March 2006 Editorial

THE NEED FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING

A guest editorial by Guy Evans
as printed 3/1/06 in the Chelan Valley Mirror    

 A few weeks ago, while waiting for a friend outside of a local coffee shop, I looked over the property listings posted on the adjacent real estate office.  There it was.  A new home, built just down lake from a small orchard block I helped care for as a kid.  The asking price?  Just under 2 million. 

 A few weeks before that, I attended a farm conference in Monterey, California and learned that in neighboring Santa Cruz the median home price hovers at the astounding height of $742,000.  I heard about farmers in the nearby Salinas valley, who had rented land their entire life, paying these days around $2,000 per acre per year just to plant a seed.  I heard about the workers on those farms who drove the twenty miles every morning and night from Watsonville because they couldn't afford rent in any of the surrounding communities. 

 The trip to California helped me understand a few things.  First, I could better understand why our real estate has been going through the roof.   On California standards, the price for that lakefront house  -- beautiful water, a large lot, a big, new home -- is peanuts.  When they say the median price is $742,000 in Santa Cruz, that's for small, older 1200 sq. ft homes on unassuming streets.  A comparable home on the water would go for much more than $2 million.

 Second, it reminded me again of the housing facing the Lake Chelan Valley as we continue to become the 'Lake Tahoe of the North'.  As an employer in the agricultural and service industries, I wonder where my help will live in the future.  Will they all be driving in from Brewster every day?   And as a future homeowner in the valley (we're renting now), I wonder if I will be able to keep up with the property taxes (assuming we can even afford to buy in).

 Earlier this year, the Mirror wrote a piece outlining some of the visions I've been chewing on lately in relation to our farm and these community challenges.  In a nutshell, we'd like to cluster some home sites on the top of our property, create a space for a clustered 'neighborhood' in the middle of our property, and leave room for a learning center connected with our farm market towards the bottom. 

 Surrounding all of these elements would be farmland, preserved for long-term agricultural use.  The intention is to create a farm-system that makes it affordable for future generations of farmers to buy into the land, and affordable for those farmers and others working in the valley to live on the land.

 Big dream.  But one worth working on.

 Let me say more about the clustered 'neighborhood' element  of this dream.  I see this neighborhood as a place where a librarian might live, or a fireman, or a teacher.  There may be a nurse or two.  Of course a handful of farmers.  I see it as a place where an elderly couple might live, as well as young families.  This neighborhood will have space for a playground, a garden plot, maybe a basketball hoop.  Definitely a sledding hill.  And it will be founded upon a greater understanding of interdependence between its members.  Everyone owns their own home.  But I see common spaces owned by all.  A space for regularly shared meals in the evenings (for those so inclined).  A space for kids to be cared for by the elders.  A space for projects, arts, and crafts.  A space for quiet cups of tea.

 A big dream.  But one worth working on, especially in light of that lakefront house.

 Because the real intention besides creating an enjoyable space to call home is to keep these homes affordable.   You know what would happen otherwise: within one or two generations of ownership, the prices would be through the roof.  Suddenly the fireman, teacher, and librarian are back where they started. 

 As land owners, our family is prepared to offer the land for this neighborhood at a price that will help jump start the affordability.  And we want to ensure that this community investment continues to serve the valley for years to come.

 Luckily, models exist in other communities that offer hints of how to do this.  Last year, a group of us in Chelan heard about the SHARE program in Leavenworth.  Based on a community land-trust model, it has successfully provided (and will continue to provide) affordable home-ownership in the upper Wenatchee Valley.  A local group led by Paul Palumbo has begun work to form a similar land-trust in our valley.  This is one model.  We are open to exploring others as well. The intention never wavers: to create opportunities for home ownership, now and into the future.

 Which brings me to the real point of this piece:  I am looking for others who would like to live in this type of neighborhood and who would be interested in helping plan and design it along the way.  One of the neighborhood models we are considering is called "Cohousing".  The Cohousing model is founded upon home-owner participation in the design process.  That could be you.

 My wife and I will be holding a gathering next week on Wednesday, March 8th at the P.U.D. conference room, 7:30 p.m. to share more of this neighborhood vision.  If you are interested in learning more, we invite you to come.

 And if you are an agricultural landowner in the valley wondering  what you are going to do with your farm, please come as well.  We need to find ways to meet the housing needs of the valley while preserving our rural character and tradition.  The price of that lake front house will just keep going up and up.  But this clustered neighborhood notion, built on lands around the lake, may just be a way to keep the Chelan valley a place for all of us, the modest wage-earners and the well-to-do.