A Home for Everyone Who Needs One

A Critical Need for Affordable Housing

The national housing crisis is exacerbated in communities like ours. Building small-scale affordable housing for rural island communities is complex to design, build and fund.

Without affordable housing, local workers are forced to leave and businesses have to reduce hours or close. Young families can’t find a home and have to move. Schools struggle to hire teachers and classrooms shrink. The ripples effect impacts us all.

Who does this impact?

Whidbey Island has a growing number of stories of community members struggling with housing insecurity or forced to leave the island because they weren’t able to find housing. Stories like these local families:

A teacher who had to turn down a teaching job because she couldn’t find a place for her family to live.

A single mother forced to move off island and uproot her kids in order to take a new job to cover rent.

A local business owner and single parent had to quickly vacate their rental, having to couch surf with friends.

About Us

Island Roots Housing is a homegrown nonprofit advancing affordable housing options for generations to come. An offshoot of Goosefoot Community Fund, we are creating affordable housing that enhances the vibrancy and livability of Island County for everyone.

  • “I am renting, but concerned because my landlord could sell at anytime, leaving my family homeless. There are little to no affordable rentals for families of four or larger.”

    -Local resident

  • “Our latest candidate that hired on came from upstate New York and bought himself a van to live in. We have so much work and not enough employees…one (temporary staff person) commuting from Granite Falls.”

    — Tara Thomas, United States Postal Service

  • “I don't want to leave, but am struggling to find a place I can afford to live. I am looking for a long-term place to live, but my health is failing and I have a very small fixed income, so I don't know how long I will be able to stay on Whidbey. I have family here, but they are struggling too, and cannot support me. I don't know where else I would go. This is my home.”

    -Local resident

Generations Place in Langley

Island Roots Housing's inaugural project - Generations Place - will offer 14 two-and-three bedroom apartments located at 2nd & DeBryun in downtown Langley.

It will open doors for working families who are contributing their talents to our thriving South Whidbey economy.

Affordable Housing Sustains Thriving Communities

Everyone deserves access to safe, dignified housing, and it benefits our entire community. Stimulating local economies, supporting local businesses and sustaining local populations.

When people are able to find a place to live, young families can stay and raise their children, small businesses can stay open, and essential services like grocery stores, medical services, and schools can serve the entire community