Thurston Housing Land Trust

History of THLT

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THLT started as a group of concerned citizens who met regularly to discuss ways to reduce the impact of rising housing costs in our area. We formed a steering committee in January of 2018, incorporated as a Washington nonprofit in May 2018, and received our 501(c)3 tax exempt status in June 2019.

Since then we have made significant progress in building our organizational and programmatic infrastructure. We operated with limited, mostly volunteer capacity until 2022 when we were able to bring on a part-time operations manager. That position evolved into a full-time Executive Director staff position in July 2024, still strongly supported by active board members in both the planning and execution of project details.

In September of 2023 we completed our first home deal entirely with private funding, providing homeownership to a low-income first-time homebuyer (family of five). The experience and skills we acquired in that complicated transaction provided a good foundation for our current project involving the acquisition and conversion of a three-duplex property in Tumwater for individual resale. We closed on the property in May 2024 and are currently in the rehab and conversion process. We received significant funding for this project from the state Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC) and Thurston County, and have an affordability grant from the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) that will ensure affordability for the six units when they are sold to first time homebuyers at or below 80%AMI, targeted for 2025.