Submitted by WaFd Bank.
Pierce County Community Land Trust founder Jessie Baines received a very happy surprise recently.
He applied for a $5,000 grant from the WaFd Bank Foundation and was told the amount was being awarded to his non-profit that aims to help conserve inhabitable land within Pierce County to provide affordable housing and commercial space to disenfranchised community members.
It wasn’t until Mark Hatate, a WaFd Bank Vice President and community lending officer, saw an email hit his inbox, though, that Baines got even better news.
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines was offering 3:1 matching program through its member impact fund for grants going to organizations working on affordable housing in the state of Washington.
Hatate and his colleague Kristi Ellefson, marketing, communications and foundation manager, then went to work procuring all of the paperwork needed to get the match and submitting it to the Iowa group.
It paid off and WaFd was able to help secure $202,000 total for organizations in Everett, Lake Stevens, Lynnwood, Moses Lake and Pierce, Thurston, Skagit and Whatcom counties, including $10,000 to New Horizon Communities in Orting.
“We had no idea that the $5,000 grant we were approved for would be matched,” Baines said. “This shows how committed WaFd and FHLB are to affordable home ownership programs and the Pierce County Community Land Trust. We are very thankful for receiving these grant dollars and look forward to continuing to provide homebuyer education services for our community.”
The funding will go toward the PCCLT’s Homebuyer Education program, which supports clients as they work toward getting approved for a first-time mortgage.
“We walk side-by-side with our clients through the homebuying process,” Baines said, “to help them improve credit scores, reduce debt to income rations, develop a monthly budget and provide direct access to community mortgage lenders and real estate agents who work to pre-approve our clients.”
WaFd also combined with the FHLB Des Moines to give New Horizon Communities (formerly Quixote Communities), a check for $10,000. That group is based out of Thurston County.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Washington Federal Foundation for their donation to our Orting Veterans Village,” New Horizon Communities said in a statement. “They are helping us to provide much needed supportive services to our residents to help them not only obtain housing, but to stay housed as well.”
The PCCLT was launched by a group of founders who are longtime community members, activists and workers whose lives are dedicated to the empowerment of their neighbors.
“WaFd Bank is proud to support the mission of affordable housing throughout the state to make the dream of home ownership achievable for low- and moderate-income households,” Hatate said. “Our partnership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines and their matching grants programs hep to multiply the impact of our grant funds and reduce the development costs of affordable housing.
“The coordinated efforts of multiple participants – like the FHLB and WaFd Bank – and non-profit organizations are crucial to keeping housing affordable in our communities.”
The Washington Federal Foundation gives out more than a million dollars a year through its grant program, while corporate donations and additional discretionary funds from the Foundation’s reserves are added on top of that amount each year.
