A long-vacant piece of land off SE Ives Mill Road in Port Orchard could become a new neighborhood, built not by contractors, but by the hands of the families who will live there.
The project, called Ives Mill, would bring 49 affordable single-family homes to Kitsap County through a self-help housing model. With the help of professionals, future homeowners spend up to 35 hours each week building homes in their neighborhood in exchange for a mortgage affordable for their income and an opportunity to enter the local housing market.
Heather Lyons, director of homeownership services at Community Frameworks, said the families all purchase the lots at once, help build the homes together alongside professionals and then move in at the same time when the homes are completed…