What if more people had an equity stake in the well-being of downtown Ellensburg?

What if affordable housing were owned and managed by the people who lived there?

What if the financial benefits of an affordable living space reached beyond?

In 2024, Inversion Design Build won an RFP to build 36 units of new housing on city-owned land in Ellensburg, Washington. The units will be affordable to households earning 80% of the area median income. The development consists of 12 one- and two-bedroom home ownership units, 12 one-bedroom apartments, and 12 studio apartments. The units will be divided into 12 tri-plex townhomes to break up the buildings and complement the existing neighborhood scale.

With 36 units on a half-acre parcel, our proposal is certainly dense. A traditional development would only fit four units in the same area. This site is nestled into an existing neighborhood, and we felt that complementing and enhancing the established neighborhood scale would make the units and the neighborhood feel more livable, creating a smoother transition into the central core. It truly matters that the places we build for people to live in are places they enjoy. By ensuring each unit has direct access to the outdoors with well-proportioned outdoor rooms, porches, and yard areas, we have designed a place that is genuinely attractive and a joy to inhabit.

Rather than a single multifamily building, we broke the housing into separate townhomes. Each townhome is owned by an owner-occupant with up to two rental units in the same building. Human connections matter, and when your landlord knows you by name and you see them around the neighborhood, it is much easier to work through minor issues and avoid being taken advantage of by corporate managers who make decisions about your living situation from miles or even states away. At the same time, we recognize that not all new homeowners are ready to act as landlords on the first day. All rental units will be set up and managed by a third-party management company for the first 12 months. After that, owner-occupants may opt out or continue with the current management company, all while building relationships with their renters who are also neighbors.