BURIEN, Wash. — Construction crews were busy Tuesday continuing work to build new, affordable homes in Burien.
The Miller’s Creek Community, located on S. 136th Street along Highway 509, already has water, sewer, power and curbs installed.
The next steps include pouring foundations to create 40 new homes, which Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King and Kittitas Counties (Habitat SKKC) told KOMO News will be priced in the low $300,000 to mid $400,000 range, in a neighborhood where the average home price is more than $800,000.
August is Make-A-Will Month, and Habitat for Humanity SKKC is celebrating by partnering with an organization called FreeWill to encourage our supporters, volunteers and homeowners alike to get their wishes in writing for their heirs. Last August, over 40,000 people used this online
estate planning tool to create their wills and even support the causes they love. You can use this month as an opportunity to plan for your future on your own terms.
Nearly 67% of American adults don’t have a will, but we’d like 100% of our Habitat SKKC community to protect the people love. Over a million people have used FreeWill to do just that and to have a profound impact on the causes that are dear to them— such as Habitat’s mission of making sure everyone has a safe, affordable place to live.
By creating your will this month, you can get peace of mind for the future, protect your family, and even support the future of Habitat SKKC. Completing your will with FreeWill’s tool can take just 20 minutes; it’s time well spent for your loved ones’ future. Remember, planning for tomorrow starts with our actions today.
Habitat for Humanity SKKC staff, volunteers, and supporters proudly joined the vibrant sea of rainbow shirts and flags as they marched alongside over 250 other groups in Seattle’s Pride Parade on Sunday, June 30. This year’s parade celebrated its 50th anniversary with the theme of NOW!
Habitat SKKC took that theme to heart with this year’s Pride Build aimed at creating inclusive communities where everyone has a safe place to live. Seventy-five volunteers contributed their labor in June’s first weeks to assure that members of the region’s LGBTQ+ community have access to safe and affordable housing.
Habitat’s annual Pride Build is designed to raise awareness of the need for affordable housing for all and its power to transform lives for the better. For Pride Build 2024, Habitat SKKC partnered with area organizations and allies to raise $16,000 in support of homeownership for LGBTQ+ families and individuals.
Habitat SKKC is dedicated to building safe, affordable, and inclusive communities for all our hard-working and marginalized neighbors across Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties. We pay special attention to groups that have historically faced systemic discrimination in accessing homeownership, ensuring their needs are prioritized by Habitat SKKC and our supporters.
Interested in being a part of Pride Build or the Pride Parade next year? Contact Alex Wyatt at alex.wyatt@habitatskc.org for more information.
Residents of Habitat for Humanity SKKC’s Walker Townhomes community were ecstatic to see Habitat volunteers arrive to help them with their repairs work party June 1st. The community, finished in 1997, has been managed by a self-governing Homeowners Association (HOA) since the first Habitat homeowners moved in 28 years ago. The volunteer work party that arrived to help Walker Townhome residents is part of a pilot program Habitat initiated this year as part of its Community Associations group.
Led by Community Associations Program Manager, Karissa Johnson, the pilot program is aimed at helping to ensure that Habitat’s Legacy Communities (those that pre-date Habitat’s land trust/ground lease, are in HOA’s and are more than 10 years old) continue to grow, thrive and become lasting permanently affordable housing for generations to come. As Karissa says, “The lessons learned can be readily applied to Habitat’s new builds allowing those communities to benefit from the wisdom of those who came before to make them even more successful from the start.”
Twelve HOA communities, totaling about 190 homes qualify as Legacy communities. With housing and insurance costs rising dramatically, many HOA’s are short of funding to keep their properties appropriately maintained, a problem that restricts mortgage funding options. Habitat’s pilot program for Legacy communities is designed to support Habitat’s HOA’s in meeting the requirements for lenders to approve standard mortgages when homes are up for resale. In its pilot, Habitat joined forces with the Walker Townhomes HOA to conduct property repairs the HOA didn’t have the resources to cover or complete.
The program’s approach is comprehensive and specific at once. Each community or individual homeowner in the program will receive help tailored to their status. For example, one property received deck repairs under forgivable liens, one has been plugged into the PSE retrofit grants for lighting, another is getting a free exterior inspection, and a community meeting to better educate everyone about their HOA so they may become more involved with their Board.
The Legacy Communities program is aligned with Habitat SKKC’s current emphasis on building communities. At the Walker Townhomes work party, brand-new owner, Logan, who had lived there for fewer than 48 hours, came out to meet his neighbors and help. He joined Mr. Nguyen, an original owner, who brought out his photo album with hundreds of pictures of his neighbors working together to build their units with Habitat back in the late 90s.
Program Manager Karissa has big plans, “I hope, in the long-term, that the program will bring our Legacy properties into Habitat’s permanently affordable housing portfolio, increase our relationship with our owners and the greater community, as well as impact decisions we make in new builds.” Eventually, the Legacy Communities program can enrich the long-standing HOA’s and ensure the HOA’s for new projects are strong, funded, supported and educated to be the best possible community experience for our partner families and every generation to come.
