While the housing shortage is a secret to no one, some have tried to solve it longer than others.

Habitat for Humanity East Jefferson County has been erecting answers for decades and is now celebrating 25 years of building homes for those in need.

“Twenty-five years is a pretty big milestone,” said Jamie Maciejewski, executive director for the organization.

She credits the original 15 founders on the Habitat board of directors back in 1998 for seeing the need and taking action when they did.

“The group that started this work did a big lift and had a big vision. But it is a huge job,” Maciejewski said. “And in fact, if this community didn’t have a Habitat for Humanity right now and went to the parent organization and said, ‘We’d like to start a Habitat for Humanity in Port Townsend and Jefferson County,’ they would say, ‘We’re sorry, you’re actually a little too small of a community to do this on your own.’”

“And they would say ‘We wont say no, but you’re going to need to go find another Habitat to be your umbrella because it’s just too big of a job to do for a community of only 30,000 people.’”

To commemorate the massive milestone, the group is aiming to far surpass previous successes.

As of today, the organization has 289 volunteers who contributed more than 16,000 hours of work in its fiscal year 2022 (July 1 , 2021–June 1, 2022).

Over that same period, the local Habitat chapter finished five homes and housed five families.

“By the end of FY23 (June 30, 2023), we will have 11 more homes to help house families. That’s more than doubling the previous year,” wrote Genevieve Peterson, Habitat EJC’s marketing and communications manager in an email to The Leader.

Those hopes are resonating throughout the organization.

“I feel extraordinarily proud to be part of a community of 30,000 people that has done this kind of work and has not said we’re not too little, and in fact has said we can do 10 homes a year,” Maciejewski said.

GROWING THE GOOD

As the drywall goes up in six homes at the Landes and 18th streets development, the organization is looking at expanding its architectural aspirations even more.

“We hope to stay at that number, sort of that 10 number, for the next two years or so, and then we’ll probably take another step up,”  Maciejewski said.

If all of that weren’t enough, the group has its eyes on a prize of a much larger magnitude.

The local Habitat chapter recently issued a “Request for Proposal” to a number of developers for its Mason Street project which aims to build between 120 to 200 residences on a 17-acre property in Port Hadlock.

“We have sent this out to several firms that we believe have the skill sets that could handle a project of this size and this kind of vision,” Maciejewski said.

Three main things were outlined in the ask, Maciejewski said.

First, the face: “To develop a plan for what the community, the neighborhood, will look like. To lay that out through a listening process and developing what needs to happen there. So, sort of the visual and the architectural, what that looks like,” Maciejewski said

Secondly, socially: “To work with us in developing the partnerships, both with nonprofit organizations and government organizations, but also with private contractors. How are all these houses going to get built?”

Finally, financially: “How will the money come to be? How does this work?”

Jamie Maciejewski attends a future homeowner’s event at which people write well-wishes in the walls of a Habitat home before drywall is applied.

VIRTUOUS INVESTMENTS

The last is perhaps the most nuanced as the plan aims at a variety of income ranges.

Instead of focusing only on those in most need, the group is extending its reach to individuals and families making closer to median incomes, a range that typically doesn’t qualify for housing subsidies, but can struggle to make enough to purchase or rent market-rate housing.

“It’s a very wide range of incomes that will be served, so how does this work? The Habitat homes will need more fundraising, but the homes that are for a little higher-income people shouldn’t need more fundraising. Can their mortgages cover what it costs to build those houses?” Maciejewski asked.

These questions come at a time when the housing crisis is worse than perhaps ever before.

“I see Habitat being at a pivotal moment in history. We are trying to show up in a way that the community needs, which is a lot of growth,” Maciejewski asked.

The group purchased the Mason Street property in May of last year and has already been hard at work preparing it for construction, with a work party in December cleaning out over three tons of debris.

There’s still a long way to go to the finish line, though.

The build will require the newly funded sewers in Port Hadlock, which are currently planned to be completed in 2025.

“We’re going to be working with the county as part of this about when the streets will go in and the utilities, and then the housing can start to be built after that,” Maciejewski explained.

Fundraising, however, is well under way. The group has already raised $4.5 million for the development phase of the project.

One of the creative solutions to keep that funding coming is selling cars.

“There have been a few people that have donated cars. We haven’t been able to accept enough because we’re limited until we’re a car dealer,” Maciejewski said.

The organization plans to officially begin dealing cars in larger volume in the near future as the small amount of sales so far has already made a big difference.

“Wow, that has been an awesome way to help people convert their previously loved car into a house, or into boards and nails for building houses,” Maciejewski said.

Regular donors have also been a reliable resource for the organization.

“People who are monthly donors are really, really important to us. They just commit and every month they make a contribution,” Maciejewski said.

REFUGE REPAIR

All these sources are necessary as the nonprofit receives minimal government funds.

“We get very little government money,” Maciejewski said. “The only government money we’ve gotten — bless the county’s heart — they gave us $500,000 toward the purchase of the property in Port Hadlock, which was awesome. The county has also given us some money toward our critical home repair program, but otherwise we have received no government money at all for a number of years.”

While less well-known, that home repair program has helped families stay in 40 houses since it began in 2011.

“Instead of having to get another house, we’ve fixed it so water is not coming in, the leak in the roof didn’t become leaks in the roof, or siding that had begun to deteriorate got fixed, or the elderly person who is still working with a wood stove and that’s just too much work, we’ve gotten electrical upgraded and installed a heat pump so that they are warm in the winter,” Maciejewski said.

All of the many years of good work come out of the organization’s recognition of privilege as an attempt to pass that on.

“We bless somebody because we were blessed first,” Maciejewski said.

And those blessings are built into the very boards of each house.

“We actually have people write blessings in the walls of Habitat houses,” Maciejewski added.