SMOKEY POINT — As 12 new Constellation-class guided-missile frigates prepare to homeport in Everett, Congress on Friday approved $19 million to construct new housing nearby for military families.
With the money, 88 new homes will be built at the Navy Support Complex in Smokey Point, 11 miles north of Naval Station Everett.
The U.S. Navy announced it would homeport its “new and improved class” of military ships at Naval Station Everett in June 2021. The frigates are “agile, multi-mission warships” that “provides a military advantage at sea,” according to the Navy.
“With the incoming Constellation-class frigates … we must ensure we have the housing to accommodate this influx of sailors and their families,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, in a press release Friday.
By 2028, the first of the new frigates will arrive in Everett. All 12 will arrive in Everett over the following decade.
“This is great news for service members and military families homeported in Everett who will be able to live closer to where they work and go to school while having better access to resources,” said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, in a statement.
The new housing will be open to active-duty service members. The cost of rent and utilities won’t exceed their housing allowance, the release said. In Everett, an ensign with dependents has a monthly housing allowance of $2,628.
In 2021, a housing market analysis for Naval Station Everett estimated a shortfall of 153 military homes.
In a letter last year, DelBene and Larsen along with U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier and Rep. Marilyn Strickland, requested the dollars for new housing, saying the housing deficit for military families in Everett will grow to 500 units by 2026 as the base prepares to homeport new ships.
“Our military families deserve a safe and affordable place to call home,” they wrote.
In a draft environmental impact statement on the arrival of the frigates released last month, however, the Navy anticipated no additional demand for housing.
“The change in population associated with this alternative would occur over 10 years and would result in an overall net reduction in the Snohomish County population,” the document reads.
As around 2,900 new personnel are stationed in Naval Station Everett for the new frigates, around 3,100 current personnel will be departing for reassignment.
The station will need more employees for construction as new infrastructure on the base is built in the coming years. The environmental report states construction-related employment would be temporary and the “existing local construction workforce would be expected to meet the labor demand.”
Currently, Naval Station Everett homeports seven U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers, one guided missile cruiser and two U.S. Coast Guard ships — a buoy tender and a coastal patrol boat.
The new money was included in a $460 billion federal funding package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday and the Senate on Friday. Senators narrowly avoided a government shutdown by passing the funding package before midnight on Friday.
Included in the package are millions of dollars for other Snohomish County projects, like $5 million for the county’s Food and Farming Center, $1.4 million for child care at the Cedarwood Community Recreation Center in Lake Stevens and $1 million for a pedestrian and bike trail along Highway 531 in Arlington.
Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.
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