Chrys Bean
May 25, 2026
In 2025, 382 households reached out to Homes First asking for help finding an affordable home. We were able to sign only 14 leases.
That gap, between 382 families in need and 14 families housed, tells the painful story of the affordable housing crisis in Thurston and Mason Counties. It's not a gap born from lack of effort or care. It's the gap between what our community needs and what currently exists.
Who Is Asking for Help
The people reaching out to Homes First are our neighbors: working parents who cannot afford market-rate housing, seniors living on fixed incomes, adults with developmental disabilities, young people aging out of the foster care system, veterans, and individuals rebuilding their lives after illness, job loss, or other crises.
They are not asking for luxury. They are asking for a safe, stable place to call home; something most of us take for granted.
Why the Numbers Look the Way They Do
Affordable housing is not easy to create or maintain quickly. Homes First currently owns 62 properties across Thurston and Mason Counties, roughly split between shared homes and single-family residences. New units require funding, permitting, construction, and compliance with an increasingly complex set of tenant protections — all of which take time.
We don't maintain a traditional waitlist. When a home becomes available, we notify people who have signed up for our housing email list. That system ensures we're reaching people actively searching, but it also means that for every vacancy, dozens of families may be hoping for the same door to open.
The Bigger Picture
Homes First is one organization serving one region. And yet 382 households found their way to our door in a single year. Extrapolate that across the state, and the scale of the need becomes staggering.
Three forces are making this harder, not easier:
Donation rates to housing nonprofits are declining, in part due to 2017 tax law changes that removed the charitable deduction for many middle-income donors.
Costs for materials, labor, utilities, and compliance have risen 26% since 2020 — and tariffs continue to push those numbers higher.
Insurance costs for affordable housing providers have surged, with some organizations seeing their premiums and deductibles more than double in a single year.
These pressures don't change the need for more housing. They make it harder to meet that need.
What Homes First Is Doing About It
We signed 14 leases in 2025. We also completed work that sets us up to do more: transitioning property management to a third-party vendor to free our team for mission-focused growth, rebuilding our financial reserves through the Rise & Rebuild campaign, and exploring strategic partnerships that can expand our capacity.
The 401 volunteer hours contributed by 109 individuals and group members last year helped us stretch every dollar further. Our community outreach programs continue to connect residents with wraparound services — because stable housing is the foundation, not the finish line.
What You Can Do
The most direct thing you can do is help us serve more of those 382 households. Here are a few ways:
Donate: support the Rise & Rebuild campaign and help us rebuild the reserves that keep operations running at homesfirst.org/riserebuild
Volunteer: 401 hours made a real difference last year, and we always need more hands
Spread the Word: share our housing resource emails with anyone who may be searching for an affordable home in Thurston or Mason County
Advocate: support local and state policies that fund affordable housing development and protect nonprofit housing providers
382 households asked for help last year. Every action you take moves that number in the right direction.