1 Create a ZoomGrants™ account (below) or log in to your existing account (above) 2 Select a Program to apply for, then click the Apply button to get started 3 Answer the questions and/or fill in the fields in each tab 4 If necessary, upload any requested documents 5 Submit your application and wait for a decision 6 If you are selected to receive funding, you might be required to submit invoices or reports through your application
TIPS:
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1. Is the applicant a local government or public utility?
2. Has the city or jurisdiction within which the affordable housing project is located imposed a sales and use tax under one of the following statutes?
3. Does the housing project include construction of new affordable housing?
4. If the project includes market rate units, will at least 25% of housing units of the housing project serve and benefit low-income households? Low income is defined as at or below 80% of area median income.
5. Will the affordable housing units serve the original target income level for at least 25 years?
6. Will the affordable housing development be able to begin construction within 24 months of the grant award, or has it already begun? The grant award date is the date of the award letter; award letters will be sent in January 2026.
7. Is your request for one of the items that can be funded under this grant? A list of eligible expenses can be found in the Program Guidelines.
8. If funding for utility extensions or improvements is requested, are eligible expenses expected to be incurred by:
9. Does the jurisdiction have a program to waive fees for affordable housing? If the jurisdiction has no fee waiver program in place, they may apply conditionally and adopt a fee waiver ordinance before contracting. Please respond regardless of whether this particular application is for utility improvements only.
10. For projects in counties fully planning under the Growth Management Act, is the project located in an Urban Growth Area (UGA)? For partially planning counties, is this project located in a city or town?
This Pre-Application section must be submitted and Approved by the Administrator (not ZoomGrants) before you can fill out the rest of the application. Click the Submit Pre-Application button at the top or bottom of this tab to submit this section to be reviewed.
Your Pre-Application must be submitted AND approved before continuing.
Application Questions
(answers are saved automatically when you move to another field)
General Information
1. Key contact from the city, county, or public utility district Application contact (name, title, email, phone number). Please enter information on one line, separated by commas.
2. Name, title, and email of the person authorized to sign contracts for the applicant. Please enter information on one line, separated by commas. Person able to sign on behalf of the city, county or utility district.
3. Total amount of funding requested for both utility connections and system development charge waivers. Please note that this should equal sum of Questions 4 and 5, below. All fields must have a number. If requesting no funds for a category, please include '0'.
4. Please enter the total funds requested for water, sewer, and stormwater utility improvements and/or connections. Should be the sum of the figures for water, sewer, and stormwater connections from Questions 30, 31, and 32 below.
5. Please enter the total reimbursement requested for waived system development charges (SDCs also known as capital facilities charges). Should be the sum of the figures for water, sewer, and stormwater system development charges from Questions 36, 37, and 38, below.
6. Statewide Vendor (SWV) Number for city, county or utility district To execute a contract, recipients must establish a SWV through the WA State Office of Financial Management (OFM). Registration forms at OFM’s website at: https://ofm.wa.gov/itsystems/statewide-vendorpayee-services or 360-407-8180.
7. Washington State Unified Business Identifier (UBI) Number A UBI # is required for a contract to be issued. If you don’t have one at this time, list zeros in this field.
8. Tax ID Number Please provide the applicant organization's Tax ID number.
9. Affordable housing project site location: Address line 1, City/County, Zip, Parcel #(s)
Information about the Affordable Housing Project
10. Please describe the project. Include the size of the parcel, the zoning, and the square footage of the development. If the project includes non-housing uses, please provide information about those (for example, retail or commercial space) and any amenities.
11. Please describe how this project may serve over-burdened communities or overcome past racial disparities in housing. Support materials for racially disparate impacts, exclusion and displacement https://www.commerce.wa.gov/growth-management/housing-planning/housing-guidance/. Support materials for over-burdened communities at https://gis.ecology.wa.gov/portal/home/item.html?id=454c5efc20334dc4909405310b2dbfcb
12. What type of housing is this project providing?
13. Housing unit information Please provide the total number of housing units, both affordable and market rate, created by this housing development. The subsequent questions ask for a breakout of affordable and market rate units.
14. Please provide the number of units that will be affordable to low-income households at each percentage of area median income (AMI) level.
(Example: 5 = number of Studio units available to households earning up to 30% AMI) “Affordable housing” means payment of monthly housing costs, including utilities other than telephone, are no more than thirty percent of the family's income. “Low-income households” means a single person, family or unrelated persons living together
15. Please provide the number of units that will be affordable to moderate-income households and at market rate. For the purposes of this grant, a single person, family or unrelated persons living together whose adjusted income is above 80 percent of the median household income adjusted for family size, for the county where the affordable housing project is located, but less than the state median income, as reported by the United States department of housing and urban development. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il.html#data_2025 Example: 5= number of 3-bedroom units available to households earning greater than (>) 120% area median income (AMI), but less than (<) 100% of the state median income.
