POULSBO — State, county and city officials will officially welcome a new neighborhood to the northern edge of Little Norway today.

For 30 families, the ribbon-cutting and barbecue will celebrate the end of a journey, while for 30 more it will mark the beginning of the quest toward homeownership. The event will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the site east of State Route 305 on Viking Way.

The Vetter Homestead, a 93-unit subdivision on eastside of Vetter Road NE, is the first USDA self-help housing project administered by the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority in Poulsbo, since the completion of the Austurbruin neighborhood off Caldart Avenue.

“This is extremely important to the city of Poulsbo,” said KCCHA director of public relations Sarah Lee. In Poulsbo there is a shortage of affordable housing for residents who make normal wages, and the Vetter Homestead helps fill that gap, Lee said.

“This is proof positive that it can happen,” she said.

The fact that an affordable housing project of this scale is becoming a reality is a tribute to the amount of cooperation among all the groups involved, she said.

“There is a new street named ‘Cooperation Way,’ that is a symbol of this,” Lee said.

From mayors Donna Jean Bruce and Kathryn Quade to the city council to city staff to property owner Harley Unruh and everyone in between, cooperation has been the overriding element propelling the project’s first phase to completion, Lee said.

“It’s going to be an exciting day for the families,” Quade said. “I can imagine they’re chomping at the bit to move in.”

The project is the largest self-help development in the state, she said.

“It is an opportunity for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to own a home,” she said. “I’m just proud of Poulsbo for being so inviting of the self-help program.”