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Five affordable homes will be built this summer at Home Trust of Skagit’s Channel Cove campus. “We are out for bids,” Jodi Dean, Home Trust of Skagit director, told the Weekly News Tuesday. “The building committee will look at those bids at the end of the month.” Her cautiously optimistic goal is to have families gathering in their living rooms around their Christmas trees in December.

The homes will be sited at the north end of the campus, off Park Street south of Caledonia. There will be three single family homes and a side-by-side duplex. All are two story, with three bedrooms and two baths. Dean described them as having open downstair floor plans allowing lots of light and views of the many tall trees. They will cost $225,000, with financing at $175,000. Home Trust provides $50,000 in gap financing.

Dean noted that these homes are priced for people with jobs at the grocery store or in the school district. To qualify, the income lever for a family of our is near or below $62,000 per year, 80% of median area income. It is $42,560 for one person and $70,560 for a six person household. An application starts the process that includes a home buyers education class, prequalifying for a loan, getting pre-approved from a lender and working with Home Trust staff through steps leading to home inspection. Staff are a resource to help already qualified homebuyers through the process of home purchasing.

The goal is putting families in homes. “I am determined to keep these homes affordable for the five families or individuals, to keep those monthly mortgage costs down for the home buyer,” Dean stressed.

Construction is starting two years after the initial target date. After approval of various federal, state and county grants, a mandated environmental review took place. It is now done. Navigating through the coronavirus pandemic was another factor.

The five homes will complete a vision dating back to the late 1990s. Dean gave credit to past La Conner town councils and Cathie Wyman being “at the forefront of it back in 1998, 2000. Lots of people got this off the ground. It was their idea that these families, workers and their families would have an affordable place to live,” she said.

Home Trust of Skagit has owned the Channel Cove neighborhood since 2011. The complex now has 18 rental and nine owner-occupied homes. Their Mount Vernon properties are the Summerlynd neighborhood and some scattered housing.