16. How long will the affordable units in the project be affordable? Please provide the length of time the project will be affordable to target markets, as stated in Questions 14.
17. How will affordability be monitored over the long-term? If the affordable housing component will not be monitored for affordability by an organization such as the Housing Trust Fund, the operator will need to provide information about their record keeping and auditing system. In addition to monitoring, the developer will also need to execute a covenant and deed of trust noting affordability of designated units for a minimum of 25 years.
18. Developer associated with the affordable housing project Include: organization name, main point of contact and title, email, and phone number. If a non-profit or another partner is involved in the project, please include their contact information and their role in the project.
19. Who will own the site and the affordable housing project? Include: organization name, main point of contact and title, email, and phone number. Please enter information on one line, separated by commas.
20. Who will operate and manage the affordable housing project? Include: organization name, main point of contact and title, email, and phone number. Please enter information on one line, separated by commas.
21. Does this affordable housing project have other local, state, or federal funds committed previously to the project? Does this affordable housing project have private funds committed? If yes, provide name/source and the amount of funds that you have applied for or have been committed. Be prepared to show documentation of awarded funding before contracting. REMINDER: This information should also be reflected in the budget section.
22. Does the project have site control through either ownership or a long-term lease? Reminder: Please attach site control documentation under Documents tab.
23. Is there any public debate about the proposed affordable housing project that could delay the project or any other risk factors that could significantly change the timeline schedule? For example, opposition by neighborhood businesses and residents, entitlement or permitting issues, environmental concerns, supply or labor constraints. If so, to what degree could these factors slow or stop your project’s progress and what is the developer’s plan to mitigate these risks?
24. Tell us about the status of the following activities FOR THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT. For each activity, indicate the status of completion or expected completion date. Enter month/year (text or numbers, limited to 10 characters each cell).
25. When are eligible CHIP expenses expected to be incurred and invoiced if funding is awarded? Is there anything else we should know about the timeline or impediments to completing the project according to this schedule and the schedule noted in the question above?
26. If Commerce receives more applications than available funding, Commerce will score and prioritize applications based on the criteria listed in the Program Guidelines, including access to public transportation. Describe the distance from the affordable housing project to the nearest transit (bus, light rail, commuter rail, etc.), indicate the type of transit service, and describe the frequency of the service during peak hours (7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.). For example, the project is 600 feet from a bus stop on Line H1 (South Hill to Federal Way) and 0.6 miles from bus stop on Line X5 (South Hill to Tacoma). Bus service is every 60 minutes for Line H1 and only once during the peak hour for Line X5.
27. Please describe the need for this type of housing in the community. Such as from a local housing needs assessment or local portion of a countywide housing need from Commerce.
Utility Improvement or Fee Waiver Application Questions
28. If this application is for a utility extension, is it part of the local capital facility improvement plan? Utility improvement projects must be a part of the adopted capital facilities plan by time of award.
29. Please describe why the funding requested is necessary to complete the proposed facility or project phase. What would happen if the project does not receive CHIP funds? How time-critical is it that these funds are available? Use budgetary and fundraising data to support your statement, as this is a critical question in the evaluation process.
30. UTILITY CONNECTION APPLICANTS (Others write NA):
Detail the CHIP funds requested for water connection improvements. Include the following information: (a) name of water service provider, (b) describe the connection that is needed, (c) cost of the connection, and (d) CHIP funds requested. Please note that sums of Questions 30, 31 and 32 should total the amount entered in Question 4.
31. UTILITY IMPROVEMENT APPLICANTS (Others write NA): Detail the CHIP funds requested for sewer connection improvements. Include the following information: (a) name of sewer service provider, (b) describe the connection that is needed, (c) cost of the connection, and (d) CHIP funds requested. Please note that sums of Questions 30, 31 and 32 should total the amount entered in Question 4.
32. UTILITY CONNECTION APPLICANTS (Others write NA): Detail the CHIP funds requested for stormwater improvements. Include the following information: (a) name of stormwater service provider, (b) describe the improvement that is needed and why, (c) cost of the improvement, and (d) CHIP funds requested. Please note that sums of Questions 30, 31 and 32 should total the amount entered in Question 4.
33. UTILITY CONNECTION APPLICANTS (Others write NA): Please describe if the water, sewer, and stormwater improvements seeking funding will help only the affordable housing project, or do the improvements facilitate the development of other new housing or benefit other properties?
34. UTILITY CONNECTION APPLICANTS (Others write NA): Do you plan to use a local improvement district or other means to collect late-comer fees from surrounding properties that connect to the project’s utility improvements? If no other properties will connect to the utility improvements of this project, note that below.
