Methow Housing Trust launches new housing easement program

By Don Nelson, originally published by Methow Valley News, April 11, 2024

Will preserve homes for local residents

Thanks to the generous donation of two single-family homes near Winthrop, the Methow Housing Trust (MHT) is ready to launch a housing easements program it has been planning for some time.

In a press release, the MHT said that Gaye and Jim Pigott, owners of Moccasin Lake Ranch and longtime benefactors for a variety of Methow Valley causes, recently donated the two homes.

Interior of one of the donated homes.

The aim of local housing easements is to create and preserve housing for people who live and work in the valley. The idea is to establish permanent easements on properties that would require occupants of housing on those properties to be full-time residents.

“The donors’ unwavering commitment to creating affordable housing opportunities for the community has provided a catalyst for MHT to put into practice the foundational research made possible by a ‘Game Changer’ grant from the Methow Valley Fund/Community Foundation of North Central Washington,” according to the press release. “This grant allowed MHT to research feasibility and lay the groundwork for the housing easements program, and the Pigotts’ donation brings the vision to life.”

With the $9,500 “Game Changer” grant, the MHT hired and began working with a land use attorney to explore the idea of developing a local housing easement program.

MHT will sell the donated homes at a price affordable for “missing middle” local earners while ensuring that the homes are occupied by full-time residents, not used for nightly rentals, and not rented for a profit, the release said.

Funding more homes

Proceeds from the sale of the homes will be used by MHT to build more affordable homes within their Community Land Trust portfolio, according to the release.

“While MHT’s Community Land Trust portfolio of 49 homes serve residents earning up to 1.5 times the Area Median Income (AMI), this leaves a massive gap in our housing market for local earners,” the release said. “The Housing Easements program has the potential to create affordable housing options for those who earn too much to qualify for MHT’s existing programs but not enough to afford market-rate homeownership.”

MHT Executive Director Danica Ready said the local Housing Solutions Network identified the use of deed restrictions to preserve housing stock for locals as far back as 2019.

“To see the program in action just four years later is a real win for the Methow,” Ready said. “We are pioneering the use of this legal instrument in Washington state, and believe that many other communities will follow. … We believe that the Housing Easements program has the potential to be replicated throughout the community, enabling other legacy-minded individuals to sell their homes to local residents at below-market values.”

The idea is comparable to conservation easements managed by the Methow Conservancy that provide permanent protection for open space, farmlands and wildlife habitat, according to Simon Windell, the MHT’s chief operating officer.

Local housing easement programs are being used in a number of recreation-based communities with housing pressures similar to those of the Methow Valley, where local wage earners are priced out of the market. The Colorado ski towns of Vail, Crested Butte, Aspen and Breckenridge have all implemented versions of local housing easements to protect housing for local residents.

While deed restriction programs “are a matter of course for a number of recreation-based communities,” the approach has been discussed but not implemented in any Washington communities, Windell said. The Methow Valley would be the first in the state to try it.

In its most simple form, a local housing easement program would utilize deed restrictions as a legal tool to require that the owner of a dwelling be a full-time resident of the Methow Valley. In effect, it “changes a portion of the housing market from a national market to a local market,” Windell said.

Under the local housing easement approach, ownership of land and structures would transfer to new owners when the property is sold, but the underlying legal restrictions that require occupants to be local residents would stay with the property, ensuring permanent housing for the local population.

Easements would be completely voluntary, and could be placed on properties through different ways, Windell said. For instance, developers “with community intent” could voluntarily dedicate a portion of new construction for the program.

For more information about the Methow Housing Trust and the Housing Easements program, visit www.methowhousingtrust.org.

Ann McCreary contributed to this article.