Winthrop Town Planner Rocklynn Culp talked about expectations for the upcoming Housing Action Plan at the Methow Housing Solutions Network gathering last week.
By Julia Babkina
Wide range of approaches up for discussion
Representatives of 12 local organizations met at the Twisp Valley Grange on Feb. 7 to present their work on addressing affordable housing in the valley. The event, organized by Methow Housing Solutions Network, showcased different approaches by local organizations tackling the issue.
Each organization approached affordable housing from different angles. Danica Ready, executive director of the Methow Housing Trust, said the network’s aim is to focus on solutions and refrain from blame. Housing Solutions Network is a consortium whose core members are Methow Housing Trust, Room One, Methow Valley Citizens Council, TwispWorks and Methow Conservancy.
Each organization presented for three-and-half minutes and, except for two organizations that presented via Zoom, set up tables to continue conversations.
Carlene Anders, housing coordinator for Okanogan Coalition for Health Improvement, said her organization is exploring case studies in Oregon and Washington and will be creating a steering committee to explore these options for Okanogan County.
Nancy Nash-Mendez, executive director of the Okanogan County Housing Authority, attended by Zoom as she prepared to travel to Olympia, where she would meet with legislators to advocate for more housing in the state. She updated her efforts to build 22 units of multi-family housing named Wildrose Apartments, a part of the Cascade Meadows North planned development in Winthrop, adjacent to Cascade Condominiums off Highway 20. Fourteen of the apartments will be one-bedroom units, four two-bedrooms and four three-bedrooms.
“We were able to gather data two to three years ago stating that the biggest need in the Methow Valley is actually the one-bedroom unit,” said Nash Mendez.
The project is estimated to cost $9.7 million and the housing authority is in the process of securing funding.
“In the affordable housing world, we have to almost think of us like a quilter,” Nash-Mendez said. “We are bringing a million here, a million there to be able to do our projects. If things go as we are aiming to go, we envision having the first families coming in, with their keys in their hand, in the second quarter of 2025.”
Short-term solution
Rana Clarke, executive director of Jamie’s Place, talked about her organization’s efforts to address affordable housing for caregivers. Jamie’s Place erected two tiny homes for caregivers who have committed to working at Jamie’s Place for at least a year. The organization won a Game Changer grant for “sustainable, short-term, easily replicated option for workforce housing.”
“So many of the entities in this room tonight are working robustly on long term solutions for housing, but we knew we had to do something right away in order to protect elder security and safety at Jamie’s Place,” said Clarke. “There are no other options in the valley for long-term care.”
Tracy Sprauer, Program Director for Methow at Home, which helps people remain in their homes as long as possible, talked about their partnership with Silvernest, which matches people seeking housing with homes owned by seniors. Methow at Home seeks to use seniors’ largest asset — their homes — to address housing needs, financial shortfall, and social isolation.
“We’re coming into the largest generation — our baby boomers are coming into their 70s,” said Sprauer. “Fifty percent of Americans are going to run out of retirement savings, but 81% do own their own homes and most of their wealth is tied up into that and it comes together with all sorts of wonderful possibilities.”
Sarah Brooks, executive director of the Methow Conservancy, relayed her organization’s endeavor to address land conservation, farming and housing.
“I want to appreciate the board of directors of the Methow Conservancy who, about 10 years ago, reminded all of us that if we’re going to be a good land conservation organization, we also have to make sure there is room for people,” said Brooks.
To that end, Brooks talked about the conservancy’s campaign to purchase 1,200 acres of Sunny M ranch, owned by the Haub family, which has space for wildlife, farming and people. The Conservancy is working with the Methow Housing Trust to develop a neighborhood on the land closest to Winthrop.
“We continue to hold on to the belief that if we are to be a Western mountain valley that shows there is room for wildlife, for farming, and for people, we have to find space for all of it,” said Brooks.
