Permanently affordable Crail Cottages nearing completion
Common Ground Community Land Trust is on the cusp of delivering eight permanently affordable homes at its Crail Cottages development on Ninth Street in Wenatchee—a modest but significant step in the valley’s ongoing effort to address the housing affordability crisis.
Eight local families of limited means are expected to move into the one- and two-bedroom homes this summer and fall. Applications have been received and are currently being vetted. Occupancy could begin as early as August.
I recently toured the development with Thom Nees, founder and executive director of Common Ground. Nees, a former Nazarene pastor, most recently served as executive director of Serve Wenatchee Valley, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting local families at risk of homelessness.
Serve Wenatchee Valley launched Common Ground before it was later spun off as an independent organization. Nees was inspired to create the nonprofit after witnessing firsthand the daily, often overwhelming housing challenges facing many local families. He believes strongly that our community should be a place where people of all income levels can afford to live—not just those with substantial means.
The Community Land Trust model has proven effective in creating permanently affordable housing in communities across the region, including the Methow Valley, Chelan and Leavenworth. Under this model, the nonprofit retains ownership of the land in perpetuity while homeowners purchase only the structures. By removing land costs from the equation and adding public investment, the homes remain affordable for future generations. Resale restrictions ensure that homes can only be sold to income-qualified buyers.
Some units are reserved for households earning no more than 80 percent of the area’s median income, while others are available to households earning up to 120 percent of the median income.
According to Nees, the one-bedroom homes will sell for approximately $180,000, while the two-bedroom, 970-square-foot homes will sell for about $220,000.
Those prices stand in stark contrast to the valley’s housing market, where the median home price now exceeds $500,000. Purchasing a median-priced home in the Wenatchee Valley typically requires a household income well above $100,000 annually. Many hardworking residents will never earn enough to enter that market.
The rental market presents similar challenges. According to the Chelan-Douglas Trends website, 41 percent of renters in 2024 spent 30 percent or more of their household income on housing costs—a level generally considered financially burdensome.
Nees and the Common Ground team have been working since 2021 to bring a permanently affordable housing project to fruition. A key breakthrough came when the Crail family sold the 0.4-acre property next to Sangster Motors to Common Ground at a reduced price because they believed in the nonprofit’s mission of creating housing opportunities for families who otherwise could not afford homeownership.
Even with that support, getting the first project off the ground required extraordinary persistence. Nees said Common Ground was fortunate to partner with a local general contractor who shared the organization’s commitment to community and possessed the expertise needed to bring the project to completion. The contractor and subcontractors understood the mission and worked diligently to control costs while still delivering attractive, high-quality homes.
Each unit is approximately 970 square feet and rises two stories. The homes are modest, with limited storage space, but they are thoughtfully designed and visually appealing.
The project has received broad community support. There was some vandalism during construction, but it appears to have been an isolated incident.
To help keep the homes affordable, Common Ground secured grants from Chelan County and the state, private donations. A total of $953,000 came from what Nees described as “impact investors” that loaned money to the nonprofit at below-market rates. Those loans will be repaid by Common Ground when the homes are sold.
Common Ground also gook advantage of a new Community Foundation of North Central Washington program called Access to Rural Capital, which is designed to provide low-interest loans to local nonprofits for critical community efforts like Crail Cottages.
Last week, Nees spoke about Crail Cottages at a housing summit hosted by Our Valley Our Future. His message reflected a reality that many community leaders increasingly recognize: there is no single solution to the housing affordability crisis.
Addressing the challenge will require a sustained commitment from nonprofits, local governments, private developers, investors and community members. Projects like Crail Cottages will not solve the problem on their own, but they demonstrate that meaningful progress is possible when people work together toward a common goal.
Housing affordability affects the character and future of our community. A healthy community depends on teachers, healthcare workers, service employees, tradespeople, young families and retirees all having a place here. If Wenatchee is to remain a community for everyone, creating more opportunities for attainable housing must remain a priority.
Affordable housing projects get lots of pushback from the Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) crowd. Nees hopes that people of faith will instead view this effort in terms of YIGBY — Yes In God’s Back Yard.
As Common Ground seeks its next project, finding land is a major challenge. Wouldn’t it be amazing if others like the Crail family and even the faith community here were to get behind YIGBY and help address our housing affordability crisis.
