Homeownership

Rooted in generations of community in Ellensburg, Habitat homeowner Paige V. brings that same spirit to helping others find a place to belong. Born and raised in Ellensburg, Paige is a fourth-generation resident. Her whole family lives in Ellensburg and has for a long time. Her husband is from the Tri Cities, but he moved to Ellensburg when he was in high school. He attended Kittitas High School while Paige went to Ellensburg High School. They first met at a party in high school, and after not talking for a couple of years, they reconnected when they were in their 20s.

Paige works for a social services non-profit that connects people to affordable housing. The couple has three children: 12-year-old Jace, eight-year-old Haley, and a three-year-old. Their whole family enjoys spending time in nature. Ellensburg has desert land on one side and hills on the other. They go up in the hills for hikes or to swim in the creek in the summer. 

When a Habitat flyer was sent to her office, Paige’s boss suggested she apply. Paige and her husband had been talking about buying a home for a while and felt ready for the next step. At the time, Paige was living in affordable housing provided by the local Housing Authority, where she had started working after completing her degree. Her husband worked in landscaping, and although their income exceeded the usual limits, they were allowed to stay in a unit with a set rent.  

Still, Paige knew it was time to invest in a permanent home: “That housing is meant for people that need it, and we were ready to own and move on.” 

The application and construction process took nearly two years. Despite the wait, Paige remained committed. She and her husband spent a year working on the interior of their home, laying flooring and learning construction skills in the process. The experience was demanding but rewarding. Through it, Paige bonded with others in the community and gained a deeper appreciation for the effort that goes into building a home. 

Moving in was a surreal moment. They received their keys at the end of May 2024 and began settling in immediately. Paige especially appreciates the single-story layout—no more stairs—and the convenience of being able to walk to work. Her new home has brought simple joys, like having a laundry room where she can stash any clutter and shut the door. Trails and open fields nearby are perfect for evening walks with their dog. 

Now, over a year since moving in, Paige feels truly at home. She hung pictures on the walls, filled the space with new furniture, and made it her own. The experience of building and envisioning the home over the past year helped her feel connected to it from the start.

Reflecting on the journey, Paige believes the effort was absolutely worth it. “When I think about if we were to buy a home on our own, we would have struggled. And the community working together on building your home is really special.” 

Paige and her family have found a sense of belonging and stability in their new Habitat home. Her daughter Haley’s best friend also lives in a Habitat home. She’s the daughter of Kara, whom Paige has known since high school. When a spot opened in their development, Paige encouraged Kara to apply. Kara, who works at a daycare, was already familiar with the Habitat process thanks to Paige, and she successfully secured a home. Now, their daughters attend the same school and are inseparable. 

Paige not only urged Kara to apply but shares Habitat SKKC as a resource with the clients she works with at the Housing Authority: “I encourage people to look at it. There are a lot of families who are getting to that income, and I tell them to check out Habitat because I would like to see that for them too.”

Alexandra grew up in Shelton, Washington, a small town near Olympia, before meeting her wife Lan and moving to Seattle. When they lived in Seattle, it was in a small one-bedroom apartment. While they loved living in the Fremont neighborhood, the apartment was so tiny that it was difficult to make it feel like their own.

After a few years, the young couple moved back to Shelton to save money and be closer to Alexandra’s family for a while. While it was important for her to be near family, Alexandra missed living in Seattle and hanging out with friends at her old place, and Lan still commuted multiple hours every day for her job in Seattle as a structural engineer. Thanks to Habitat SKKC, they have recently moved back to Seattle as first-time homeowners. 

“When we moved to Shelton, it was nice to live near my family. But it wasn’t really our own space. I’m really excited to live in a home where it can be our own for the first time,” Alexandra explains. 