Housing trust model
Ready, of Methow Housing Trust, said her organization has nine houses under construction in Winthrop and 36 more are in the pipeline in Twisp, scheduled to break ground this spring, and in Winthrop next year. There are 61 households on the waitlist. Since 2017, the trust has built and sold 28 houses. People who make up to 150% of the median income for Okanogan County can qualify.
Under the housing trust model, the homeowner leases the land but owns the home. The home’s appreciation is capped so that the home remains affordable. If the owner chooses to sell, the home goes back to the trust to sell to the next person on their waiting list. Property taxes are tied to the resale restrictions of the home.
“This has been going on for almost 60 years now and it’s a proven model that has national associations and lots of legal frameworks that make it really stable and predictable,” said Ready.
Gary Scott of Portal West Corporation, developers of the 78-unit Milltown project in Twisp, said they are working on a pre-annexation agreement for 7 acres of the property and hope annexation “fairly soon.”
“This is the entrepreneurial approach to trying to solve the same workforce housing issue that we’re all facing or trying to deal with,” said Scott.
The development, being proposed by property owners Hank and Judy Konrad, will have housing above retail, as well as a mix of small, medium and large homes. Scott said they were able to cut construction costs by 30% using the SIP system, a pre-fab insulated unit. He has also found that solar energy can work in this community.
“We can make a major dent in some of the operating costs for homeowners using that format,” said Scott.
Jasmine Minbashian, executive director of Methow Valley Citizens Council and a member of the Twisp Planning Commission, said any housing solution must take into account climate change, water capacity, air pollution, dark skies and traffic. She said she would like to see the county’s comprehensive plan address affordable housing.
“To be successful and to identify durable solutions, we have to look at all these issues together,” said Minbashian.
Mark Easton, member of the Housing Action Plan Committee for the Twisp Town Council, also expressed concern about housing growth, citing the Milltown project, the proposed Orchard Hills development (see related story, page A1), and two more applications for developments in the pipeline. He expressed concern about water capacity, wastewater, traffic, FireWise, and “something that’s a little bit harder to quantify, what I’m calling our cultural capacity for possibly sudden growth.”
“There are several other developments that are in the sort of casual talking phase that aren’t officially in front of the town, but if those all came to fruition, within three to five years, we could potentially double the population of Twisp, so that’s something to think about,” said Easton.
“Is it affordable housing, or is it just adding housing stock to the market?” he added.
Seeing the need
Kat Goering, executive director of Room One, reported that in 2022, the organization provided housing planning 77 times, provided rental assistance 29 times, emergency motel stays 10 times because “we have no shelter here in the valley,” made 30 referrals to other organizations for people with housing concerns, and made 112 referrals to the Okanogan County Community Action Council, mostly for utility and rental assistance.
“These are significant numbers for rural areas,” said Goering.
Goering said they are seeking homeowners for a house sharing program to prevent youth homelessness, and are partnering with Jamie’s Place and Methow at Home to serve seniors who want to age in the valley.
Rocklynn Culp, Twisp resident and town planner for Winthrop, said Winthrop and Twisp are working cooperatively on Housing Action Plans to research housing needs and capacities in each town. In December, Culp submitted a five-page memorandum containing the planning commission’s proposals for addressing the housing shortage, previously covered by Methow Valley News. The Housing Action Plan is also expected to provide recommendations.
“We’re working on it,” said Culp.
Sarah Brown, executive director at TwispWorks, said her organization is considering a lending model for affordable housing following the success of the Methow Investment Network for local businesses. They are exploring developing a program which would allow TwispWorks to receive charitable donations and loan them to other organizations or to developers that are developing rental homes in the 80%-140% range of the county’s area median income. The money would be loaned out again as the money is repaid.
“It gives us the ability to spend local charitable funds multiple times in the community,” Brown said.
Simon Windell, chief operating officer of Methow Housing Trust and a Winthrop Planning Commission member, ended the presentation by showing a Venn diagram of “five independently complicated components” that need to come together to build affordable homes: land, money, builder, developer and property manager.
“A recreation-based economy like ours has a little asterisk next to it, namely, that we need more housing, but we need the right kind of housing. We need housing for local folks,” said Windell.
