<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4WZKZx_0wAjlwdt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4WZKZx_0wAjlwdt00" width="1707" height="1214" ><figcaption>A Homeownership Center Northwest client poses with their home.&nbsp; Courtesy of Homeownership Center Northwest</figcaption></figure>This article originally appeared in the October 2024 edition of our sister publication, South Sound Business.Owning a home is a dream for many, but for most people, high prices can make that long-term goal feel restricted to fantasy, impossible to attain in a lifetime.That’s a line of thinking — less a misguidedly pessimistic attitude than a pragmatic absorption of reality — with which Sue Elkin, the executive director of Tacoma-based Homeownership Center Northwest, is ever-familiar in her line of work. “I love when people can own their own dirt,” she told South Sound Business during a mid-August interview. “But the problem is that the dirt is so expensive.”Making sure that dirt is accessible to a broader range of people guides Homeownership Center Northwest’s mission. Founded in 1993, the organization was initially launched as the Hilltop Homeownership Development Center by a group of community leaders who noticed a large number of abandoned lots and uninhabitable homes in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood — itself going through a tumultuous period in its history — and purchased lots for low- to modern-income residents living in the area, the organization’s website outlined.<img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0t7KSJ_0wAjlwdt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0t7KSJ_0wAjlwdt00" width="760" height="956" >After some name and leadership changes, as well as an expansion of its offerings, the organization celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Current partners helping actualize its mission include the Tacoma Housing Authority, Banner Bank, the Master Builders Association of Pierce County, and others. HCN has now been around long enough that there are people who secured homeownership through the organization in previous generations who now have younger family members who also utilize its services. (On top of helping people acquire HCN homes, the organization also provides financial-counseling, homemaintenance, and home-development services.)Elkin joined HCN in July 2022, and after a period spent working through some bookkeeping challenges, she’s currently looking forward to homebuilding efforts in Tacoma and Lakewood. As for the latter project, the city of Lakewood allowed the organization to apply for a city-sanctioned grant to purchase the land to be used; HCN also applied for grants with Pierce County and the Department of Commerce. Elkin noted that, when an organization is as small as HCN, it can take a lot of time and money to ensure that it’s able to offer exactly what it promises, especially when one can’t wait for über-powerful philanthropists like, say, MacKenzie Scott, to swoop in and save the day.“What we will do then: We’re waiting for House Bill 1110 (which looks to increase middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing), even though it’s passed in the state; we’re waiting for the home in Tacoma thing to happen in Tacoma, and we’re waiting for Lakewood for density projects to come through, and then we’ll be able to build on those lots,” she said. “We’ve kind of pumped the brakes a little bit because now there’s more opportunity for us to build more homes than we would have had we just done the one home on each lot.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3hfu5s_0wAjlwdt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3hfu5s_0wAjlwdt00" width="1775" height="1167" ><figcaption>Multigenerational Homeownership Center Northwest clients.&nbsp; Courtesy of Homeownership Center Northwest</figcaption></figure>Although Tacoma used to be HCN’s primary focus, the organization isn’t limiting itself anymore. “There’s other land out there,” Elkin said. “Now that more people can work remotely, we’re pushing out.”Another affordable homeownership-bolstering organization in the South Sound, Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity, also is evolving. It became an affiliate of its parent agency in 1985. As current CEO Maureen Fife noted, it began, like many Habitat branches, more grassroots in nature, focused more simply on building one affordably priced house at a time. Now, it’s assembling full neighborhoods and spearheading construction of its own. The Housing &amp; Urban Development-certified agency also has been able to venture into other areas of support, such as financial counseling, foreclosure prevention, and aging in place.Those aspects of the organization particularly grew, Fife said, around the onset of the pandemic, when the focus for many local residents transitioned from acquiring new housing to being able to remain in their current residence.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3DLS7Z_0wAjlwdt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3DLS7Z_0wAjlwdt00" width="1458" height="1172" ><figcaption>Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity CEO Maureen Fife.&nbsp; Courtesy of Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity</figcaption></figure>When Fife spoke with South Sound Business in August, Habitat was a day away from opening its Habitat Store — which sells new and gently used furniture and appliances to help fund its housing efforts — in Spanaway.Another recent milestone — and one that’s taking up much of the organization’s current focus — came when, a couple of years ago, Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat started a new program with the Pierce County Housing Authority. The latter organization was disposing of 120 single-family homes in the Parkland and Spanaway area it had rented to clients because it wanted to build new housing. Now, Habitat is buying those houses, rehabilitating them, and selling them to Habitat homebuyers.The project will require an estimated $45 million in all. The organization has thus far secured $14 million from the state, with an additional $7 million currently being raised to acquire 80 of the 120 houses. Currently, Habitat has bought 20 and, at the time of the interview, was on track to get another three soon after.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=26zfZd_0wAjlwdt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=26zfZd_0wAjlwdt00" width="1665" height="1245" ><figcaption>A Triplex being developed in Tacoma.&nbsp; Courtesy of Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity</figcaption></figure>“We’ll just keep adding to that portfolio,” Fife said, noting later that the organization makes it a point to buy from local suppliers and companies when working on its projects.“Every dollar we spend is going into our local businesses, and we’re grateful because they step up and support us,” she continued.Fife added that the organization is also in the process of building 12 townhomes in Lakewood’s Tillicum neighborhood, doing infrastructure in Tacoma for 16 townhomes (in addition to work on a triplex and fourplex in the city), getting entitlement and permits for a 24-unit single-family neighborhood in Tacoma’s Blueberry Park area, and working on a fourplex in Puyallup.“We have lots of potential out there — lots and lots of potential,” Fife said. “What we’re trying to do is help people not feel helpless — like they’ll never own that home. We know that if someone buys a house through us via the land lease program, if they want to sell their house in eight to 10 years, they’ll walk with $80,000, which is a pretty good down payment for the next step.”</div></body>

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The Enduring Importance of Homeownership Affordability

This article originally appeared in the October 2024 edition of our sister publication, South Sound Business. Owning a home is a dream for many, but for most people, high prices can make that long-term goal feel restricted to fantasy, impossible to attain in a lifetime. That’s a line of thinking...