Grateful Over and Over Again
April beams on her porch. She’s so grateful for this place and loves KulshanCLT!
April Claxton bought her KulshanCLT house 15 years ago. It’s a place where she feels happy, comfortable, cozy, and inspired. As a “maker and baker,” her community is incredibly important as well as helping people “get into the woods, slow down, and just be.” From her Fairhaven location, she can walk to the woods, to the water, to Fairhaven, to the grocery store, and to appointments.
When April first moved to town, home prices were still reasonable. But, in 2003 housing prices skyrocketed incredibly fast. She worked for small businesses and nonprofits where she was not making the kind of money needed to buy a house.
April doesn’t remember how she heard about KulshanCLT, but she did take the homebuyer class. She then waited two years while the Matthei Place homes were being built. She also recalls worrying about qualifying: “I probably qualified and didn’t qualify back and forth 6 or 8 times. But when it was time, I was in this tiny window where I qualified.”
“I have felt incredibly grateful over and over again to have the stability of knowing that I have a house that I own in this town that I want to live in. I love community and I love chocolate!”
The best thing about owning her home is the freedom to paint walls “whatever color she wants.” A newer, green-built house offers very affordable utilities too. She loves making a space with meaning and memories. Having been in rentals for so long, she loves “knowing no one’s going to sell my home out from under me or raise the rent.”
When it comes to the KulshanCLT’s impact, April had a lot to say. “I do think that KulshanCLT is doing some of the absolute most critical work happening anywhere. The community land trust model is such an important piece of the puzzle of equitable housing.”
Over the last two years, April has come to wonder if the only way a person can afford to stay here is by working remotely from somewhere else that pays higher wages. April mentioned friends who struggle with rising rents. She also said she has friends who feel lucky to rent from landlords who have not raised their rates and don’t want people priced out of Bellingham. With community so important, April said, “Affordable housing keeps the small business owners, the people that work for them or for nonprofits, the artists, our teachers living here. These are the people I want to live among – people who care about this place and are connected to it.”
April’s story isn’t so different from so many others with a dream of stability and home equity. She said, “I know I would not be a homeowner in Bellingham if it wasn’t for Kulshan. I don’t even know if I would be a renter here. Which means I don’t know that I would still be in Bellingham at all.”
“I have no idea where I’d be living right now or what I’d be doing, or how I would make it work, if not for KulshanCLT.”
Our solutions need to get creative, she says. “We need all the ideas that people have like ADU’s and tiny homes. Neighborhoods that feel good are the ones with variety and a mix of people who live there.”
In closing, April wishes KulshanCLT could have 50 staff bringing infinitely more homes down to affordable prices. She’s happy that KulshanCLT is pushing the conversation about what needs to change and thinking bigger every year.
