SPOKANE, Wash. — A new project in northeast Spokane hopes to make the dream of housing and child care in one place a reality for working parents.
Several organizations are working on a mixed use development that would have affordable housing units and a non-traditional child care facility in the same building.
“Everyone who has a child understands the critical need,” said Jesse Bank, the executive director for Northeast PDA. “Personally, we’ve been on wait lists for over two years. In some childcare facilities, it’s just very difficult to find slots at this point.”
The building would be located off of Wellesley, just blocks from the North Market Street area in Hillyard. Northeast PDA has had its eye on the development land for years with the goal of reinvigorating it.
Currently, northeast Spokane does not have an evening or weekend child care option for parents. But according to the Northeast Community center 60% of the jobs in the area are in the service sector with hundreds of more jobs expected to soon come to the area to manufacturers like Jubliant HollisterStier.
“That’s something that we obviously want to support wholeheartedly, but they’re struggling to find people. And they continue to hear again and again that child care is one of those barriers,” Bank said.
This new development hopes to offer around 100 child care slots to the community until 11 p.m. on weekdays and weekends. But building a child care facility comes with expensive onset costs. This pushed project leaders toward the state legislature and a request for $3.5 million.
Jene Rey, the executive director of the Northeast Community Center, said this funding could make all the difference.
“When the provider comes in to offer the child care, they’ll be able to keep tuition low,” Rey said.
The multi purpose building would also offer 30 to 40 affordable housing units that will be open for rent.
Developers hope to break ground on this project later this year.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
