About Bellwether
Our mission is to make this a place where all can live, stay warm, have support, find new opportunities and build stronger communities.
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Mission & Vision
Bellwether Housing creates stable communities and access to opportunity through affordable housing. We develop and manage homes for people with limited incomes near job centers, transit, and services. We amplify our impact by helping other organizations in the Puget Sound region do the same. We envision diverse communities where people of all incomes and backgrounds share in the prosperity of our region.
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History
Bellwether Housing was founded in 1980 to create housing for downtown workers to have access to safe, affordable housing close to their jobs. After nearly 40 years of success and growth, Bellwether is the Pacific Northwest’s largest nonprofit affordable housing provider.
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Bellwether has served nearly 18,000 residents since 1980 and continues to lead the affordable housing industry in finding innovative ways to build strong, healthy communities within its own portfolio and on behalf of other nonprofit organizations. We have developed an additional 10,000 homes as a development consultant for other nonprofits.
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Our Approach
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Bellwether Housing builds and manages high quality affordable housing so that people of diverse backgrounds and incomes thrive in urban King County’s high-cost housing market.
As the Pacific Northwest’s largest nonprofit affordable housing provider, Bellwether Housing serves 3,500 residents annually in 2200 apartments. Our 33 buildings are near workplaces, schools, childcare, and community amenities in vibrant, transit-rich neighborhoods. We serve families large and small, households recovering from homelessness, seniors, immigrants, preschool teachers and social workers, and young people just starting out. Living at Bellwether, residents gain access to the resources and prosperity of their surrounding communities and, in turn, cultivate a more inclusive and equitable city.
To meet the intense need for affordable housing in the region, we plan to build and acquire 2,500 homes by 2025. Since 2016, Bellwether has targeted new development in neighborhoods that have incredible access to transit, public services such as libraries, parks, and excellent schools, and allow for strong ties to community supports such as YMCA’s, Boys & Girls Clubs, community centers, health care facilities and food banks. We have developed or are developing in Queen Anne, Roosevelt, the University District, First Hill, Bitter Lake and Rainier Beach.
Bellwether’s resident population overall is majority BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), and our larger households with children are nearly 80% families of color. Low-income families have fewer housing options than any other population in Seattle. Since 2016, Bellwether has prioritized the development of 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom units to create as many options as possible for low-income families. Although these units are more challenging to develop and operate, Bellwether believes it is imperative that our community be a place in which lower income families – particularly BIPOC families - can thrive.
Our apartment communities include resident amenity areas, such as community rooms, outdoor play spaces, gardens, and laundry; and attentive on-site management. Our on-site resident services program connects residents with the resources, services, benefits, and community relationships they need to thrive.
Future
Looking forward, Bellwether continues to integrate four decades of success with innovative and pioneering development approaches to make housing in our region more accessible, inclusive, and affordable to all. In the next five years, we plan to build or acquire 2500 new apartments, grow our organization to maintain and operate these new units, and embed anti-racism into our organization's culture and work.
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Five Year Plan
You can view our Strategic Plan here.
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Our Financials
View our 2018 Audit
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