By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com
A Lincoln County non-profit organization could get the keys as early as this week to a 42-unit hotel being refurbished to provide housing for the dozens of families displaced by last year’s Echo Mountain Complex fire.
Northwest Coastal Housing’s application for more than $3 million to buy the property is one of four projects approved so far statewide under the legislatively authorized “Project Turnkey.”
Oregon Community Foundation, the state’s biggest philanthropic organization, is guiding Project Turnkey on the state’s behalf.
“We know the need for interim housing is very high and the Lincoln City project certainly meets that acute need,” said Megan Loeb, the foundation’s associate program officer. “We are very excited to see the momentum that is building around this and other projects around Oregon.”
Loeb said the Lincoln City piece of the program, dubbed Phoenix Rising NW, is expected to clear escrow in the next few days. Minor rehabilitation, some of which is already underway, is still needed before families displaced by the Otis Complex wildfire can begin moving in.
“We’re very hopeful that wildfire evacuees will feel safe and warm and have a stable place to recovery,” Loeb said.
Northwest Coastal Housing’s $3.348-million grant provided for the purchase of the former Paradise Inn & Suites motel along U.S. Highway 101. The grant will also finance annual operational costs, which the initial application listed as about $352,000 annually.
The facility’s first year will be devoted to providing shelter for some of the 180 Otis-area residents who remain without permanent housing following the wildfire that roared through the area last September, destroying 300 homes.
One room would be set aside as a case-management area, where residents could get information about community services available to them.
In the second year, Phoenix Rising is expected to transition toward providing shelter to a variety of potential clients. Two of those could include rehabilitation patients from Samaritan Health Systems and people under supervision of Lincoln County’s parole and probation department. It could also be used for longer stays for the homeless.
Lincoln County Commissioner Claire Hall, who chairs the Oregon Housing Stability Council, welcomed word of the grant.
“This is wonderful news for survivors of the Echo Mountain fire,” she said. “North Lincoln County’s critical housing shortage was exacerbated by the fire. Too many individuals and their families are still living in their vehicles, are doubled up with friends or relatives, or in other unstable situations.”
Phoenix Rising NW, she added, “will give them a safe, long-term place to work on rebuilding their homes and their lives.”
Sheila Stiley, Northwest Coastal Housing’s executive director, also applauded the project’s progress.
“We are Northwest Coastal Housing are so grateful for this opportunity to help our neighbors impacted by the wildfires, COVID and other crisis by providing temporary lodging complete with service navigation,” Stiley said in a news release from Oregon Community Foundation. “Our goal is to ease the trauma, provide our occupants with lodging, help them stabilize and breathe.”
Her organization, she said, was founded to advocate for and support community efforts addressing housing needs.
“This is an unconventional and innovative way of accomplishing just that, which seems to be a growing trend when responding to crisis,” Stiley said.
Part of statewide effort
The project is part of a much larger effort launched last November, when the state’s Legislative Emergency Board designated $65 million in federal CARES Act money to start Project Turnkey.
The project is modeled after California’s Project Homekey, which allocated $800 million in that state to finance the purchase of distressed motels to ease crowding at shelters during the coronavirus pandemic.
In Oregon, the money was split into two distinct funds. The eight counties devastated by last September’s wildfires received $30 million to help relocate those displaced after wildfires destroyed an estimated 4,500 houses. The state’s other 28 counties received $35 million to provide shelter for the homeless.
In addition to Phoenix Rising NW, applications so far have also been approved for projects in Corvallis, Ashland and Eugene. The latter involves transformation of a 50-room hotel designed to accommodate some of those residents displaced by the Holiday Farm Fire along the McKenzie River. The Corvallis project is focusing on the homeless.
Not all requests by organizations or local governments have gone smoothly. A proposed motel purchase in Estacada, which was also affected by September’s wildfires, was met with community opposition and withdrawn by Clackamas County. The Lincoln City purchase also drew some public pushback over the potential for eventually using the motel for the homeless.
A total of 20 applications from organizations around the state are still in various phases of the due diligence process required to proceed with occupancy, Loeb said. That work involves appraisals, inspections and related items, such as ensuring that local zoning rules allow for the proposed projects.
“A lot of people are working extremely hard to make all of this happen,” Loeb said. “It’s really encouraging to see solutions that everyone can rally around.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com