Land trust ready to launch permanently affordable homeownership project in Bellingham
An 18-home, permanently affordable homeownership development is breaking ground this summer in Bellingham’s Birchwood neighborhood.
LaFreniere Court is a Kulshan Community Land Trust (Kulshan CLT) development that is planned on a plot of land along Birchwood Avenue.
Nine of the homes on the land will be three-bedroom, single-family homes. The other nine will be two-bedroom ADUs, but they will be sold as individual units. Two of the 18 units will be single-story and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
KulshanCLT was recently awarded $2.25 million from the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Housing Trust Fund to help fund the project.
The organization bought the land in 2017 but wasn’t able to develop it as an 18-home project until the city of Bellingham amended its Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance last year. The city considers ADUs to be a valuable component in achieving local infill housing goals, in part by increasing housing choice and affordability.
“We needed to get to 18 because the site infrastructure is so expensive. Putting in all of that work for nine homes, the project just didn’t pencil. But with 18 homes, it does,” KulshanCLT Executive Director Dean Fearing said.
The project is expected to break ground on the site in July with construction on the units expected to be complete in 2025. Fearing said he anticipated homeowners would move in around the fall of 2025.
The three-bedroom homes are expected to cost less than $325,000. The two-bedroom homes are expected to cost less than $275,000.
Kulshan Community Land Trust’s primary focus is to develop permanently affordable homes for first-time home buyers in Whatcom County by leveraging state, federal and local funding to support the down payment in the home purchase.
“Unless we tackle (housing affordability), it’s going to get worse. It’s not going to get better,” Fearing said. “So our goal has been to push ourselves and grow our capacity so that we can help a lot more people.”
KulshanCLT owns the land under the home, while the homeowner purchases the home itself. This creates a ground lease that ensures the home will be permanently affordable. In exchange for the reduced price of the home, homeowners agree to sell their home at an affordable price, if and when they decide to sell.
Homeowners earn a 1.5% yearly equity on their homes — a rate determined by KulshanCLT — as the home appreciates in value and the mortgage principle is paid down. This allows homeowners to build equity over time but keeps the home from becoming unaffordable for the next buyer.
“We hear from people every day who are struggling, and they would love to be able to buy a home to raise their family in but they’ve been completely shut out from the housing market,” Fearing said. “Now more than ever we’re hearing employers who are in that same situation. They can’t grow their business because they can’t retain employees or they can’t attract employees.”
The organization serves people making less than 80% of the area’s median income. Whatcom County’s median household income was $77,581 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Fearing said the Land Trust’s homeowner waiting list is longer than it has ever been, with more than 70 families signed up to buy a home through the program. Since 1999, 230 families have purchased their first home in Whatcom County through KulshanCLT.
In addition to the LaFreniere Court development, KulshanCLT is also working on a 68-home condominium project in Blaine, a 50-home project in Ferndale, and 37 more homes on Telegraph Road that are expected to be developed over the next five years.
This story was originally published February 15, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
