A four-member volunteer board in a rural Eastern Washington town sold an apartment complex for $1 , hoping the move will help protect one of the town’s only low-income options.
Rural Resources bought an apartment complex in Metaline Falls, a town of about 284 people near the Canadian border, for $1 after being awarded $4.7 million from the Washington State Department of Commerce to renovate it. Owned previously by a board of volunteers, Bryan Raines, CEO of the nonprofit, said the 22-unit apartment complex, also known as the Kaniksu Village, was built in the 1970s. By renovating it, he said, they are preserving crucial housing for the area.
The funding was the result of a joint effort between Rural Resources, the Spokane Housing Authority, Pend Oreille County and the Office of Rural & Farmworkers Housing, he added.
“It’s so critical to make sure that residents that currently occupy are able to stay in the community, and that we’re able to continue having that property exist in that area,” Raines said.