COTTAGE GROVE – A plot of land off Pennoyer and down N. 11th in Cottage Grove is owned by Habitat for Humanity of Central Lane and will have a brand new cottage cluster housing development in the next few years.
Affordable housing seems far and few between these days, with increasing home and rental prices and stagnant wages. Habitat serves folks who are between 40% and 80% of the Area Median Income and welcomes people from all walks of life. In 2023, the median household income for Cottage Grove was $64,133, so 40-80% of that is around $25,650-$51,300.
The goal is to break ground on construction in spring, according to executive director John Barnum. The project has been in the design stages for several years.
Students in the Building Integrated Livable Designs Sustainability (BILDs) program at the University of Oregon School of Architecture helped mock the layout of the cluster. BILD’s focus is on small, affordable, and efficient housing.
“We’re hoping to break ground this spring, and then after that, it’s probably like a two-year process to get to completion, and could be faster, but it’s always based on money available,” Barnum said.
Barnum said state funding is secure to develop the property through the Local Innovation and Fast Track (LIFT) program, which aims to expand affordable housing by funding rental and homeownership properties.
He explained that state funds are reimbursed after you spend from your own reserves.
“Building up that reserve is a hard thing to do, because we’ve been building houses in Springfield, and we’re close to probably about 12 months out to be fully completed in Springfield,” Barnum said. “Then that’s going to release more funding as those houses sell, so that we can take that money and start using it down in Cottage Grove.”
The five-unit cottage cluster is a group of single-family homes on a shared lot, with all homes’ first floors ADA accessible. Although ADA accessibility is not required for residential homes, Barnum noted that mobility issues are not uncommon.
“It’s not hard, it’s not required, but we should do it anyway. The other thing that makes the homes potentially be what we refer to as intergenerational,” he said, referring to when parents move back in with their children for living assistance.
Habitat for Humanity of Central Lane & UO School of Architecture students are hosting a discussion on March 4 at the Creswell Grange Hall, 274 W. Oregon Ave., at 6 p.m. to discuss the Cottage Grove Cluster Development.
