First affordable home community being built in Pierce County
First affordable home community being built in Pierce County
The community is made up of four homes ranging from two to five bedrooms which will be sold to moderate- to low-income families.
TACOMA, Wash. - The housing market has been tough to navigate, especially with the soaring prices and lack of inventory.
One local organization is creating solutions by building homes and making them affordable.
Chief Development Officer for Habitat for Humanity Sherrana Kildun, says it’s expensive to try and buy a house right now but the organization is helping families get into permanently affordable homes by creating a neighborhood, the first of its kind in Tacoma and Pierce County.
"We sell our homes for an affordable rate that our home buyers can afford, so selling them to low to moderate-income families who are making about 80% of the area median income," Kildun said.
For a family of four, that means no more than $72,000 a year.
A family’s mortgage is no more than 30% of their income, approximately $1,100 to $1,200 a month.
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A new way to help curb a growing issue – lack of affordable housing.
The community is made up of four homes ranging from two to five bedrooms which will be sold to moderate- to low-income families.
The organization says if and when families choose to sell their homes it will be sold to another income-eligible buyer to ensure these homes are affordable for future homeowners.
While there is city, state and federal funding involved – families do have qualifications they need to meet.
A challenge Chansorya Sou and Kevin Kop were willing to take to give their children some stability.
"Our house is going to look just like this one," Luna, the couple’s 3-year-old said as she toured another nearly finished home in the community.
Like many other parents, the 27- and 28-year-old parents want what's best for their four girls ages 1,3,6 and 7 years old, and up until today, they’ve been renting an apartment.
"We're only living in a three-bedroom, one bath and it's hard to have six people in one bathroom," Sou said.
The 27- and 28-year-old parents say the housing market just isn’t affordable, something Habit for Humanity says they’re seeing too.
"Right now, the average cost to buy a house in Tacoma-Pierce County is almost a half a million dollars," Kildun said.
Fortunately for them, Sou started the application process last May.
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"After knowing that was going to be a five-bedroom house, I was like I have to get that for my family, not knowing that we were the thirteenth family applying for the exact house," Sou said.
They were matched to the home in September.
"We were incredibly shocked," Sou said.
But the couple says it took hard work, qualifications they had to meet beforehand.
"We paid $14,000 in debt and credit card debt," Sou said.
The families are also required to have 250 hours of sweat equity, meaning they must volunteer their time to help build their home and their neighbor’s home.
"Chan and Kevin were here helping to raise the wall and literally raised the walls of their new home just two weeks ago," Kildun said.
"Habitat made our dream turn into a reality," Sou said.
A safe haven for the family of six who is now waiting for their home to be finished by July.
"We are just happy that we can give them a life that we didn't have a roof over our head," Sou said.
Habitat for Humanity says 50 more homes will be built in Tacoma, Tilikum, and Gig Harbor over the next five years.
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