Oregon approves nearly $57M for affordable housing, including apartments in Springfield

Oregon is spending $56.7 million to help build affordable housing projects, including a new 39-unit building in the middle of Springfield.

The Oregon Housing Stability Council approved the funding to go to 11 affordable housing developments for support with small projects and veterans at its Nov. 3 meeting. The targeted funds aim to bolster housing accessibility, providing 261 homes across the state for developments serving seniors, veterans, wildfire survivors, agricultural workers and people experiencing homelessness.

Cornerstone Community Housing project being built at 1875 16th St. in Springfield will utilize $7,935,000 in Housing Development Grant Program funds. Ground breaking is scheduled for summer 2024. The name Springfield Apartments is a placeholder title in lieu of a formal name for the complex.

Cornerstone Community Housing Executive Director Darcy Phillips said the funding from the Oregon Housing Stability Council was the final piece of the puzzle to allow the project to move forward. Cornerstone Community Housing is working with Tabor Design Group to create a space that utilizes trauma-informed design elements to support a safe-feeling environment for residents.

Out of the 39 units, 10 are planned to be set aside for houseless domestic abuse survivors who would have access to support services provided through the Hope & Safety Alliance and additional service partners for case management, resources and housing stability aid.

“It’s an important population that is just in tremendous need of safe, stable housing and we’ve had a couple of other developments that we’ve worked on together that haven’t quite gotten off of the ground," Phillips said. "So, when this was in our mind, it was just a natural fit for us to partner.”

“That’s an exciting piece of this work that’s different than we haven’t done in the past,” Phillips said. “You really want the design to be informed by the population served.”

Once built, the complex will not have timelines for residency as many other forms of affordable housing do. Phillips said the complex is not transitional nor permanent supportive housing — it works to fill a need where people and families have it.

“We get asked all the time ‘How long do you let people live in your housing?’ and my answer is until they’re ready for their next positive move,” Phillips said. “For some people, that’s the rest of their lives. This is their forever home.”

The partnership between Cornerstone and the Hope And Safety Alliance was an obvious one for Phillips.

Cornerstone Community Housing has served Lane County for more than 30 years by developing affordable housing alongside supportive services to promote well-being and economic independence. Cornerstone owns and operates eight properties totaling 336 affordable housing units in Lane County. It also provides resident services across the state for 12 different owners and operators of affordable housing developments.

Additional supportive partnerships are being provided for future residents through the Catholic Community Services Refugee and Immigrant Services Program, Senior and Disability Services and the Living Well with Chronic Conditions or Diabetes program.

“We have worked with Hope and Safety Alliance quite a bit over the last several years,” Phillips said.

Julie Weismann, executive director of the Hope and Safety Alliance, formerly known as Womenspace, said the organization’s partnership with developers is a reciprocal one that supports both efforts to create more affordable housing and to provide resources to survivors of domestic or sexual violence.

Weismann said when survivors of domestic or sexual violence flee harmful living situations, they often don’t have a safe space to stay and are likely to experience homelessness.

“It's a kind of prevention and intervention all at the same time. We want to prevent them from being homeless and then if they did end up being (unhoused), because it’s just too long, we want to get them off the streets as quickly as possible,” Weismann said.

While the funding for the new Springfield Apartments is locked in, both Cornerstone and the Hope and Safety Alliance rely on local funding and community donations to support their populations.

Weismann emphasized the significant impact community support can have, helping clients to buy essential household items and get access to food that may not be available through resources like Food For Lane County.

“It moves us to tears because it’s that one moment where you realize, ‘oh yes, we are working to provide these solutions,’ when we’re still just seeing so much where we can’t do it because there’s not enough resources in our community to be able to provide more,” Weismann said.

“Me and my team, that’s why we do what we do. That’s why we’re called to this job — we want to do more and our community wants to do more.”

For Phillips, the reward of this work comes from keeping people centered at the heart of the work Cornerstone does statewide.

“It’s everything I love doing,” Phillips said. “I love the development, I love the excitement of building new projects and watching folks be able to move into more permanent homes that provide stability.”

Hannarose McGuinness is The Register-Guard’s growth and development reporter. Contact her at 541-844-9859 or hmcguinness@registerguard.com

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Cornerstone Community Housing in Springfield gets funding