Housing Resources Bainbridge

06/08/2026

HRB was happy to participate in the Helpline House house warming on June 7, tabling and talking to guests about the ways we collaborate and enjoying a first look at the beautiful new facilities. Helpline's foodbank is a regular stop for many in the HRB community.

Helpline House and HRB are natural partners. Helpline services, such as mental health counseling and case management, are more effective when coupled with the kind of housing stability provided by HRB. Program participation can be long-term and productive relationships with service providers can develop.

Congratulations dear friend and partner.

06/05/2026

A MEMORY CAFE

Take time out of your day to relax, socialize, and meet people who are experiencing the challenges of memory loss or caring for someone who is. This month's cafe will feature a craft activity led by two local artists passionate about sharing their creativity with the community. Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be served.

All guests with memory loss are welcome, no matter the underlying condition or stages of disease. Care partners can include spouses, children, friends, and professional caregivers. This is not a drop off program.

These cafes are presented by HRB, Island Volunteer Caregivers, Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island Senior Center, and The Aubin Aphasia Speech & Language Center, LLC.

REGISTER FOR FREE TICKETS:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/memory-cafe-tickets-1990571188008?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Or email [email protected]

06/02/2026

Much of what ails our cities and towns is a result of poor zoning: sprawl, segregation, high housing costs, environmental injustice, and more. So what's the cure? Good zoning.

Join us for the next event in the In Residence series:
According to Plan
The history of zoning and the future of Washington Communities

Two pivotal decisions helped bring us to our current system of planning: In 1926, with Village of Euclid vs. Ambler Realty Co., the Supreme Court established the constitutionality of zoning. And in 1961, Hawaii created the first state-wide, comprehensive growth management program (29 years later Washington followed suit with its Growth Management Act).

Dr. Tamara Laninga, director of the Urban Planning and Sustainable Development Program at Western Washington University and a co-creator of the Washington State Zoning Atlas, will open up these and other chapters from our planning history and examine the power of land use policy, the role of the state in managing growth, and how Bainbridge Island compares to its Washington peers.

REGISTER FOR FREE TICKETS
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1988778885182?aff=oddtdtcreator

06/01/2026

HRB's Sadie Woodman received a full rehab — updates to the woodwork, fresh paint, new heaters, and more. The finishing touch was a new fence thanks to a grant from Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island. Who needs a white picket fence when you can have beautiful, long-lasting cedar instead?

Built in 1904 and once the residence of Sadie Woodman, the island’s first woman postal carrier, the home was donated to HRB in 2000 and trucked to its current location. Entrusted with this special home, HRB is attentive to its needs. Thank you Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island for helping us fulfill our mission to steward this and all our homes with care.

05/22/2026

No doubt about it -- there are a lot of government rules to follow when building and renting affordable housing. For a peek behind the scenes, read this retrospective blog on a unique opportunity for HRB at the Oliver to be just a little less constrained.

Income qualification for affordable housing happens at the intersection of red tape and real life, where contract compliance can mean low-income earners who need affordable housing are denied. HRB at the Oliver offered a rare opportunity to make affordable housing accessible to more people and meet....

05/22/2026

Thank you Eagle Harbor Book Company for hosting the new HRB affordable housing book group. That circle of empty chairs soon filled up with intellectually curious and socially conscious community members who want to understand and act upon our affordable housing shortage. There could not have been a more welcoming space in which to gather.

Join the HRB mailing list if you want to learn about future book groups (we're planning another for the fall) and learn about HRB and our work on Bainbridge Island.

https://www.housingresourcesbi.org/contact-us/

Missed the book group? Drop by the bookstore and pick up a copy to read on your own or with friends and colleagues -- Brian Goldstone's Pulitzer Prize-winning There Is No Place for Us. It was an exceptionally powerful read. Here's a bit about the book:

"The working homeless.

In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America’s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one…

Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation’s hidden homeless—omitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem."

05/19/2026

According to Plan
The history of zoning and the future of Washington communities

One hundred years ago, with Village of Euclid vs. Ambler Realty Co., the Supreme Court established the constitutionality of zoning. From there, this relatively new practice took off, separating factories from houses, setting building heights and lot sizes, and in its ugliest application, serving as de facto redlining.

Today, this hyperlocal process is interacting with state mandates to accommodate regional growth, spawning debate over control, inclusion, and sustainability. To assess how land use policy can advance its goals, Washington compiled code from 320 jurisdictions into the Washington State Zoning Atlas. Co-creator Tamara Laninga will share findings from the atlas, walk us through the fascinating history of zoning, and reveal the land use policy that lies beneath our most livable communities.

REGISTER FOR FREE TICKETS:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/according-to-plan-tickets-1988778885182?aff=oddtdtcreator

Dr. Tamara Laninga, AICP, is a professor at Western Washington University and the program director for the nationally accredited Urban Planning and Sustainable Development Program. She researches and teaches land use regulations, planning history, and community development and has nearly two decades of experience facilitating community-student partnerships. Over the years, community-based projects have included planning for future growth, flood resilience, and zoning code and comprehensive plan revisions to align with Washington’s Growth Management Act.

05/18/2026

HRB applied to the Bainbridge Community Foundation as part of its Community Grants Cycle. Over the years, these grants have helped us strengthen our housing programs and update our rental homes. This year we are seeking community support to create something new – Finch Green, a beautiful neighborhood of 22 permanently affordable single-family homes to be built on land donated by Bethany Lutheran Church. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall.

We've received the maximum grant funding from government sources and now look to the community to raise the remainder. Please give to Finch Green through the BCF grantmaking process with the link below. The deadline to donate is June 12.

https://bcf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/grant?grant_id=40061

Seven of the 22 homes will be accessible, and with zero-step entries and ground-floor bathrooms, all 22 will be visitable by people with mobility impairments. This permanently affordable, inclusive neighborhood will make Bainbridge an even better place to live. Help make it happen.

05/15/2026

Happy World CLT Day! That's World Community Land Trust Day. No, it's not an official holiday, so we are celebrating today, as we do every day, by carrying on our work to advance equitable and sustainable development.

HRB may be the only community land trust in Kitsap County, but we are one of about 350 in the US and over 600 worldwide. We find power and inspiration in knowing that we are part of a larger movement of communities which understand housing as a human right and a public good and are opting out of the conventional housing market. In our world, homes are not priced at what the market will bear, but according to real income and real needs.

On World CLT Day, we at HRB give a shout-out to Community Land Trust Network of England and Wales, Caño Martín Peña CLT in Puerto Rico, Stadtbodenstiftung in Germany, and all our global colleagues and friends.

05/12/2026

After watching from the outside as the Ericksen Community rose from underground into the elegant structure we see today, it was such fun to get a look inside.

Turns out we didn't really need hard hats, but they were fun to wear and felt celebratory. The photo with HRB Executive Director Phedra Elliott and Jud from High Country, our general contractor, shows the main living space in one of the three-bedroom apartments. The room with all the windows is the lobby. Gorgeous!