Breaking ground on common ground.

Local and regional leaders joined up with more than a few Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County volunteers on July 5 to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Brownfield Road Project, one that looks to bring as many as 53 Habitat-built homes to the southeast corner of East Brownfield and South Sequim Avenue.

The long-proposed effort got a boost recently from U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor), who was on-hand for the ceremonial celebration. Kilmer has requested funding for the project to the House Appropriations Committee for the fiscal year 2024.

The project, Kilmer’s representatives note, will “[bolster] the local economy by creating jobs during the construction phase and enabling key community workers to live within the area they serve.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell Congressman Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) speaks at a groundbreaking for the Brownfield Road Project on July 5.

Kilmer, who said he spent some of his summers during college building Habitat homes, put it bluntly on Wednesday afternoon: “We need a lot of homes people can afford.”

The former Port Angeles native said there’s a nationwide shortage of between 10-12 million homes.

“It takes a village to build a village,” Kilmer said. “This is good news.”

Because Congress has reinstated individual project spending — formerly called “earmarks,” they are are now called Community Project Funding — he and staff looked over dozens of projects he’d like to see funded in the next House budget.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / A schematic shows the proposed Brownfield Road Project that would bring as many as 53 affordable homes off of South Sequim Avenue.

“This is one of the highest, if not the highest scoring projects we’d seen,” Kilmer said. “That makes it easy to champion the cause in Washington, D.C.”

Kilmer later said that project advocates can expect an answer on actual funding by the end of the year.

“Congratulations to the community for getting this done,” Kilmer told the crowd. “I’m honored to be part of it.”

Colleen Robinson, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, said a project like this would not have happened, if not for efforts from leaders and staff at city, county, federal, private industry and community levels, along with the nonprofit.

An example, she noted, was when she initially approached Interfor for assistance with one Habitat home, and the Vancouver, B.C.-based lumber company wound up donating the framing lumber for eight homes.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Congressman Derek Kilmer signs a shovel used in the groundbreaking of the Brownfield Road Project on July 5.

The first major donation, Robinson noted, was a $50,000 gift from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to help buy property, and soon after Habitat received got a $100,000 donation from the First Fed Foundation.

“When I think of the needs in this community we need more workforce,” said Matt Deines, CEO of First Fed Bank.

“[But] in order for those people to do those jobs and to be here, they need a place to live.

“I love the phrase, ‘If it’s to be, it’s up to me.’ In this case, it’s really up to us to help find ways to generate more housing across the board.”

In October 2022, the City of Sequim Council unanimously voted to allow for multi-family zoning within Sequim City limits, allowing for increased density, which “significantly increases” the number of homes that can be built on the property, Habitat officials said.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / From left, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer talks with Clallam County commissioners Mark Ozias and Randy Johnson at a groundbreaking of the Brownfield Road Project in Sequim on July 5.

Earlier this year, the project got a letter of support from the Sequim School District, whose Career and Technical Education department is seeking a revitalization of its building trades programming.

Habitat officials said previously that the organization has raised $1.5 million of an estimated $3.2 million cost of development and infrastructure of the Brownfield Road project. (The MacKenzie Scott Foundation supplied $1 million, while Habitat leveraged its mortgage portfolio to secure an additional $500,000, organization officials said.)

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Dignitaries help break ceremonial ground on the Brownfield Road Project on July 5, Pictured, from left, are: U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer; First Fed CEO Matt Deines; First Fed First Fed Community Foundation board member Dawnya Scarano; Colleen Robinson, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, and Mark Hodgson, Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County board’s vice president.

“It’s so easy in the world today to look to someone for the answer, the big tough crisis like the housing crisis,” Clallam county commissioner Mark Ozias said at Wednesday’s groundbreaking.

“None of this happens unless we recognize that we share common ground and that it doesn’t depend on just one of us. It depends on all of us to get something done.”