Bend adds affordable housing

Spring groundbreaking planned for 10-home subdivision

NICK GRUBE / THE BULLETIN

A nonprofit arm of the Central Oregon Builders Association recently bought 10 vacant lots in a southeast Bend subdivision to build affordable green homes. 

Building Partners for Affordable Housing wants to build the houses over the next couple of years. As a result of receiving grant funds, it plans to market the homes to low-income minorities. 

In particular, the $100,000 state grant awarded to Bend specifies that the nonprofit should give priority to first-time minority homebuyers who earn less than the area median income. 

The grant also asks that Building Partners for Affordable Housing give preference to minority contractors and subcontractors when awarding work to build the homes. 

Jim Long, Bend's affordable housing manager, calls the project “wonderful” for these reasons. He said it helps benefit the local economy by putting local contractors to work. 

“Building Partners is turning into a very, very good nonprofit developer,” Long said. “They're putting private contractors to work, and they're a great partner with the city. We really like working with them.” 

In November, the Bend City Council approved giving Building Partners for Affordable Housing $619,000 in loans from the city's affordable housing fee program. Those fees are collected from builders and put into a pool to help increase the amount of affordable housing in Bend. 

The nonprofit received such funds in the past for a similar project now under way in the same Parrell Road neighborhood as the recent acquisition. That project was the nonprofit's first foray into building affordable, energy-efficient homes. 

So far, the nonprofit has sold six houses that are now occupied, and is about to close on another. There are still three more homes to be built to fill out the 10-lot subdivision, called Shady Pines. The work is expected to be completed this year. 

Andy High, the vice president of government affairs for COBA, oversees much of the work performed by Building Partners for Affordable Housing. He said the intent is to duplicate the success of the Shady Pines development at the new Southern Pines subdivision, which is about a block south on Calvin Way. 

He said the homes likely will sell for $160,000 to $170,000, and that prospective buyers will be able to use the value of the land as collateral for a down payment. This would likely reduce a loan amount to around $130,000, which he estimates would have a monthly mortgage rate of around $700. 

Add to that the low cost of living in an energy-efficient residence, and High said being a homeowner is an attainable goal for people working in service, hospitality and construction industries. 

“Our goal has always been not to make them affordable to purchase, but affordable to live in,” High said. “Hopefully, we'll build some homes that the people working on the homes can afford.” 

High expects to break ground in Southern Pines this spring. The goal with the first home, he said, is to build it entirely using products manufactured in the U.S. While this might not be feasible, he notes that it's a worthy goal. 

“We're going to try everything we can to make it happen,” High said. “Then we can show that you can build an affordable house and it can be green and it can help the local economy.”