Vets in family motivate housing developer
Having a father, a son, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandnieces and cousins who serve or have served in the Air Force, Army, Navy and National Guard motivated Dave Roberts to persevere in locating funding sources and through various housing organizations to bring the Vets on Lacey housing project to life.
Dave is now a housing developer at Widmyer Corporation, working in partnership with Volunteers of America (VOA) to complete the project.
VOA of Eastern Washington is planning a grand opening on Monday, Jan. 5, and homeless veterans will move into 12 units in two triplexes, a duplex and one four-plex. The project is adjacent to Jayne Auld Manor (JAM), a 48-unit complex built by Spokane Housing Ventures (SHV), a nonprofit affordable housing developer. It is named for a former executive director of SHV.
In 2016, Dave, then senior developer with SHV, asked owners of two homes on N. Lacey if they would sell so SHV could develop affordable housing. They were open to that.
"As part of a group with the Veterans Leadership Committee of the Spokane Continuum of Care, I worked with the late Sandy Williams, Black Lens editor, on a mapping process to end veteran homelessness here," Dave said. "I learned the need was persistent and being addressed slowly."
He considered how SHV might develop housing for vets and thought of the N. Lacey site.
An affordable housing developer since 2005, Dave began seeking public funding partners and found the two homeowners still interested in selling.
SHV secured a purchase agreement and Land Acquisition Program (LAP) funding from Washington State Housing Finance Commission and a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank to build five affordable housing townhouse duplexes.
In 2019, they bought the houses, moved in two veteran families and made funding appeals.
Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) helped identify and support tenants. He got a grant from Spokane Rotary 21.
SHV certified in 2020 as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) to receive city and county Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HOME funds. It then applied to Washington's Housing Trust Fund (HTF), which with other sources meant Vets on N. Lacey was funded.
In late 2021, SHV merged with Catholic Housing Services of Eastern Washington to form Catholic Housing Ventures (CHV), and the project no longer qualified for CHDO funds.
When Dave, who spent 2022 with CHV, found Vets on Lacey did not fit their portfolio, he sought another sponsor.
"Volunteers of America stepped up," he said.
Meanwhile, new city zoning and density regulations meant the five parcels and duplexes grew to 12 apartments in four buildings on one parcel.
The Spokane Housing Authority approved his request for project-based HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) rental assistance and supportive services.
In 2023, Dave moved from CHV to Kiemle Hagood, an affordable housing developer that recently sold its residential management and development to Widmyer Corp. in Coeur d'Alene.
"It took more than two years to find replacement funding. The city re-awarded HOME funds and, again, the big one was gap funding from HTF," Dave said. "VOA closed acquisition of the site from SHV, we closed the financing package, demolished the houses and broke ground on construction in April 2025."
Construction of Vets on N. Lacey will be finished before the end of 2025 and occupancy will begin in January 2026.
Health Care for Homeless Vets will screen vets for HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing project-based or tenant-based assistance. Vets on N. Lacey will have eight project-based packages with supportive services and four units that are tenant-based. VOA will provide supportive services for those.
Those services include behavioral health counseling, substance-use disorder treatment, employment-readiness and job-placement assistance, medical advocacy, education access, transportation services, financial support, family reconnection and life skills training.
"Vets on N. Lacey took on a life and a path of its own. I just tried to stay aboard. There are so many participants in one aspect or another that have been supportive to see the development survive and persevere to success," he said, telling of finding inspiration from Jayne at SHV and from veterans in his family.
"My worst day can't compare to facing armed combat. I couldn't give up on this project," he said. "I routinely kept in mind the future residents who served to protect us, were wounded or traumatized and now are homeless—on the streets, in shelters, couch surfing or doubling up with family or other vets.
"They deserve a safe, decent, dignified home where they can be comfortably housed and thrive," Dave commented.
For information, call 824-7005 ext. 103 or email daver@widmyercorp.com
