A New Kind of Housing

It’s becoming harder to ignore a quiet shift happening across Jefferson County: many of the people who grow our food, care for our seniors, and keep local businesses running can no longer afford to live where they work. Long commutes, seasonal housing, and constant uncertainty have become normal for workers who are essential to the fabric of this peninsula. One needs only to look at the stream of cars entering from Kitsap and Clallam counties every day to understand this growing challenge.

However, just 10 miles north of Port Ludlow, a modest and innovative affordable housing project called Chimacum Commons is launching with the goal of addressing that unstable reality in a practical, long-term way.

Chimacum Commons is a permanently affordable housing project being developed by Olympic Housing Trust, a nonprofit housing developer, in partnership with Jefferson Land Trust. Located near the Chimacum Corner Farmstand, the project includes a mixture of rentals and home ownership units designed for, and that will be marketed to, farm and food-system workers, people whose labor sustains Jefferson County’s rural food economy, but who are increasingly priced out of the housing market.

While the project features a variety of housing types for about 30 residents, most of the land will be protected as working farmland and critical habitat along Chimacum Creek by Jefferson Land Trust. This combination of project priorities is a strategic choice by Jefferson Land Trust and Olympic Housing Trust and has long been encouraged by community members. By enabling affordable housing for food-system workers, Chimacum Commons is boosting local food security and productivity from our working land.

This emphasis on permanence and partnership makes Chimacum Commons different

The New Housing at its Start, submitted photo

from many housing projects. The Olympic Housing Trust’s model ensures that homes remain affordable over generations. The project also reflects a simple reality of rural places: land stewardship and housing stability go hand in hand. Working farms and forests depend on people who can afford to live nearby.

The project team’s guiding light has been to design with future generations in mind. This means creating homes that fit into the rural character of Chimacum. With local building professionals from Terrapin Architecture and Inhabit Design, this vision is coming to fruition.

Chimacum Commons has secured early public funding to support feasibility and design work, and the Olympic Housing Trust will be seeking construction funding through private and public contributions throughout 2026 in order to break ground in 2027. Now with completed site and building plans, the team is able to confidently step into this next phase.

For nearby communities like Port Ludlow, Chimacum Commons may soon become a familiar name. It represents a local effort to ensure that the people who help make Jefferson County what it is can continue to live and work here—now and well into the future.

Learn more about this important project at: www.olympichousingtrust.org/chimacumcommons