Thursday, March 28, 2024

Chelan Valley Housing Trust in need of donations

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CHELAN – Rachael Goldie, Mayor Mike Cooney and City Councilman Tim Hollingsworth have been working together in order to create affordable housing for the community and now run the Chelan Valley Housing Trust.

Back in spring, Goldie and Hollinsworth attended the Community Land Trust Conference. Community Trust is known for developing single family homes and have been successfully running for over 50 years.

“In that gathering we learned so much, we thought that this is the market we are missing here, single family homes, it’s what people are asking for. It is the only thing that doesn’t have an organization working towards it so we figured that’s where we would start,” said Goldie.

The Chelan community is helping with this new project and different businesses are in support of it. Sharon Lukacs and Chelan Valley Hope, they sponsored their first account so they could actually collect donations and gave the Trust their first $100.00. North Cascades Bank also contributed to the project by donating $5,000 towards the Trust.

Currently the team is working on putting together some project bidding that way they know where to start. There are different projects in mind and each will be disclosed as time approaches.

The organization will mainly run on funds and donations. As of right now they have a couple of land donations on the table, however the team is carefully looking at each property to determine which one will be the best investment.  

The Chelan Valley Housing Trust's main objective is to  “remove those barriers towards your first home, initially we want to make sure that people who are working hard every day, 40 hours a week and trying to make this community better, have an opportunity, a chance to own a very first home … there’s no American dream available right now, we are trying to make that more fair.”

Income will determine if one is eligible for one of the Chelan Valley’s homes in the future. The organization is there to help anyone from different backgrounds and demographics as long as they are eligible.  

By spring of 2019 the Trust is hoping to have something built, yet it could take up to two years for ground breaking to happen. “People have to keep in mind that this is all volunteer hours” stated Goldie.

The Spanish speaking audience is highly encouraged to get involved with the Trust. “We want to have our documents written in Spanish, we are trying to make it accessible for the Hispanic/Latino population. We do not want anyone to be left out,” she says.

Goldie emphasizes the importance of donations by sending out a message: “If organizations and business members would like to come forward and donate, we are trying to house their employees, we are trying to house people that makes this town greater. It will be awesome if those people could donate, anyone that wants to make sure this community thrives.”

Quarterly meetings will be planned for the community to get updates of the project’s future. If there are any questions or comments feel free reach the Chelan Valley Housing Trust at info@chelanvalleyhousing.org.
 

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