Common Ground Community Housing Trust breaks ground on 8 Cottage-style homes, struck by vandalism
A rendering of the Crail Cottages at 1034 Ninth St. in Wenatchee. The project will develop eight, 970-square-foot, cottage-style homes.
By Gabriel Garcia, Wenatchee World Staff Writer
WENATCHEE — Common Ground Community Housing Trust broke ground on its affordable housing project at 1034 Ninth St. in Wenatchee last week, but recent vandalism could increase construction costs.
The project, Crail Cottages, includes eight, 970-square-foot, one- and two-bedroom, cottage-style homes that range from $160,000 to $180,000, all on a .4-acre lot.
The $2.5 million project is expected to be finished by the first quarter of 2025, said Thom Nees, Common Ground founder and executive director.
“When we have a plan or vision and we can implement that with community support and partners that come together, that’s always exciting to me,” Nees said.
Common Ground plans to create eight new homes each year for the next five years, including the current project. Nees said the organization continues looking for properties in the Wenatchee and Eastmont school districts’ boundaries to build the next sets of cottage-style houses.
Crail Cottages will sell to households earning 65-80% of the Wenatchee area median income with applications opening sometime in July, Nees said. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Wenatchee was estimated at $66,143 in 2022.
Nees said the organization anticipates many applications as there is a “big need” for affordable housing in the area, and there will be a lottery process to determine the first eight eligible applicants to seek a mortgage lender to be fully qualified to purchase a home. The trust continues to own the land.
“Our model is home ownership, so the families that would be selected to be able to move in will have to be qualified by a mortgage lender to be able to purchase the home,” Nees said.
On Tuesday night, vandals pulled out survey stakes for construction at the site and painted the word “No!” on an informational sign on the property, Nees said.
Nees said the vandalism will not delay the timeline, but will cost money for a survey crew to put another set of stakes. On Wednesday, he added he was unsure of the cost, but it will not affect the price of the homes. His organization will find a way to pay for the unexpected cost.
Nees said the “resistance” may stem from lack of understanding and he and his organization do their best to spread information.
In 2021, Serve Wenatchee Valley received $16,600 in seed money to launch the trust. The donations were from individuals, along with Banner Bank, North Cascades Bank, the city of Wenatchee and Serve Wenatchee Valley.
The trust then received $50,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act through Chelan County, $231,000 from the Cascade Public Infrastructure Fund, also through Chelan County, $250,000 from the state capital budget in 2023, as well as private donations.
For more information on the project, email thom@commongroundwenatchee.com or call 509-630-4438.