Eighteen families earning modest incomes will get a shot at buying a home on Martin Luther King Jr Way South in the Rainier Valley.
The Seattle Office of Housing on Wednesday, Aug. 26, awarded $2.64 million to Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties and Jabooda Cares to build permanently affordable homes at 6701 MLK Jr Way S.
The project is the tenth and final site under the Rainier Valley Affordable Homeownership Initiative (RVAHI), a partnership between the City of Seattle and Sound Transit that launched in 2022.
The initiative's total now stands at 127 permanently affordable homes for purchase, exceeding the original goal of 100.
How it works
Sound Transit transferred surplus land along the light-rail corridor to the city at no cost for all 10 RVAHI sites. The free land keeps development costs low enough to price homes for households earning up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). The program's stated purpose is to reduce displacement in a neighborhood reshaped by light-rail construction.
Three of the 10 sites are already complete. Seven, including the newly awarded MLK Jr Way S project, are in various stages of development. No construction timeline or completion date for this site has been announced.
What gets built
The development will include 14 two-bedroom homes and four three-bedroom homes, plus a ground-floor community space. The city selected Habitat and Jabooda Cares based on their commitment to use Seattle's community preference policy, which prioritizes buyers with existing ties to the neighborhood.
Jabooda Cares will lead outreach to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) households and other underserved communities near the site.
Board President Kaitlyn Huynh, who has personally developed housing in the Rainier Valley for more than 15 years, said the award opened a door she did not know existed.
"I have been developing in the Rainier Valley for over 15 years, and I did not know affordable housing options like these programs existed," Huynh said. "That is what this moment means to me … the door that has been opened for people like me to give back to a community I have grown alongside."
Who's involved
Councilmember Eddie Lin, who represents District 2 covering Southeast Seattle, said he worked on the initiative for seven years. He called it "a resounding success, turning vacant underused lots into affordable homes for generations to come."
Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine said the agency transferred the land to help "keep the neighborhoods around our stations vibrant, diverse and connected." Mayor Katie Wilson, who also sits on the Sound Transit Board, framed the award as an anti-displacement investment.
Acting Director Kelli Larsen of the Seattle Office of Housing said the city's community preference policy helps prioritize buyers who already have connections to the neighborhood.
The city reported in September 2025 that it had added 241 permanently affordable homes for sale in the prior three years. The RVAHI's 127 homes represent more than half of that total.