Alexandra was born in Alaska, and she goes back there every summer to visit her dad’s side of the family and to fish. There, she spends time in Cordova and Bristol Bay taking in the beauty of the surroundings, including the glaciers that dot the landscape. Alexandra’s family business is fishing, and she is a third-generation fisher. Her grandparents, aunt and dad, and now Alexandra all fish for salmon, primarily Sockeye. They build and live in cabins on the beach and fish when the tide comes in. Returning to Alaska every summer keeps her connected to her family there, and she gets to continue an important family tradition. 

Back in Seattle, Alexandra loves the vibrant arts community. She especially likes that the city has many small businesses and that it’s known for the bookstores that have different themes. There’s something to do all the time, including new restaurants popping up every week. “Lan and I are huge foodies, so we’ll go to a new restaurant every week,” she adds. 

In addition to working as a seasonal fisher, Alexandra is in graduate school studying public health. Before she started her graduate program, she volunteered a lot in sexual and domestic violence advocacy, and so she wanted to get back into that field. Once she graduates, she’ll likely have to give up her summers fishing in Alaska to focus on full-time work, but she is ready for the change so she can commit to her new career. 

When not in school, art lover Alexandra goes to the movies with Lan and takes screenwriting and drawing classes on the side. Her latest crafting interest is clay-making. She already plans to check out the pottery studios in Seattle once she’s settled into her new home. 

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Alexandra and Lan found out about Habitat’s homeownership program through some of Lan’s friends, whose family members have gone through the program and recommended it. Alexandra adds, “When we were visiting our friends, we saw Yarrow Cottages right across the street. And then they said, ‘Our parents went through that program, and they loved it, and it helped them so much.’” 

This word-of-mouth recommendation led them to apply to the program, and now they call Yarrow Cottages home. Alexandra found the homebuying process to be easy, particularly due to the helpfulness of the Habitat SKKC staff: “I have some health problems where I can’t be outside in the sun as much, so they’ve helped me find volunteer opportunities working in the store.” 

Alexandra volunteered at multiple Habitat Stores sorting and cleaning, interacting with the different volunteers, and organizing the shelves. Besides volunteering with Habitat, another key piece of the homebuying process is taking the homeowner classes available through Habitat. Alexandra explains, “They went over the buying process and helping with financials. There were also some that focused on if things break down in your house, how you can fix it. And they’ve all been free, which has been awesome.” 

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Now moved into their new home, the couple looks forward to spending more time together, going on more dates, and hosting dinners and movie nights with friends. Alexandra also looks forward to feeling more connected to different communities in the city, particularly the art community.  

Alexandra is most excited about her new kitchen and living room: “It’s huge compared to our last place. And we’re friend-oriented, found family-oriented. Building it so that we have a space to all be together is wonderful.”

To make their new place feel like a home, they picked up a few items from the Habitat Store to decorate, and Alexandra’s dad, a woodworker, is building a few pieces as well. They’re putting up pictures from the different weddings they have been to for their friends, and other photographs to document their many travels together. Alexandra wants to include sentimental objects from the past while setting up her home so that they can make new memories there. 

Jessica has lived in Washington state for most of her life. Born in Tacoma and raised in Puyallup, she moved to Seattle as a teenager. This happened in the mid-1990s, at the height of grunge’s popularity, and she moved to the city because she really liked the arts scene. When she arrived, she lived briefly in a recording studio, where she met a lot of musicians and got to know people in the arts community. 

The arts have always been important to Jessica, who started acting when she was a kid in local theater. Now, she owns a business producing jazz concerts featuring female artists. Their next show will be a collaboration with the Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association (SKSCA). Every year, the SKSCA brings a female artist from Kobe, Japan to perform in the U.S. for the first time. Seattle Women in Jazz helps to present this artist in an international concert, that also features performances by local artists. 

When not supporting Seattle’s artistic community, Jessica works in a middle school as a special education teacher. She was a substitute for several years until about a year ago, when she received her teaching certification and her master’s in education. This fall marks her beginning as a permanent, full-time teacher.  

