CLT Home creates first-generation homeowners
Seattle mom the first in her family to own her own home
"I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD BE SOMEONE WHO COULD SAY 'I OWN MY OWN HOUSE.'"
– Alyssa
In 2005, Alyssa was a single mother struggling with an unsympathetic landlord who refused to address the household mold that affected the health of her children.
Alyssa had significant financial and credit issues. By working with Homestead staff over time, she was able to clean up those issues and in 2015 she bought a single-family home in West Seattle rehabilitated by Homestead Community Land Trust’s Rebuilding Communities project.
The home is close to bus lines, schools and grocery stores. Each of her three children has their own bedroom.
Her accomplishment was all the more remarkable because she was the first person in her family to own a home.
“I never thought I would be someone who could say ‘I own my own house.’ It means the world to me that my kids have a safe home to grow up in. None of this would have happened without Homestead.”
Homestead Community Land Trust was founded in 1992 to arrest the displacement of low- to moderate-income people from rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in King County. Homestead combines housing development with counseling, education, and other support activities to create a growing inventory of permanently affordable homes and a community of successful homeowners. Every home we develop and sell at an affordable price to an income-qualified buyer is kept affordable to all future buyers through the community land trust. Our growing portfolio of homes serves multiple families over time, giving affordability a permanent address in our communities. We provide the King County residents who keep our community vital the opportunity to gain stability for their families, safely accrue equity, and put down roots in their communities.
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Homes in Portfolio: 214 owner occupied
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Families Served Through Sales and Resales: 243
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Acres of Land Stewarded: 13
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Founded: 1992