On a late summer evening after work, Brian Landau showed off his 500-square-foot home in Flagstaff’s Timber Sky development.
On every wall without a window hangs a piece of art, while a road bike is mounted on the edge of his loft balcony.
“I definitely have more art than I have wall space,” Landau said. “I felt, personally, like homeownership for me was going to be a pipe dream. I maybe thought, ‘Maybe a condo or studio type of space.’ But I never thought I'd have my own space, let alone this. I've rented all my life.”
Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona built Landau’s home. He’s now been here for almost 9 months.
He says it’s the first place that is truly his since he moved to Flagstaff in 2006.
In that time he’s worked at restaurants, cafés and the city’s Mountain Line public bus system. Landau has sometimes held multiple jobs at once. Now he’s a medical assistant at Northern Arizona Healthcare.
Over the last two decades, the average price of a home in Flagstaff has risen nearly 200%, while median incomes have only increased by 70%. The Flagstaff City Council declared a housing emergency in 2020, citing years of unaffordable prices.
Habitat’s homes in Timber Sky are meant to bypass Flagstaff's skyrocketing prices, giving residents an achievable entrance to homeownership.
The project is a collaboration between Habitat and Capstone Homes. It’s designed to include a wide mix of housing types, from large apartments to single-family homes, and is meant to provide housing for people across the economic spectrum.
The neighborhood in west Flagstaff will eventually contain 40 units. Each household owns their home for a maximum of 10 years, allowing families to build wealth over the course of the decade.
Habitat is currently accepting applications for 10 new starter homes in Timber Sky.
It’s the next phase in the project by the nonprofit that last year welcomed its first 10 residents, Landau among them.
“You have a $1,000 down payment, and then you're paying about $1,100. It's kind of give or take with insurance and stuff. Of that $1,100, $833 gets saved,” Landau said. “And so, it's a great opportunity. I don't know of many people kind of in our economic status, I guess, able to save that much money in a year.”
Landau said he hopes the effort will inspire more action to create attainable opportunities for homeownership, even if it means having hard conversations about development.
“There’re more people wanting to have an opportunity to be a homeowner and there's not enough space available for that, and so really, for Habitat for Humanity to put 40 homes on the space that they have here is pretty incredible,” Landau said. “I really hope it sparks more conversation and more people figuring out how to do this, not whether or not we can do it.”
In the face of “not in my backyard” arguments, Landau said the neighborhood shows a community can have a wide mix of housing that caters to people of many stripes.
“I think it's more about really being inclusive,” Landau said. “Giving people a chance, an opportunity to be a homeowner and to be able to stay in Flagstaff.”
Habitat is accepting applications through Oct. 2. It’s already received more than 70 for the 10 available homes.
