About Us
Where We Build
Come by and check it out.
South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity just completed building a 15 home development at 1800 Fairview Avenue NE in Olympia. These homes are built under the Cottage Zoning model – which means slightly smaller lots for each home, but a larger overall community space. We worked with a team of St. Martin’s College engineering students on the site plan. Click here for a map of where we are building.
Fifteen homes: an owner-occupied; affordable housing development for the low-income workforce of Thurston County.
Conceptualized in 2003 the Fairview Cottages represent the realization of high-density single-family homeownership within urban boundaries; walking distance to elementary education; on a mass transit line; near services; with walkable streets on top and municipal water and sewer below.
Built small and built smart.
Fairview is comprised of two cottage community specific home plans: first is our three bedroom one bath 1200 square foot Cottage. This unit is designed for up to five persons. Twelve of these units were built.
The second design is our House a 1450 square foot, four bedroom two bath single-family dwelling. Three of these units were constructed, this design can house up to eight family members.
Both our House and Cottage designs are built ADA throughout with in-house fire suppression (sprinklers) in every unit; we build the most energy efficient homes being mass produced in Thurston County. We utilize very-low impact development as part of the Cottage Community design standard which we see as a logical component in the future of high-density residential development.
Our homes are built with labor from the family members who will ultimately own them. Their commitment is then matched by our own as we sell these homes to our Partner Households for the cost of construction spread out over 300 (25 years) interest-free payments.
It’s the two words, interest free, that make these homes possible for our Partner Households. Our partners are very-low income (31-50% Area Median Income) households for whom conventional lending instruments are unavailable. Our program is the only one of its type that is specifically designed to reach the very-low income homebuyer.
However, that is only the first part of our program. The second component of Habitat is to build homes that increase a community’s affordable housing inventory. The way we do that is to build a modest and decent home (probably like what you grew up in) that cannot be expanded due to the inherent Cottage Community design and applicable Cottage Zoning Standards. Our families spend an average of 7.5 years in our homes (above the national average) before the home enters the affordable housing market.
Our homes don’t have a garage, a carport or air-conditioning and will therefore command a resale price below the median cost of Thurston County homes. This is an excellent way to make sure that your low-income housing stock is well-built, in town and near services. But most of all it’s affordable because it was built to be not because it’s run down, aged or a depreciating trailer.
Fairview was built in four Phases:
Phase I- Infrastructure, Two Cottages, One House. Begun April 2006-Completed June 2007
Phase II- Four Cottages. Begun August 2007-Completed July 2008
Phase III- Four Cottages. Begun September 2008- Completed October 2009
Phase IV- Two Cottages, Two Houses. Begun November 2009- Completed December 2010
Funding for Fairview came from:
| CTED (WA Commerce) | $330,000 grant |
| City of Olympia | $404,000 loan |
| HOME Consortium | $440,000 grant |
| Individual, Corporate and Faith Community Donors | $576,000 gift |
| SPS Habitat for Humanity Volunteers | $760,000 in-kind labor |
Fairview serves- 15 very-low income households; 10 single parents (9 moms); 5 disabled adults; 5 disabled children; 48 human beings who no longer have to worry about shelter.
