State Funding Infusion Gives Green Light to Affordable Housing Project
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Illustration by Kristina Hestenes-Stimson [/caption]
News by Scott France
Olympic Housing Trust (OHT) has scored a big win for local affordable housing and soon, for five fortunate families. OHT will receive a $385,000 appropriation in the new Washington state budget, ensuring that they now have all the money needed to build its Dundee Hill Community Homes at Sheridan and Hastings streets in Port Townsend, according to Kathy Morgan, Executive Director of Olympic Housing Trust.
“This is OHT’s first affordable housing project, which makes this very exciting,” Morgan said. “We have other projects that are in the pipeline, so this will not be the last.”
The five homes are townhomes, two two-bedroom homes and three three-bedroom homes, that OHT is billing as sustainably designed and permanently affordable. The homes will be sold to income-qualified households who have lived in the area for at least one year, and are able to secure a home loan, among other qualifications. This, and all of OHT’s projects, apply a community land trust model whereby OHT will develop and sell the subsidized homes to eligible households, but maintain ownership of the underlying land through a 99-year ground lease agreement.
OHT’s website states that, “The entire property will be stewarded by Olympic Housing Trust with homeowners owning the homes, and local community members managing a community garden on the property, with support from the new homeowners.”
OHT tapped a number of wells to fund this project. The majority of funding was provided by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, a low-cost construction loan for $1.2 million.
A grant of $500,000 awarded from the Washington State Department of Commerce housing trust fund will help make the project affordable to our buyers, according to Morgan.
Additionally, Jefferson County has pledged money from its American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The City of Port Townsend is providing money as the sponsor of the Washington State CHIP grant, which is for infrastructure.
The $385,000 was made possible through the efforts of State Representatives Steve Tharinger and Adam Bernbaum, and Senator Mike Chapman. Bernbaum co-sponsored the request, and Chapman stewarded it through the compromise process, after which the Governor signed the budget, which contained the request.
“Our community deserves affordable housing, For all of our working friends and neighbors that are finding this place we all call home less and less affordable, we need more housing.”
— Kathy Morgan, Executive Director of Olympic Housing Trust
“It’s an interesting and exciting project,” said Tharinger, who sponsored the special request for special funding. “We’ve tried to focus on housing, and have been pretty robust in funding it,” Tharinger said. He said that the state is working on crafting policy solutions to lower housing costs, and credited Port Townsend and Port Angeles for leading the way. “ That kind of work is important,” Tharinger said. “Jurisdictions have to look at approaches such as higher densities.”
Morgan said that the project also got support from many local supporters, including one supporter who donated the land. “Our community deserves affordable housing,” Morgan said. “For all of our working friends and neighbors that are finding this place we all call home less and less affordable, we need more housing.”
With the path now clear, building will begin on the infrastructure within the next two weeks, and Morgan hopes that ground will be broken for the homes in July or August. She says that OHT “will reach out to the community to start our home buyer application process around this July or August.” She expects that the homes will be finished by August, 2026
Dundee Hill is the first affordable housing project for OHT, but others are in the pipeline, including Chimacum Commons, which will blend habitat, farming and housing. OHT is partnering with the Jefferson County Land Trust on that project.
Jefferson County affordable housing advocates can celebrate this win, but the effort it took is not lost on them. The project has been years in the making, with OHT Outreach and Development Manager Kellen Lynch playing a central role. Lynch was unavailable for a comment, but Morgan said, “If we don’t all pay attention to what is going on in our community around affordability and especially housing, we will lose the younger generation and families, who, like their parents and grandparents, want to raise a family of their own here, but will not be able to afford to. Then where will we be, all seniors? Are we unintentionally making a senior-only community?
That’s not where I would want to live, and I am a senior!”
correction: an earlier version of this article said that the OHT was partnering with the Olympic Land Trust in Chimacum instead of the Jefferson Land Trust.
