A $15 million state grant to St. Vincent de Paul will help establish a factory in the Eugene area to build manufactured homes.
HOPE Community Corporation (the acronym stands for Housing Options Production Enterprise) will build prefabricated homes in a factory formerly used to build heavy-duty logging implements in Eugene. [courtesy photo]
More affordable homes could be unveiled next year once a new state-subsidized pre-fab factory starts operating.
“It will provide some housing for survivors of the 2020 wildfires in our area and across the state,” said Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, who pushed the legislation through the Legislature.
A $15 million state grant to St. Vincent de Paul will help establish a factory in the Eugene area to build manufactured homes.
“They’ve been an incredible leader on that front,” Marsh said of St. Vincent de Paul. “They expect to produce housing in a very short period of time.”
He said the factory in St. Vincent de Paul will help with the upstream supply of prefabricated houses. In 2020, about 2,500 residences, most of which were prefabricated homes, were destroyed by the Almeda fire.
“We have this terrible housing crisis,” Marsh said.
With the first homes expected next year, it may not be fast enough for Almeda fire survivors.
Many live in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA had planned to remove the trailers from that area by Sept. 15, but the state has requested a six-month extension.
“We told them not to do it three months before Christmas,” Marsh said.
The state was looking for the right nonprofit to help build manufactured homes, and St. Vincent de Paul in Lane County already had some experience.
The organization has operated a mattress recycling program, Marsh said.
St. Vincent has created a separate company known as HOPE Community Corporation (the acronym stands for Housing Options Production Enterprise) that will build the manufactured homes in an 80,000-square-foot facility. An estimated 112 workers will work at the former American Steel facility.
The factory is expected to build four units per day during single-wide production and two units during double-wide production.
St. Vincent’s goal is to serve the fire survivors who lost homes, with the greatest need in Jackson County.
Terry McDonald, County Executive of St. Vincent’s Lane, said, “We are incredibly excited about what HOPE means for the future of affordable housing in Oregon.”
McDonald said the first priority at the factory will be to increase production of two traditional floor plans that are most needed by low-income buyers. These are two bedrooms, one bath in an 800 square foot single, and three bedrooms and two baths in a 1,300 square foot double.
Prefab homes are designed to be energy efficient, fire resistant and offer the ability to deal with climate change and wildfire threats.
Rich Hansen, with St. Vincent de Paul in Medford, said McDonald is “perfect and an awesome guy.” If someone calls to do it, Terry can.
Hansen said the state needs more manufactured housing production to help deal with fire losses, as well as a growing need for affordable housing.
“If Terry increases the supply, it will help housing here,” he said.
Contact freelance writer Damian Mann at dmannnews@gmail.com.
