This article, published in The Daily Record, was written by Brian Kelly.
It’s time to get to work.
Habitat for Humanity broke ground for three new homes in Ellensburg on Thursday. But as officials grabbed shovels for the ceremonial turning of dirt, they also made the pitch for people to pick up hammers and help get the houses built in time for the new residents to enjoy their first holiday under their own roof in 2027.
“These homes will be built with love,” said Nick Nelson, Kittitas Senior Site Manager for Habitat for Humanity of Seattle-King and Kittitas Counties.
Nelson said he hoped some of that love would come from the volunteer sign-up sheets on a nearby table and made the call for more helping hands.
He asked for volunteers — from the community, businesses and churches — adding, “Bring a friend.”
The three homes will be raised on a vacant lot on South Willow Street, across the street from Mountain View Park. Habitat hopes to finish the homes — 975-square-foot units with two bedrooms and a bath — by fall of next year.
“They will take hundreds of hours. And I mean hundreds,” Nelson said.
“I don’t care about your experience level. I will find something for you to do. I promise you that,” he told the crowd gathered for the groundbreaking.
Stephanie Bohman, area director for Habitat for Humanity, said the residents of the project will have mortgages set no higher than 35% of their household income. Eligible residents must complete volunteer hours with the organization, as well as take homebuyer education courses.
Habitat officials joined with their partners from the city of Ellensburg, local businesses and community members for the June 4 ceremony.
“Welcome to 510 South Willow Street, where three families are going to build their homes,” Bohman told the crowd.
“Look around you: The people standing in this crowd today — that is how homes get built. By communities that decide its neighbors deserve better. That is how Habitat for Humanity has always been. And that’s what it’s about today,” she said.
Bohman noted that Habitat for Humanity is based on the belief that everyone deserves a decent place to live.
“This is a hand up, and in no way a handout,” she said. “We don’t build for people, we build with people.” Homeowners work alongside volunteers, putting sweat equity into the place they’ll call home.
Bohman also shared the challenges for people not only looking to find their first home, but having a place at all to live in an area with skyrocketing housing costs.
“Fifty percent: That’s how much rental prices have risen amongst our region in the last six years. Fifty percent,” she said. “For a family already stretching every dollar, that’s not a statistic. That’s a reality. That is a difference between staying in Kittitas County, or being pushed out of it.”
“The people being priced out are not strangers. They are our co-workers, they’re our neighbors, they are custodians at your kids’ schools, they’re the persons who make your coffee or bag your groceries.”
Habitat works to keep people in the community for the good of the community, she said, from veterans to retirees to single caregivers.
Since the organization’s merger in 2020 that established Habitat for Humanity of Seattle-King and Kittitas Counties, Bohman acknowledged the accomplishments that had already been achieved, like Stuart Meadows, an 18-home community of three-bedroom, single-family homes at Water Street and Bender Road.
She also praised the city of Ellensburg, the primary funder of the Willow Street development.
“That is community leadership,” Bohman said.
City Councilmember Delano Palmer said three families will soon become neighbors on Willow Street.
“These three houses that will be here are more than just the stakes in the ground and the dirt that you see here,” he said.
The future residents will have dinner-table memories of building their own homes from the ground up, Palmer said, and he thanked Habitat and other volunteers who will make the homes a reality.
“Ellensburg has always been a town where people show up for each other,” Palmer said, “and this is the next chapter of our story.”
A Habitat homeowner also thanked those who will help make real those words.
Dana B., who became a Habitat for Humanity homeowner in 2015, recalled moving to Ellensburg in 2014.
She was living with her son and daughter-in-law in a “very tiny house,” and the couple was expecting their third child.
She said she almost didn’t apply to be a homeowner with Habitat because she didn’t think she would be chosen. Besides, she added, there were others who were also looking for a place to live.
“I literally prayed … ‘God, give this to another family that needs it more than me,’” she recalled, her voice breaking with emotion.
She was selected for a Habitat home in Kittitas.
“My grandkids have filled it with memories,” she said.
Habitat gave her more than a home, she added.
“Don’t underestimate what you’re doing,” she told the crowd. “You’re fulfilling a lot of dreams.”