Habitat for Humanity is ambitiously looking to build twice as much affordable housing throughout Jefferson County, according to the group’s new five-year plan. 

Jamie Maciejewski is the executive director for Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County and according to the group’s recently released its five-year plan, the organization lays out its intent to double up its production numbers by 2026.

“Our plan is to increase what we’re doing annually from four new homes to eight new homes a year over the next five years,” Maciejewski said.

“We’re excited because eight a year is going to start to make a bigger dent for what the need is in the area,” she said.

As part of the plan, Maciejewski said Habitat for Humanity will also start to focus on local multi-family homes, which will allow the organization to more efficiently utilize its land acquisitions.

One of the group’s projects on Landes Street, she added, could see seven duplex units sited at the location, offering 14 affordable homes to local families.

Maciejewski also stressed the importance of ensuring that affordable housing projects continue to offer affordable options into the future for Jefferson County residents. 

“With the prices going up of homes in the area, we really feel this obligation to make sure that once the community has committed to building a house, and the funding resources and the volunteer hours, we want to make sure it stays affordable — even past the first family that buys it,” Maciejewski said.

“When that family grows out of it and moves away or something like that, we can purchase it back or another low-income family can purchase it back at an affordable amount,” she explained.

Critical home repair projects are another focus for Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County.

Currently the group handles four critical repairs per year, but it is looking to double that number, as well.

“Those home repairs are not small, they’re ones that keep a house standing and affordable for a long time,” Maciejewski said, citing examples such as installing bathroom fixtures in homes without a bath or shower, roof repairs and renovating portions of homes damaged by water infiltration. 

It will not be Port Townsend alone that Habitat for Humanity will target in the years ahead.

“We will continue to focus on all of East Jefferson County,” Maciejewski said. “We will be serving homeownership opportunities in Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Chimacum, Irondale, Brinnon, Quilcene — all throughout the county over the next five years.”    

Back in March the group was preparing to excavate two new sites for homes, but when the pandemic prompted restrictions, construction came to a halt and volunteers became few and far between. The setback saw Habitat for Humanity reduce its operations in Jefferson County by half, down to one job site and construction continuing on just two homes at a time.

In the fiscal year that ended June 2020, Maciejewski said the nonprofit had intended to complete five new homes and recycle one new home, but instead had to settle for four new homes and one recycled home.

For the present year — which runs from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021 — Maciejewski had hoped the group could construct five or six new houses.

But now, with the pandemic, that number has shrunk to just three.    

“For us to only complete three, that’s just really hard,” she said. “The need is still out there and it might even be larger than the need was before the pandemic.”

While the group’s plans to be constructing eight homes a year within five years may seem ambitious, Maciejewski said she was confident that COVID-19 will have subsided enough to allow for Habitat for Humanity to meet its goal.

“We do believe that by a year from now, we expect to be back to a semi-normal situation. And we’re trying to not lose our capacity to come back then,” she explained. “We want to be able to come back strong when we’re able to, when a vaccine is fully delivered and people are able to be in the community and we can welcome volunteers back again.”