Often newspaper stories about one subject contain a kernel of intrigue about something else.

One that popped for me was the mention of the Mason Street project in an earlier story about the sewer going in at Port Hadlock-Irondale. That’s the working name of a 150-home development planned by Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County. The kernel of intrigue was that the local Habitat was behind a development of that size.

It seemed, well, ambitious. The organization acquired the 17-acre property adjacent to the county library and a primary school in May 2022. Port Hadlock and Irondale currently operate on individual septic systems, and adding a sewer is a $35 million big-deal. (See story on P. 14 about scheduled construction plans. But sewers need customers, too, and it has that with the Mason Street project.

The wider Habitat for Humanity, which has administrative offices in Atlanta, builds houses on a highly localized basis in all 50 states and 70 countries around the world, with focus on community-building. It does other things, too. That includes Restores, the nonprofit home improvement stores and donation centers, which have proliferated. The stores support the wider mission of Habitat.

Each Habitat operates independently, which enables focused understanding on the needs of the specific community. That’s certainly the case with the East Jefferson Habitat, and in all likelihood will be true with the development in Port Hadlock-Irondale.

It is a pilot project in that it will be available to a range of income groups, including people with higher incomes who wouldn’t fit into traditional affordable housing programs, said Jamie Maciejewski, East Jefferson Habitat’s executive director. In the course of doing what they do, they saw need for higher earning groups, as well. 

According to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, the median home price in Jefferson County in 2023 was $636,000. Currently, homes are available to applicants who earn 80% of the median income, which in 2024 was $88,300. That translates to $70,640. At Mason Street, homes will be available up to 150%, or $132,450. Maciejewski noted this is for a household of four people. Numbers are different for smaller or larger households.

“We figure what will happen is that those with higher income will need less down payment help,” said Maciejewski. They anticipate homes would be priced at between $350,000 to $480,000, although prices have not been set yet. Nor have the homes been designed, but the approximate size of a Habitat two-bedroom is about 900 square feet, while a three-bedroom is about 1,050 square feet.

In exchange for buying at a below-market rate, homeowners limit their appreciation. They sell it to the next person, but at a pre-determined rate. “So when a teacher goes to sell the house, a teacher can still afford to buy it,” she said.

The project looked ambitious but more than do-able given what the East Jefferson County Habitat accomplished in 2023. “We handed keys to 11 families in 2023,” said Maciejewski, which included nine new homes and two recycled homes. The organization provided “critical repairs to six homes owned by very low income people, planned three new neighborhoods that will provide 20 permanently affordable homes in Port Townsend.” It also recycled thousands of pounds of furniture, appliances and household goods to new owners through the Habitat Store. That is in addition to the intensive work on the Mason Street project.

The project in Port Hadlock-Irondale happens over time. Infrastructure, like roads, stormwater management, water and sewer lines, power and communications, will start in early 2026. Somewhere between 30 and 50 homes would be built each year, starting in 2027.

Mason Street also fits with the growth of the organization over the past 17 years, which is how long Maciejewski has been at the helm. When she arrived, Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County was building house number 12, and now there are 68. In 2007 there were two employees and one AmeriCorps Vista member. Today there are 21 staff and a lot of volunteers.

She said credit for the growth goes to the people who live here.

“People here care that the person who checks them in at the doctor’s office, or the grocery store, doesn’t have to worry about where they live,” said Maciejewski. “It’s a great community.”