Submitted by San Juan County.

This summer, construction is in full swing at the Kidder Way affordable housing project on Orcas Island. Foundations have been poured, walls have been framed and the completion goal of December feels within reach.

“We’re at a stage where a lot of the County’s recent investments in affordable housing are coming to fruition,” said Affordable Housing Program Coordinator Ryan Page. “The County has been invested in this project since 2022 and it’s exciting to see it take shape.”

OPAL Community Land Trust is building the Kidder Way project to provide 10 new affordable houses for ownership in a prime location near the public school and Buck Park in Eastsound. Prospective Kidder Way homeowners include government civil servants, health care professionals, trade and utility service professionals, small-business owners and retail trade specialists. Children in the new neighborhood will range from ages 3 to 15, and the prospective homeowners have lived on the island for an average of 15 years.

San Juan County is proud to support the work of OPAL through an award of over $2 million from the County’s Home Fund and to have partnered with OPAL on a successful grant application to Washington State’s Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program resulting in a $190,000 grant for utility infrastructure for the project.

“The Kidder Way project was conceived when long-time island dentist Steven and Rita Bailey made a bargain sale of their land to OPAL. After years of effort and nearly $1 million of donations from islanders, the County’s Home Fund was the critical lynchpin,” said Lisa Byers, executive director of OPAL.

The Home Fund is a San Juan County Health & Community Services administered program to develop, produce and preserve affordable housing in San Juan County. This program expands opportunities for local affordable housing projects to bring additional state, federal and private funding from outside our county into our community to build more affordable housing.

To date, the County has contributed over $13 million in funding to 13 affordable housing projects throughout the County. These projects represent 104 units of affordable housing that have already been built or preserved, with another 92 units currently in active development. In total, the County’s Home Fund has been able to contribute funding to 196 units of affordable housing.

The Kidder Way project is made possible by additional financial support from hundreds of islanders’ donations, the Orcas Island Community Foundation, Enterprise Community Foundation, Washington State’s Housing Trust Fund and the Federal HUD Self-Help Opportunity Program.

The prospective homebuyers are slated to purchase their newly constructed homes in late 2025 and early 2026.