Eugene City Council approved the construction of an 81-unit affordable housing complex in the Jefferson neighborhood at the Jan. 23 city council meeting.
The resolution — which awards the project to Homes for Good Housing Agency — passed unanimously. Councilors agreed on the need for more affordable housing in Eugene and had been trying to use the city-owned lot for that purpose for the last few years.

The complex will include 163 bedrooms across 81 units, 80 of which will be reserved for tenants earning 50% or less of Eugene area median income. The remaining unit is for management. Apartments will come with rental assistance to ensure tenants don’t pay more than 30% of their income in rent.
The project includes two four-story buildings and will feature an early learning center, play structures, gathering areas and a parking lot.

“This is just the perfect solution for this available land,” Councilor Emily Semple said.

Construction will cost $44 million and will be funded through a combination of public and private sources. 

About $1.9 million of these funds will come from the city — $1.2 million of which was allocated to Eugene for housing development through the federal HOME program, which allocates cities funds for affordable housing. The other $700,000 will come from waived city fees compensated with money from the American Rescue plan which the city allocated for helping affordable housing developers.

Councilors considered the cost worthwhile. “Assuming $1 million [for the value of the land] plus the $1.9 million, we’re at $3 million. But it’s going to leverage a $44 million project. That’s a 15:1 leveraging of city funds,” Councilor Alan Zelenka said.

The main concern among councilors was how long the process was taking. According to Eugene Affordable Housing Production Manager Ellen Meyi-Galloway, the naval reserve center formerly on the project site was demolished in 2010. Councilor Mike Clark asked why it had taken until now for a proposal to reach city council.

“I am not sure what the answer is,” Meyi-Galloway said, but she shared some theories. While councilors have talked about using the site for affordable housing for some time, it was not formally put into the city’s Housing Implementation Pipeline until January 2022, she said. 

The Housing Implementation Pipeline is a work plan passed by city council in January 2022 designed to increase housing affordability. Among other things, the plan identified three city-owned sites optimal for developing affordable housing. The former naval reserve site is one of them.

Meyi-Galloway also referenced a state bill passed in December 2021 allowing private developers to build affordable housing on public land even if not zoned for housing. But she said that since Homes for Good is a public agency, they could have done the project before the bill was passed.

Jefferson Westside Neighbors chair Ted Coopman said the neighborhood association initially requested affordable housing for that location in 2012 and was working to rezone the neighborhood before the law was passed. 

He said the passing of the bill pivoted their focus to talking with Homes for Good about the project. 

Homes for Good spokesperson Jordyn Shaw wrote over email that the agency had “advocated for years” for the city or county to use the land for affordable housing, but credited its designation under the Housing Implementation Pipeline for starting the process.

Councilor Zelenka said he is conerned about the lack of affordable housing coming from the free market.

“We have zero homes built from the marketplace. Every single one of the units that we do that’s for affordable housing is subsidized,” he said. “We cannot keep going down this path because we’re never going to meet the goal unless we do something different.”

Homes for Good is currently short $3.1 million for the project and is working to close this gap. Homes for Good listed many public and private potential sources of funding. Shaw also suggested the gap could be closed through cost saving measures. 

Shaw said she is confident Homes for Good will have funding by June 2024. If it does not, the city will retain the funds it plans to award for the project and will look for other partners to build affordable housing on that lot.

According to Shaw, construction will be complete and Homes for Good will start leasing in summer 2025.