“Last year was my first year, and I did it half-time, and then the other half I subbed. So, it was a nice, gradual easing into it, because even though I was a substitute teacher, I didn’t really feel ready to do it full time after graduating. Next school year, I’ll be a full-time teacher. I’m a little bit nervous about it, but I feel like I have an idea of what to expect, since I was doing it half-time,” Jessica explains. 

Jessica’s daughter Ella was born in Seattle and has lived in or around the city her whole life. She’ll start the third grade this fall. She takes after her mom in some of her interests, from singing to attending shows at the Seattle Children’s Theater. She also helps her mom out at the jazz concerts Jessica produces. Jessica likes Seattle’s abundance of parks, and she enjoys going to concerts around town. Together, the pair enjoys traveling, from trips to Disney resorts or closer stays on the Oregon coast. 

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The family had been living in an apartment in Lake City, where Ella attends school, but sharing a building with a difficult neighbor escalated from uncomfortable to dangerous, and Jessica had to make a quick decision to relocate to somewhere safe. This led Jessica to move in with her mother in Puyallup, all while still commuting to Lake City so that Ella didn’t have to leave her school. 

Jessica says, “When we went to live with my mom, we weren’t expecting to stay as long as we have. We started looking at different options of where we could live that might be safer. Habitat for Humanity seemed like a good option for Ella to have more permanent housing than an apartment where we may end up with someone that we don’t feel safe around.” 

While Jessica was in graduate school, she started to think of different options of how to buy a home once she graduated. Ella really wanted to live in a house, so Jessica made a list and looked at different options in terms of what she could afford.  

“Part of what helped me get through graduate school was the possibility of being able to have a house once I graduated,” she adds. 

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Jessica applied to the Yarrow Cottages neighborhood and was accepted into Habitat SKKC’s homeownership program. She liked the neighborhood’s location in a quiet part of Seattle. Meeting the people on the other side of the unit’s shared wall before moving in helped Jessica feel comfortable with the prospect of new neighbors after her previous difficulties. 

Ella drew a picture for their future neighbors, and when they found out who the couple was at a Habitat-sponsored event, Ella gave it to them. Touched by the gesture, they said they will frame it and put it up on their wall. The photo featured a house and a cat—a not so subtle message to her mom as Ella has expressed interest in owning a cat once they move into their house. She has already picked out the name Luna for her future pet. 

During her time in the Habitat homeownership program, Jessica volunteered at the Southcenter Habitat Store and onsite at Yarrow Cottages helping to build her future neighbors’ homes. She simultaneously completed the required homeownership classes that addressed topics like how to budget and the costs associated with buying a house. This kind of support and engagement throughout the homebuying process helped her to already feel like part of the Yarrow Cottages—and greater Habitat for Humanity—community. 

Jessica reflects, “I think one of the nice things baked into the Habitat program is how much you get to know your neighbors. You’re building community right from the start.” 

To prepare for the move, Jessica has already started exploring her future neighborhood, checking out the local parks, bakeries, and library branch. She’s thinking about the family photos she wants to line the walls of her new home with and the potted plants she can grow on her front porch. 

For her part, Ella is dreaming too. When asked what’s the first thing she wants to do when she moves in, she succinctly answers, “Get a cat.” 

As a recent immigrant, one of Gonzalo G.’s biggest challenges was finding housing. He arrived with an amount of money that he thought was going to be enough to start looking for an apartment and then find work. What he didn’t expect was that a lot of landlords won’t rent to you if you don’t have a credit history, even if you have the money or and a job. 

“When I moved here, I had no credit record or a job. My first option was renting from Airbnb, and that’s super expensive. Housing in Seattle is expensive, but if you rent an Airbnb, it’s more expensive than that. Then I found a friend who needed a roommate, so I went to that house, and for a long time I was living there, but the idea was that I was going to be there for one or two months. That was an agreement, but that extended as I was not able to find an apartment because of this credit problem,” he says of his housing journey. 

