Kidder Way project will create ten new affordable homes on Orcas Island in a prime location in Eastsound
||| FROM SAN JUAN COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS |||
This summer, construction is in full swing at the Kidder Way affordable housing project on Orcas Island. Foundations have been poured, walls have been framed, and the completion goal of December feels within reach.
“We’re at a stage where a lot of the County’s recent investments in affordable housing are coming to fruition,” said Affordable Housing Program Coordinator Ryan Page. “The County has been invested in this project since 2022 and it’s exciting to see it take shape.”
OPAL Community Land Trust is building the Kidder Way project to provide ten new affordable houses for ownership in a prime location near the public school and Buck Park in Eastsound. Prospective Kidder Way homeowners include government civil servants, healthcare professionals, trade and utility service professionals, small business owners, and retail trade specialists. Children in the new neighborhood will range from ages from 3 to 15, and the prospective homeowners have lived on the island for an average of 15 years.
San Juan County is proud to support the work of OPAL through an award of over $2 million from the County’s Home Fund, and to have partnered with OPAL on a successful grant application to Washington State’s Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program (CHIP) resulting in a $190,000 grant for utility infrastructure for the project.
“The Kidder Way project was conceived when long-time island dentist Steven and Rita Bailey made a bargain sale of their land to OPAL. After years of effort and nearly $1 million of donations from islanders, the County’s Home Fund was the critical lynchpin,” said Lisa Byers, Executive Director of OPAL.
The Home Fund is a SJC Health & Community Services administered program to develop, produce, and preserve affordable housing in San Juan County. This program expands opportunities for local affordable housing projects to bring additional State, Federal and private funding from outside our county into our community to build more affordable housing.
To date, the County has contributed over $13 million dollars in funding to 13 affordable housing projects throughout the County. These projects represent 104 units of affordable housing that have already been built or preserved, with another 92 units currently in active development. In total the County’s Home Fund has been able to contribute funding to 196 units of affordable housing.
The Kidder Way project is made possible by additional financial support from hundreds of islanders’ donations, the Orcas Island Community Foundation, Enterprise Community Foundation, Washington State’s Housing Trust Fund, and the Federal HUD Self-Help Opportunity Program (SHOP).
The prospective homebuyers are slated to purchase their newly constructed homes in late 2025 and early 2026.
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Way to go, OPAL and San Juan County; and thanks to all the donors and the sellers who supported the Home Fund through their 1/2 % REET ! This is the power of elected government, non-profits and citizens acting together for the benefit of the community.
All residents of this small county should take a few minutes to take a look and consider the newest permanently affordable housing units being developed on Shaw, Orcas, Lopez and San Juan. We have a unique history in legislatively establishing modest real estate excise taxes to set aside important lands for public enjoyment and ecological benefits through our Conservation Land Bank and funding permanently affordable housing development primarily through non-profit land trusts. The County has done a superb job in managing these funding programs at well below the 10% administrative cost ceiling required by law. When I feel disheartened by some of our serious challenges and self-inflicted wounds slowing progress toward community resilience I only have to take a walk on a great public trail or through one of many charming affordable neighborhoods to be reinspired. These highly successful collaborations between governmental agencies, non-profits, land trusts, private companies and generous doners are shining examples that many counties envy and we should celebrate.
Given that the announced project cost was over $5M, it would be nice to know just what the selling prices are for these ten homes after the generous contributions by donors, SJC, and OPAL’s efforts at orchestrating the complex and creative financing for the overall project…kudos to all contributors.