much-needed affordable housing and a new St. Luke’s that would be financially sustainable for the future.
St. Luke’s partnered with private developers to build a two-phase housing project with integrated but separate buildings. The first 100% affordable building prioritizes 2- and 3-bedroom rental apartments focused on housing very low-income families. The other includes mixed-income apartments in addition to a new space for St. Luke’s, where Sunday worship and gathering space can be used for affordable childcare, community dinners, and concerts during the rest of the week. Overall, the development will provide 120+ affordable units for tenants earning between 30 - 80% of the area’s median income.
This ambitious plan became a reality for St. Luke’s with the support of two pre-development grants from Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies totaling $300,000 — allowing St. Luke’s to retain an owner’s representative, along with covering real estate advisory, legal, and architectural fees necessary to bring their vision to reality. Additionally, the expertise and advice provided by Trinity’s Mission Real Estate Development team helped St. Luke’s overcome several obstacles.
Following Trinity’s initial support in December 2021, St. Luke’s was awarded $9.7 million from the Seattle Office of Housing for the project. In January 2022, St. Luke’s development partners completed the required Early Design Guidance meeting with the city and received positive feedback from community members, resulting in approval for additional density for the project.
St. Luke’s ability to bring together its congregation, local residents, real estate partners, and city officials to build Ballard’s first affordable family housing in over 20 years is an incredible testament to its deep ties to and long history of service in Ballard. The project reflects the core values of St. Luke’s: Beloved Community, Loving Service, and Sacred Space that is sustainable and filled with the Spirit. St. Luke’s hopes to help keep Ballard the culturally rich, diverse, and family-oriented neighborhood it has historically been and continue to thrive as a congregation and central hub for the Ballard community for the next 130 years.