He found a temporary solution in a building near the University of Washington that houses international students who also don’t have a credit history. He moved into and still lives in a room there with a private bathroom and access to a shared kitchen. His current living situation is challenging in many ways. There are Airbnb rooms within the building, which means many guests moving in and out of the space and not respecting the rules around quiet hours or kitchen cleanliness. His bicycle was stolen from the building’s garage. He is also forced to eat out more due to the lack of a reliable cooking space. These factors all added up and sent Gonzalo in search of a more stable housing option.  

Before beginning his homebuying journey with Habitat SKKC, Gonzalo was a frequent visitor to Seattle from Mexico. He was taken by the breadth of outdoor activities, from mountain biking to paragliding, kayaking to swimming. He spends much of his free time playing soccer at Cal Anderson Park. The access to the outdoors was a new experience after spending much of his adulthood in the bustling metropolis of Mexico City. 

“It’s a huge city with a lot of restaurants and museums, but we don’t have a lot of nature. There was something here that I wanted: a city with a lot of outdoor activities and no traffic, no pollution. Yes, I know people from Seattle complain about traffic, but trust me, this is nothing like the traffic in Mexico City,” he muses. 

Mountain biking has quickly become his favorite new activity in nature, but in the city proper, Gonzalo enjoys going to music shows. He says, “Seattle is one of the best spots for music. It’s part of the history that the grunge culture started here. That’s something that I have always been interested in. I’m a musician, and I probably go to six shows per month here.” 

Luckily for Gonzalo, he’ll move into his new home in Capitol Hill, a neighborhood known for its nightlife and plenty of options for hearing live music. When he moves into his new one-bedroom condo, he’ll bring along plenty of instruments: He plays guitar, bass, ukulele, drums, and his favorite, saxophone. 

Gonzalo currently works remotely as a logistics coordinator for a company based in England. Prior to immigrating, he worked for many years in Mexico’s government, starting as a software developer before moving into a management position. Despite his impressive resume, Gonzalo faced many barriers to work as an immigrant. 

“It’s really challenging to get a first job when you’re a new immigrant. That happened to a lot of my friends that hadn’t arrived with a job already. I think a lot of companies think that you’re not legally here and that you’re going to ask them to do that procedure for you, or that you’re going to give them fake documents or they’re not going to take the risk on you not being prepared with the language. I guess that a lot of companies are scared to take this first step of hiring someone, and I really appreciate that this company did it with me,” he explains. 

After experiencing firsthand the challenges of life as a recent immigrant, Gonzalo began volunteering at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project to help others who are going through a similar experience. He started volunteering because one of his friends works there, and she told him that sometimes they have trouble finding people who can interpret Spanish. By serving as a volunteer translator, Gonzalo can accompany people being aided by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project as they meet with schools, lawyers, and medical professionals. He has enjoyed the work and getting to know people from many different countries.  

In addition to work and volunteering, Gonzalo is in the middle of a master’s program studying artificial intelligence. He has a year to go and a thesis to write, but he feels he must move fast to keep up with the pace of AI’s development. He plans to explore job opportunities in the field once he completes his degree, but for now he’s happy to study it while balancing the rest of the demands of his busy life. 

When he learned about Habitat for Humanity from a friend, Gonzalo saw that he needed to have worked at his current job for a year, so he turned down another offer in order to meet this requirement. He was determined to make the process work and make his dream of homeownership a reality. He has enjoyed every part of the homebuying process with Habitat SKKC, including volunteering at the Bellevue Store, where he has learned a lot about furniture materials and assembly and has fun interacting with staff and other volunteers. 

Prior to moving into his Habitat home, Gonzalo lamented how everyone in Seattle, including him, moved so much. He had met a lot of people who became friends, but then they moved to New York or went back to Mexico. He adds, “Seattle is a city experiencing a lot of change, and so am I. I think having my own place is going to make me feel like, finally, Seattle is my home.”