35. WAIVED SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT CHARGE APPLICANTS (Others write NA): Describe the system development charges and the jurisdiction’s process for waiving these fees. Indicate when these fees were waived by the city or when they plan to be waived based on the current project schedule. If the jurisdiction has not yet adopted a program for waiving system development charges, describe the timeline for completing this work and if there are any projected obstacles to adopting such a program and how the applicant will address those obstacles.
36. WAIVED SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT CHARGE APPLICANTS (Others write NA): Please describe how the system development charge fee structure takes into account the size of the housing unit, ie, so that small housing units are proportionally charged less. This program may only reimburse for the system development charges, which are fees charged at the time of development to allow connection to a regional water, sewer, or stormwater system.
37. Project system development charges for WATER: ZoomGrants may attempt to sum these numbers at the bottom, which you can disregard.
Utility Improvement Readiness
38. Project system development charges for SEWER: ZoomGrants may attempt to sum these numbers at the bottom, which you can disregard.
39. Project system development charges for STORMWATER: ZoomGrants may attempt to sum these numbers at the bottom, which you can disregard.
Environmental Justice Questions
40. Tell us about the status of the following activities FOR THE UTILITY PROJECT. For each activity, indicate the status of completion or expected completion date. Enter month/year (text or numbers, limited to 10 characters each cell). Applicants may write NA for system development charge grant applications.
41. Contracting Requirements: If the utility connection of the project disturb any ground, has the developer or project manager consulted with the Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) and affected tribes? (Applicant may write NA for system development charge grant applications.)
Local Government/Public Utility Risk Assessment Questions
42. If applicable, describe how this project solves, mitigates, or prevents environmental degradation.
43. Does this project have any positive environmental impacts? For example: improvement to failing or inadequate water, sewer or stormwater system? Is the project developing a brownfield property?
44. Is this affordable housing project in proximity to environmental exposures that may pose health risks to residents? Such as adjacent to a freeway, waste processing facility, or other sources of direct air pollution, lack of greenspaces, or greater risk of flood exposure.?
45. Local government's experience administering state capital funds. Please mark only one answer.
46. Do you have an accounting system that is capable of recording revenues and expenditures for each funding source/award by required budget categories? Please mark only one answer.
47. Do you have written accounting policies and procedures? Please mark only one answer.
Your Pre-Application must be submitted AND approved before continuing.
Budget
(answers are saved automatically when you move to another field)
Complete the Budget Table and Budget Narrative, listing the funding sources and amounts for the project.
Budget Table: Funding sources could include cash on hand/reserves, loans, federal/state grants, donations, etc. If grant or loan applications are pending, include that information in the "Applied for Funding" column, and note in the narrative when the applicant will have certainty of that funding. Funding available to the applicant at this time should go in the "Committed or In-hand" column.
Budget Narrative: This section should include the total funding needed for the project (including utilities and system development charges) and any gaps that remain. If any funds are not committed or gaps remain, upload a document outlining a plan and timeline for obtaining remaining funds.
Funding Sources for Project
For this table, include all funding needed for the project.
Item Description
Applied for Funding
Committed or In-hand
Total $ 0.00
Total $ 0.00
Budget Narrative (Discuss the items and amounts you entered above.)
This section should include the total funding needed for the project (including utilities and system development charges) and any gaps that remain. If any funds are not committed or gaps remain, upload a document outlining a plan and timeline for obtaining remaining funds. Provide additional information or details on the budget table here.
Your Pre-Application must be submitted AND approved before continuing.
System Development Charge Calculations
(answers are saved automatically when you move to another field)
Your Pre-Application must be submitted AND approved before continuing.
Map of the affordable housing project location and existing utilities (water, sewer, stormwater) in the surrounding area, with street labels. Map should include the address and parcel number of the project and show within the UGA if applicable.
Required
Documentation of project funding for the project for all individual sources of funding over $10,000. Include award letters, bank statements, loan documents, etc. (Prior to contract execution, records must be provided to show full project funding.)
Required
-none-
Proof of site control (e.g., an executed property title, lease agreement, or purchase/sale agreement)
Required
-none-
For requests for system development charges or fees, provide documentation of charges/fees waived by the city, or letter from the city with how much and when these fees will be waived, if applicable. (REQUIRED for waived system development charges.)
-none-
For construction of utility improvements: (All documents REQUIRED for utility improvement projects) + Schematic of planned utility construction + Project schedule, including projected start of construction
-none-
Construction estimates or bids to support your utility construction budget numbers. Though optional, documenting the costs by showing estimates or bids will support your application.
Acknowledgment from the city or county that will be permitting the project, including documents showing status of zoning and permitting of the site. This is an optional part of the application.
