To Our Vacation Homeowner Neighbors,

Whether you are “sheltering in place” at your second home community in Lake Chelan or riding it out closer to home, we want to stay in touch and let you know how life is carrying on in Chelan.

Our community is thankful for our “essential” workers who keep us safe and keep the doors open for business during this crisis—the healthcare workers, grocery store employees, and other service staff who we—and YOU—depend on.

Long after this crisis passes, however, our “essential workers” will still face another crisis—the lack of affordable housing.

Apartments here are at a near 0% vacancy. And, with our median home priced at $412,000, households need a combined income of $99,120 to afford a home. Yet, over half of the households in Chelan and Manson make less than $50,000. As a result, local wage earners are driven out of town because they can’t afford to live here.

The upshot of this is it’s hard for our hospitals and schools to attract new hires, and for small businesses to retain employees. Can you imagine what Chelan would be like if the restaurants and stores, now closed for Covid-19, couldn’t reopen due to a lack of employees?

The Chelan Valley Housing Trust is beginning to solve this housing crisis with Emerson Village, our first step in building housing for local wage earners. Located at the corner of N. Emerson St. and E. Chelan Ave., the townhomes will sell for $200,000 each and are available to homebuyers earning up to 100% of the area’s average median income.

Though our community’s contributions have been generous, (a vacation homeowner, in fact, sold us the land for Emerson Village at below-market pricing), we still need to raise $100,000. Our goal is simple: Help wage earners who work in Chelan, own a home in Chelan.

With the help of more vacation homeowners, Chelan can retain its healthy downtown core and vibrant neighborhoods. Please, give generously to the Emerson Village $100,000 Fundraiser. To learn more or to donate, please go to https://chelanvalleyhousing.org/donate/

Be safe, stay healthy, and smile at someone today,

Mike Cooney
Executive Director
Chelan Valley Housing Trust

The CVHT wishes to thank all our supporters and volunteers, and especially our foundation donors:
Karen Feek, Goodfellow Brothers, Campbell’s Resort, Lake Chelan Wine and Jazz Festival, Guy Evans Real Estate, BLChelan LLC, Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce, Chelan County, the City of Chelan and North Cascades Bank.