Page 20 - Pierce County Lawyer - January February 2025

American Lake Townhomes Neighborhood in Tillicum
Habitat Continues to Make a Difference in 2025
Finished Exterior
By Mark Holcomb and Sherrana Kildun
The place we call home makes a profound difference in
our lives. Decades of research confirm that affordable
homeownership leads to greater economic stability,
access to quality education, better health, and a reduced
environmental footprint. Unfortunately, the Tacoma-Pierce
County community continues to lack sufficient affordable
housing. The statistics are concerning:
(i) Housing is typically considered affordable if total
housing costs do not exceed 30% of a household’s
gross income. Remarkably, more than 43,000
households in Pierce County spend over 50% of their
income on housing.1
(ii) During the past decade, Pierce County reported
there was a shortfall of between 13,000 and 20,000
housing units to meet the actual housing need. This
deficiency increased competition for homes and was
instrumental in driving up housing costs.1
(iii) With an estimate rent of $1,731 a month,
Washington State had the 5th highest median rental
cost of any state in America in 2023. In addition to its
high rent costs, Washington state had the 6th highest
median monthly mortgage costs in the country with
an estimate at $2,396 (which is nearly $500 more a
month than the national median residential mortgage
in 2022).2
(iv) Habitat has found that the cost of a typical down
payment for first-time homebuyers excluded 92
percent of renters, whose median savings for a down
payment were an average of only $1,500.
For almost 40 years, Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for
Humanity (TPCH) has provided life-changing stability to
families in need of affordable housing. Most often, they have
achieved this through new home construction, but another
critical path to creating affordable housing is to increase home
preservation through renovations and repair.
1 Pierce County Housing Action Strategy September 2022 Executive Summary
Housing
2 Tacoma News Tribune Article September 18, 2024
TPCH has an unprecedented opportunity to immediately
purchase existing homes to expand access to entry-level
homeownership for income-qualified families. Pierce County
Housing Authority (PCHA) is selling its single-family rental
portfolio, and TPCH is committed to preserving up to 80 of
these units for affordable homeownership in perpetuity. As
PCHA finds replacement homes for current tenants, TPCH is
working to buy, renovate, and resell the newly vacated homes to
income-qualified first-time buyers who have been priced out of
the market.
To further preserve affordability, TPCH is selling these homes
with a resale restriction like that of a community land trust.
Under this unique program, TPCH retains ownership of
the land and only sells the house to the buyer. By removing
the land, the sale price of the home is dramatically reduced.
TPCH’s typical buyer pays about $1,600 a month. If this house
were on the market as a rental, the tenant would probably be
paying $2,200-$2,500 a month.
TPCH’s Chief Philanthropy Officer Sherrana Kildun says,
“Using a restricted resale model, Tacoma Habitat ensures the
permanent affordability of these homes to preserve entry-
level homeownership for generations to come. If, or when,
a homeowner decides to sell, the home is not placed on the
open market. In the 99-year ground lease, buyers agree to sell
only to another income qualified buyer at a predetermined
resale formula. For these 80 houses, it will be about 1.5 percent
increase for each year that they own the home, so after 10 years,
they could walk away with somewhere in the neighborhood of
$70,000.”
Another affordable housing home preservation approach is
TPCH’s Aging in Place Program which works with current
Pierce County homeowners age 60+ and disabled veterans
of the US Military to create a safe and livable environment
where they can age independently in the comfort and stability
of their own home. Since 2020, TPCH has helped over 200
senior or disabled veteran homeowners remain in their own
home by performing critical home repairs (e.g., roof, porch/
deck or HVAC/furnace replacements) or adding environmental
modifications (e.g. ramps, grab bars or handrails).
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