The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is looking for a public or private developer to build and manage permanent housing for homeless veterans on underused land at its hospital campus in northwest Spokane.

Cheryl Wood, chief of engineering services at Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center, says the VA will issue a request for proposals—likely next month—for developing 3 acres of land west of a parking lot behind the hospital, which is located at the northwest corner of Assembly Street and Wellesley Avenue.

Prospective developers could propose the number of units and the tenant population, and the proposals would be examined by a project team that would include representatives of the VA, Spokane VAMC, and a homeless-veterans' advocacy program here. The final selection would occur at a more centralized level of the VA, Wood says.

"Veteran's Affairs wants to evaluate the proposals and award the lease by the end of December," she says.

The selection team hopes to negotiate an "enhanced-use" land lease of up to 75 years with the selected developer.

The lessee would be required to finance, design, develop, construct, operate, and maintain the housing facilities, says Kelli Emery, the VA's Phoenix-based manager for the project. More than one type of housing could be included in the proposals, and the selection team could consider proposals that include retail and office uses to help support the viability of housing, Emery says.

Soon, the VA also will seek appraisals for the lease value of the project site, although the agency is more interested in the development of additional veteran facilities than in potential income from the property, she says.

"We're looking for in-kind considerations in the form of supportive services to veterans," Emery says. "We're not looking for money."

Steve Cervantes, director of the Spokane Housing Authority, says he's aware of the VA's intent toseek proposals foran enhanced-use lease project, and the authority is examining the feasibility of a project that would set aside a high proportion of living units for homeless veterans.

Spokane Housing Authority is experienced in developing and managing low-income housing. The nonprofit provides housing assistance through rental subsidies and housing it owns to more than 5,000 low-income families in Spokane, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, and Whitman counties.

"It sounds like a good idea to match public resource of land with the need for affordable housing," Cervantes says.

The land match could be a catalyst that would spark other sources of funding in the form of low-interest loans, tax credits, and grants for low-income housing, Cervantes says.

"We've been incrementally providing housing for vets and their families, but not the scale this would be offering," he says. "We would need some flexibility to generate income to cover the debt."

The VA's enhanced-use lease program was enacted into law in 1991 to allow the VA and its facilities to partner with the public and private sectors to increase veterans' services on underused real estate.

About 60 enhanced-use lease projects have been completed and 65 more are under development.

The Obama administration launched a VA land-and-building inventory in 2009 to identify underused assets that could be developed for reuse as part of its initiative to end veteran homelessness by 2015.

VA Secretary Eric Shinzeki last year identified vacant land on the 38-acre Spokane VAMC campus, along with 93 other VA properties to be included in the enhanced-use lease program for potential homeless-veteran housing.

One example of a completed project involving an enhanced-use lease is in Roseburg, Ore., where the VA health center there leased out 2 acres of land to the Housing Authority of Douglas County. The authority financed, designed, built, and continues to operate a complex with 63 single-room living units. Homeless veterans and veterans in transition from more highly structured and supervised VA programs have priority for the housing.

The 75-year lease awarded in 2000 sparked the Roseburg housing project, which was developed at no cost to VA, although rents for most veteran tenants there are subsidized through the VA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In addition to providing transitional and permanent housing for previously homeless veterans, VA enhanced-use lease projects include senior and affordable housing, assisted-living facilities, medical research facilities, parking garages, child care centers, adult day care centers, and VA office co-locations.

For the enhanced-use lease here, the developer would propose the tenant population and a security and safety plan, Emery says.

"Tenants will have to follow certain rules to live in supportive housing," she says.

The Spokane VAMC's Health Care for Homeless Veterans program here serves more than 250 veterans, many of whom are now living in subsidized housing, says John Davis, the program coordinator.

One such housing project is the Pioneer Victory House, at 925 W. Broadway, where 35 formerly homeless veterans reside in single-room apartments.

The housing project opened in 2008 in a partnership between Seattle-based nonprofit Pioneer Human Services and Spokane VAMC.

Davis says vets living in such housing are required to pay 30 percent of their incomes toward their rents.

"If they have an investment in it, they take care of it, because it's theirs," he says.