Enabling Permanent Affordability

Our Model

The Olympic Housing Trust (OHT) is Jefferson County and Clallam County’s only community land trust. A community land trust (CLT) is a non-profit organization that stewards and creates permanently affordable housing. In addition to housing, we also prioritize community spaces such as gardens, and other shared assets on the behalf of and for the good of the people.

We aim to serve households who earn income but cannot reasonably compete in the rental or ownership market. OHT is able to provide subsidies from public and private funding sources to bring property into their stewardship portfolio. Once attained, the land associated with the house will be held under a renewable 99-year ground lease agreement that enables permanent affordability. This model allows OHT to moderate the resale of the house so that the home will be protected as ‘permanently affordable’ and not enter the speculative housing market.

Instead, the house earns a modest, annual appreciation of 1.5% according to OHT’s resale formula. The longer a homeowner stays in the house, the more they will generate in annual equity. National data shows that 60% of CLT homeowners move onto market rate housing after their first CLT home indicating that this housing type is a great start for a first-time home buyer.

Project Types

OHT can develop homes for rent or for purchase through new construction, acquisition or donation. The organization seeks to innovate beyond the typical affordable housing model by prioritizing projects which generate affordable housing and support open space, access to food production and other holistic community values.

These priorities demonstrated in both the Dundee Hill project and the Chimacum Commons project whereby the housing will be clustered and the open space preserved or used for food production.

Area Median Income

The homes that OHT currently stewards are owned by folks who are, or were, below 80% of area median income (AMI) at the time of purchase. In Jefferson County, the AMI in 2024 was $88,300 and in Clallam, $93,900 for a household of four.

OHT is proud to develop the Dundee Hill project that will serve households earning between 50% - 80% AMI.

Affordable housing organizations are typically confined by public funders to serve households earning 30% - 80% AMI. While there is considerable need for households earning below 80% AMI, there has long persisted a gap of need above 80% AMI where households do not qualify for state or federal support but are not earning enough to actually compete for market rate housing.

In Jefferson County where the median home price is above $650,000 as of 2024, a household who is lucky enough to find a place to consider buying must earn upwards of 200% AMI to be able to afford the purchase. In light of this untenable situation, OHT has decided to widen its internal limits on the range of households the organization can serve from 50% - 120% AMI.

The choice to serve those earning above 80% AMI is due to the clear need for more workforce housing, however public funders are still generally not willing to fund projects that serve higher AMI households. Supporting the greater workforce housing issue will then depend on OHT securing philanthropic partnerships that wish to see a broader coalition being served.

Source: Housing Solutions Network
*Home purchasing range is based on a 30 year mortgage financed at 6.6% with a 5% down payment and a private mortgage insurance rate of .85%. Payments include estimated property tax and estimated home insurance, and assume excellent credit and no other debt obligations. Median Home Price was captured from RocketHomes.com

“A Guide For Local Governments” from the National League of Cities and Grounded Solutions Network