Methow Housing Trust Explores 'Local Housing Easements' to Secure Affordable Homes for Valley Residents

To address the housing dilemma faced by local residents, the Methow Housing Trust is exploring a new model of home ownership, called local housing easements, aimed at creating and preserving 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 of the Methow Valley.

Looking back on 2022: A year of authentic engagement and showing up for our community

Together, we are preserving the character, values and diversity that many rural mountain towns are quickly losing.

We’ve made great progress so let’s keep it up. This progress isn't adequately captured in the numbers of dollars raised, or houses built, but is best represented by the quality of life for the 105 Methow Valley locals that now have stable, quality housing through MHT homeownership. Your continued dedication to our mission ensures that a significant portion of our community’s housing stock will remain affordable for locals, forever!

Community Foundation of NCW Awards $104,000 in Methow Valley Fund Game Changer Grants

The Community Foundation of NCW has awarded $104,000 in Methow Valley Fund Game Changer Grants to four nonprofits in Methow Valley. The Game Changer Grant, offered annually, provides a significant funding opportunity that empowers a nonprofit organization or collaborative to take their work to the next level and move the needle on a Methow Valley community issue.

Housing Trust breaks ground on Twisp project

by Ashley Lodato, original published by Methow Valley News, 05/25/23

The Methow Housing Trust  has broken ground and begun construction in their next Twisp neighborhood, which will eventually add 10 single-family homes ranging in size from one to four bedrooms to the trust’s inventory of permanently affordable, quality homes for full-time residents who make between 60-150% of area median income.

Collective efforts drive valley’s quest to provide homes

by Sandra Strieby, original published by Methow Valley News, in Methow Home 2023 03/16/23

“Home,” with all its implications, is a compelling concept, one that feeds our souls and imaginations and grounds us on every level. Even the thought of being without a home is frightening; the reality can undermine health and well-being and precipitate a cascade of consequences.

A teacher and Methow Housing Trust homeowner, a long-time community leader for economic resiliency in the Methow Valley, a professional civil engineer with a passion for inclusive and affordable housing, and more! What do all these wonderful community members have in common? They are serving on the 2023 Methow Housing Trust’s Board of Directors. Read their full bios in our latest blog.

As you know, our community is both generous and appreciative. It’s a way of life that drew many of us in, and that ethic sustains us over the years as we move through personal and community-wide ups and downs. Over time, regardless of when we arrived and started to call the Methow “home,” we learn to engage and give ourselves to each other, and we find ourselves belonging to this place, rather than expecting it to belong to us.

As the Executive Director of the Methow Housing Trust, I end up being the conduit for a lot of feedback - much of which comes in the form of gratitude. When this feedback comes (as it often does, in passing at a local store or the post office), I often wish that I had time to list off the significant team of people and partners that make the delivery of affordable homes to local families...possible. I wish for all of the people who make it possible, to hear directly from their community, what a difference they are making.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to share with you some of the mighty forces at work behind the scenes at MHT, so that when you next see one of them, you can offer thanks to them directly.

YOU, our community, have informed the direction of the Methow Housing Trust throughout our formative years. Together we are building towards a healthier housing ecosystem for our Valley that includes affordable homeownership for at least 75 local families, 22 affordable rental units through partnership, and continued widespread community action to advance more local housing solutions. Read on to see how you’ve shaped where MHT has gone thus far, and where we are headed next as YOUR community land trust.

We are a community that believes in belonging, and builds toward it. In times of adversity, we operate from an unyielding willingness to adapt, to innovate, to include and unite rather than exclude or polarize. Thank you to the 250+ households shaping the Methow’s housing future through participation in the Methow Housing Trust’s Campaign to Build Belonging. You made a statement that will have lasting impact.