Partnership for ADU Development (PAD) Partner

The Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) requests qualifications from eligible nonprofit organizations to support low- and moderate-income homeowners who seek to add infill housing to their property. Funded in part through a federal PRO Housing grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), OPCD seeks to identify through this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) qualified nonprofits who participate in a co-development model that OPCD is seeking to pilot called the Partnership for ADU Development (PAD), as described below.

PAD is part of OPCD’s Legacy Homeowner Development Support work, a suite of support programs for low-income legacy homeowners seeking to undertake infill development on their own property. This Legacy Homeowner Development Support program includes education, technical assistance, capacity building, pre-development services, expedited permitting, and project support. Through its Legacy Homeowner Development Support work, OPCD aims to catalyze development of middle housing in residential neighborhoods, create rental housing choices, and stabilize low-income homeowners.

Through this RFQ, OPCD aims to identify one or more nonprofit organizations to join us as a PAD Partner for the pilot phase of this program. Selection as a PAD Partner would qualify the organization for:
• Capacity building funding to support Partner operational readiness and to compensate the Partner for time spent furthering program design alongside OPCD
• The opportunity to participate in future closed-pool Requests for Proposals (RFPs) should funding for construction become available

To support homeowners for whom the complexity of development, high cost of construction, and difficulty obtaining financing are substantial barriers, OPCD is seeking to pilot PAD, a co-development model that provides low- and moderate-income homeowners with the ongoing guidance, technical assistance, and financial support they need to create infill housing on their property.

In the PAD model, a homeowner would establish a relationship with a trusted nonprofit Partner who develops two homes in their backyard with funding the Partner secures through a combination of public, philanthropic, and conventional sources. The homeowner retains full ownership of their entire property, while the Partner owns and operates the backyard homes for roughly 10 years before being bought out by the homeowner. Through PAD, a homeowner otherwise excluded from the development opportunities conferred by updated zoning is able to catalyze middle housing production, create workforce rental units, and achieve greater financial stability.

The role of the PAD Partner includes:

• Guiding the homeowner through visioning and pre-development
• Helping the homeowner split their lot and entering into a ground lease for the backyard
• Working with the homeowner to select from a menu of two-unit design options
• Carrying out permitting
• Obtaining construction financing and funding from public and philanthropic sources to complete the capital stack
• Constructing two backyard homes that the Partner owns
• Operating and managing the two backyard homes as rental housing for tenants with incomes up to 80 percent of area median income (AMI)
• Using rental income to provide the homeowner with a monthly ground lease payment
• Covering project expenses, including maintenance, property taxes, and debt service until the homeowner buys them out