First Story gifts keys to Spokane family during home dedication event

One of the first things that high school freshman Liam Cole noticed upon entering his new home was just how ideal their living room is for wrestling matches with his younger brother, Mason.

Amanda Cole and her two sons received the keys to their new house in the Five Mile Prairie community during a home dedication event on Wednesday. Through the nonprofit lender, First Story, and their founder, Hayden Homes, the Cole family was able to purchase their home with a zero-down, zero-interest, 30-year mortgage.

Liam is a freshman at North Central, while Mason goes to Prairie View Elementary. Liam said he already knows what decoration he’s going to put up first – a signed poster from the Expendables, a reggae rock group from Santa Cruz. Meanwhile Mason is not completely sure about what is going to go up in his room first, as he is more focused on enjoying their new expansive backyard.

Depending on the year, Hayden Homes builds five to 10 First Story homes for families in the Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana region. Dennis Murphy, the CEO of Hayden Homes, said that recipients of First Story houses pay an average of $500 per month.

“Rent never goes up,” Amanda Cole said. “And there’s no interest rate, which is amazing.”

Prior to moving, the Cole family lived in an apartment in Spokane for the last 12 years. She described walking into her new home as super exciting and slightly overwhelming because of the whirlwind of different emotions. Her kids’ reaction was a simple and resounding, “Holy Cow.”

All of the recipients of First Story homes are first-time home buyers and earn less than 80% of the median income, which was $86,205 in 2024, according to Spokane Trends, a collection of data and reports on economic trends as part of the Eastern Washington University Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown mentioned the public-private partnership between the city and Hayden Homes as critical to achieving the city’s ambitious goal of adding 22,000 new housing units by 2046.

“Those kinds of partnerships are fantastic,” said Brown, who was at the event. “There are federal and other programs that really focus on sort of the lowest income people in our city, and that’s very important, and the city participates in leveraging those funds. But think about that middle piece, where you’ve got teachers, firefighters and nurses – the basic workforce that we depend on. For them to have that ability to own a home and have that stability contributes to their family, to their more extended family, and to the neighborhoods in the city.”

First Story has two main programs. One is the home grant, which is what happened on Wednesday’s event. The other program revolves around partnering with local nonprofits.

To date, First Story has donated $2.6 million to the community through their partnership with about 80 different nonprofits over the span of 30 years. 123 new homes have been built as part of First Story’s home grant, each of which include finished landscaping, a washer, dryer and other appliances.

Murphy said he was still in college when Hayden Homes got its start in 1989. He and his best friend from high school, Hayden Watson, built their first home in 1990 while on summer vacation. Watson’s parents, Bob and Virginia Watson, were the ones that started Hayden Homes. Today, Hayden Watson is the chairman of the company, while Murphy is the CEO.

Hayden Homes built around 100 houses a year in the 90s. Murphy said today they build around 1,700 houses per year.

In 1998, Murphy and Watson decided they wanted to give away holiday gift baskets to the community. So their employees pitched in $500 and they matched that donation to give away $1,000 worth of gift baskets.

“A couple years later, Hayden and I were talking to each other and we were like, ‘we build houses, we should probably figure out how to give a house to a family in need.’ So we started a nonprofit called First Story, and in 2001 we made our first (First Story) house… Hayden and I promised each other we’d do at least one house a year and we just dedicated our 120th house.”

Since that initial $1,000 to seed First Story, Murphy said the nonprofit is now worth more than $20 million and brings in $2 million a year.

Murphy said the process for a family to receive a First Story house is fairly straight-forward . They tell the housing authority that they have a First Story home ready and then the housing authority chooses from a candidate list. After that, the candidates have to complete home buyer education, so they know how to maintain their new domicile. Then they are good to go.

For the Murphy family, they were accepted in April and helped put up the first board in June. Now, about four months later, they have a brand new home to live in.

Around noon on Wednesday, Liam, Amanda and Mason Cole took a needle to a giant confetti-filled balloon. After the balloon popped and confetti went flying, the family searched on the ground and found the keys to their new home.

“Our why statement is to give as we go so that together we can build strong communities and lead fulfilled lives,” Murphy said.