Fire-resistant steel siding is partially installed on Building A, far right, Wednesday (June 24) at Skylstad Family Haven, behind Rosauers in Twisp. The affordable-housing complex includes three buildings and a clubhouse, near right.
Skylstad Family Haven to be ready by end of this year
Demand has been high for 72 affordable apartments under construction behind Rosauers in Twisp, a representative of the developer said during a tour of the project on Wednesday (June 24).
Skylstad Family Haven, as the development is called, will be ready for occupancy before the end of the year, said Matt Kilbourne, vice president of development and asset management for Catholic Charities Eastern Washington (CCEW).
Inquiries are pouring in, Kilbourne said. People interested in the apartments, which will be rented to people making between 30% and 60% of the area mean income (AMI), can submit their names online at housing.cceasternwa.org/sfh.
“We have already had 44 households provide their information in just over a month,” Kilbourne said in an email the day after the tour. “Our lease-up team will begin making contact with those individuals over the next month, so they will be prepared to move in as soon as units are available.”
CCEW will have a more precise idea of when the first of three 24-unit buildings will be completed after the flooring is laid later this month, Kilbourne said.
The project will take another visible step forward in July, when Lombard Street — the complex’s access road — and the parking lots are paved.
Work to bury and cap topsoil contaminated with arsenic from pesticide use on the former orchard site is nearly complete, Kilbourne said.
The drywall is already up in Building A, which will have 12 two-bedroom units and 12 one-bedrooms. Building B, which is three weeks behind Building A, will offer 12 three-bedroom apartments in addition to 12 two-bedrooms.
In all, the three three-story apartment buildings comprise 36 two-bedrooms, 24 one-bedrooms and 12 three-bedroom units.
Fire-resistant steel siding and soffits are being installed on the exterior of the buildings. Each apartment has 9-foot ceilings, made possible by the building-height increase the Town of Twisp approved in early 2025.
The units are equipped with Methownet broadband fiber and multiple mini-splits. (Tenants will need to be educated about not setting one HVAC unit to heat and the other to cool, Kilbourne noted.)
The first two buildings will go to qualifying tenants who make between 30% and 60% of AMI. The third building is likely to be offered to lower-income earners too, Kilbourne said, but nothing has been finalized yet.
According to the latest figures from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, released in May, the rental rates for one-bedroom apartments at Skylstad Family Haven will range from $545 to $1,091 a month, depending on income level. Two-bedrooms will rent for $654 to $1,309. The rent for a three-bedroom will cost between $756 and $1,513 a month.
The median household income in Okanogan County is $80,800.
