By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
A Yachats-based nonprofit development company has received state funding and arranged other financing to proceed with a $10.9 million, 24-unit affordable housing project in Florence.
Our Coastal Village of Yachats plans to break ground on the project next April and complete it in May 2024, said company president Layne Morrill of Yachats. Called the Oak Manor Apartments, it will have four, three-story buildings on 1.23 acres of vacant land on Oak Street, just south of the Florence Fred Meyer store.
The project is the nonprofit’s third affordable housing project on the central Oregon coast. Morrill previously developed the 21-unit Fisterra Townhome Apartments and the seven-unit Aqua Vista Square Apartments in Yachats and sold the site that was then developed into the 25-unit Fisterra Gardens Apartments
The Florence project will have six one-bedroom units, nine two-bedroom units, and nine three-bedroom units, according to the announcement by Our Coastal Village.
Eight units will be set aside for households at or under 30 percent of the area median income resulting in rents of $336 for a one bedroom apartment, $401 for a two-bedroom and $463 for a three bedroom apartment. Sixteen units will be set aside for households at or under 60 percent of the area median income, resulting in rents of $696 for a one bedroom, $831 for a two-bedroom and $957 for a three-bedroom apartment.
For comparison, more than 16 months ago, Florence market rents were at least $300 above those prices, Morrill said.
Each unit will come with appliances and outdoor storage unit. Project amenities include a picnic shelter with tables, barbeques, basketball court, greenhouse and 12 outdoor raised garden boxes, a grass area with bench seating, plus 16 bike storage spaces.
Financing for the project is a complex package of state grants, tax credits, loans and charitable contributions.
The Oregon Housing Stability Council approved $4.2 million from 2015 state legislation that subsidizes affordable rental housing, $4.57 million will come from federal low-income tax credits, and $5.8 million from tax-exempt private activity bonds from Oregon Housing and Community Services, which Washington Federal has conditionally agreed to purchase. Morrill said Our Coastal Village will add $450,000 from charitable donations.
The city of Florence coordinated a 10-year property tax exemption from local governments, which is expected to save Our Coastal Village $10,000 to $11,00 a year, Morrill said. Our Coastal Village will use those tax savings to reduce by 5 percent the rents on the 16 units set aside for households at or under 60 of median family income.
The nonprofit’s apartment proposal in Florence was one of 14 affordable rental projects approved Aug. 5 by the Oregon Housing Stability Council, which is chaired by Lincoln County commissioner Claire Hall. Six projects totaling $44 million were in rural areas ranging from Nehalem, to La Pine to Klamath Falls.
Morrill said there are two other affordable rental apartments complexes in Florence, an older 45-unit complex and a 68-unit complex under construction.
Like the nonprofit’s development in Yachats, people seeking to rent in Florence will get a “local preference” if they live in the city, work in the city or have a job offer in the city. That means “locals go to the first of the line on the waiting list” to rent an apartment, he said.
But the demand for affordable housing is massive, he said. The nonprofit’s 21-unit Fisterra Garden Apartments in Yachats has a waiting list of 80 to 100, Morrill said.
“All of this is a drop in the bucket for what that area needs,” he told YachatsNews.
