By the Oregon Capital Chronicle and YachatsNews.com
A nonprofit proposing to build 44 low-income apartments in Lincoln City is getting almost $4 million from the Oregon Housing Stability Council for people displaced by the Labor Day 2020 wildfires that burned nearly 300 homes in Otis.
The project by Stewardship Development of Eugene is one of 10 projects that will use $73 million from the state agency to build 625 affordable homes or apartments in four Oregon counties devastated by the 2020 Labor Day fires.
The wildfires burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed more than 4,000 homes. More than 1,700 of those were manufactured homes, one of the few affordable options for families.
The $73 million in grants is just a portion of more than $422 million the federal Housing and Urban Development Department allocated to Oregon for wildfire recovery. Most of the new homes will be income-restricted rental properties in Lincoln, Jackson, Marion, and Clackamas.
The Lincoln City project is called Wecoma Place. Stewardship Development and Cornerstone Community Housing are proposing 44 one- and two-bedroom apartments on two lots at U.S. Highway 101 and Northeast 29th Street in Lincoln City. The Housing Authority of Lincoln County will be the general partner, but with just a 0.01 percent ownership interest.
Eight of the Wecoma Place apartments will be restricted to renters whose incomes are not more than 60 percent of the area’s median income and 36 units will be restricted to renters with incomes not more than 55 percent of the area’s median income.
In Jackson County, where the Almeda Fire destroyed the Talent Mobile Estates manufactured home park and displaced nearly 90 families, a nonprofit will receive $7.5 million to buy the land and begin converting it to a cooperative owned by residents.
Medford will get 84 new homes, half of which will be sold to families making 80 percent or less of the median income, which in Jackson County is $81,400. Medford will also be home to more than 230 new income-restricted rental apartments, intended to house agricultural workers displaced by the fires, and 22 income-restricted cottages for seniors.
A Salem apartment project, Gateway, will receive $25 million for the construction of 129 apartments that can only be rented by people with household incomes below 60 percent of the median in the area.
Marion County will also receive $2.8 million to build 24 homes outside Salem city limits but inside the city’s urban growth boundary, a line that dictates where cities can expand. Those homes will be for sale for people earning up to 80 percent of the median income, but the land the homes sit on will be held by a community land trust.
The county government will also get $1.7 million to purchase 15 acres of land in Mill City to use for future affordable housing.
In Clackamas County, almost $10 million will go toward 36 apartments in Estacada.
