County lands funds for housing.

Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

The latest round of funding from the state's Housing and Community Services agency includes money for two projects in Lane County that will provide a total of 91 units of affordable housing for lower-income households that have trouble making ends meet in today's rental housing market.

The funding includes nearly $1.5 million for a plan by St. Vincent de Paul Society to construct 27 housing units for low-income and elderly people in Veneta and nearly $9 million for a 64-unit apartment complex the Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corp. will build in west Eugene.

The nonprofit housing corporation already has the 102-unit WestTown on 8th affordable-housing project under construction on West Eighth Avenue, next to the W.O.W. Hall in downtown Eugene. Now it will receive an additional $7 million in federal low-income tax credits over a 10-year period plus $1.85 million in Oregon Affordable Housing tax credits to support its new Prairie View project.

"We will finish WestTown before we break ground on Prairie View, so the timing is good," Metro executive director Richard Herman said. "We'll start Prairie View in May 2008, and it should be done in late spring or early summer the next year."

Metro will build the complex, ranging in size from studio to three-bedroom apartments, on North Danebo Avenue just south of Royal Avenue. Studio units will rent for about $306 per month, with one-bedrooms at $318, two-bedrooms at $381 and three-bedrooms at $439.

"We like to call it `workforce housing,' because there are a lot of people who work full time who still can't afford to pay market rate for houses and apartments," said Chris Shultz of The Ulum Group, which is working with Metro to find tenants for the nine market-rate "live/work" units that will anchor the Eighth Avenue side of the WestTown project.

"The federal money (for Prairie View) allows Metro to keep rents affordable by subsidizing housing costs for the next 10 years," Shultz said. "The state tax credits have the effect of buying down the interest rate on the project, which is another way of making the project affordable."

Encouraging entrepreneurs to both live in and establish commercial or retail businesses in the downtown WestTown project will help spur revitalization of the long-depressed downtown area, especially with voter rejection on Nov. 6 of the city's latest renewal effort, Herman said. While Prairie View won't take the same approach of building market-rate units to attract businesses, it will be built near an existing shopping enclave that includes a major supermarket, retail shops and public transportation.

"The west Eugene area is really underserved in terms of affordable housing," Herman said. "But there are many employers there, so there is a great need for this kind of housing so that people can live and work in the same area."

Eugene City Councilor Chris Pryor said he welcomes the Prairie View project to his ward.

"I'm very supportive of the idea of distributing affordable housing all over the city, which has been a goal in Eugene for the past 30 years," Pryor said. "It's a wise strategy - it allows people to live near their work and to have the dignity of living in a neighborhood of their choosing."

The city's mission to disperse affordable housing projects throughout its neighborhoods sometimes has generated controversy but also has won national recognition, including an award that will be presented this month, he said.

Jan Bohman, the city's community relations manager, said Friday that the city will be honored as a finalist in the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation Awards, presented by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

"We didn't make the final, final cut, but we will receive $2,500 to help disseminate information about our program," Bohman said.

In addition to the two Lane County projects just funded by Oregon Housing and Community Services, two projects in Portland, two in McMinnville and one each in Yachats, Woodburn, Lake Oswego, Seaside, Central Point, Heppner and Wilsonville also received allocations this week.