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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2019)
8 Smoke Signals OCTOBER 15, 2019 First housing project opened in 1997 HOUSING continued from front page option to open up. “Our Elder wait list is about the same. … It is really hard to forecast the turnover. Our oldest one-bedroom application is a person who applied in 2016. It can take a while.” Current housing The first Tribal housing project, Grand Meadows, opened in 1997. It is a 36-lot manufactured home subdivision on Tribal property at McPherson and Grand Ronde roads that is available to Tribal members. Although the mobile homes are privately owned, residents pay a monthly land lease fee to the Tribe that is placed into an account to fund future infrastructure maintenance. Elders housing (Ilip Tilixam) opened in August 2000 and now includes 61 units that include two-bedroom, one-bath units ar- ranged in duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. There also are three three-bedroom units specifically designed for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Chxi Musam Illihi opened in June 2003 and now includes 108 units Photos by Timothy J. Gonzalez Housing Department Manager Shonn Leno talks about the future of Tribal housing in the Grand Ronde area on Wednesday, Oct. 2. for mixed-income Tribal families and consists of one- to five-bedroom units. It consists of both low-income and market rate units. Low-in- comes units, controlled by federal funding restrictions, are more basic housing while market rate units have higher-end materials, such as nicer flooring or countertops. Chxi Musam Illihi apartments opened in May 2015 and features 20 units designed for single Tribal members. In all, the estimated resident count in Tribal housing is approxi- mately 500 people, Leno says. Upcoming housing projects in- clude a currently under-construc- tion second phase of the apartment complex that will add eight more units in two separate buildings. In addition, the southwest corner at the intersection of Grand Ronde and Hebo roads will be the location of more Elder housing. The site will house 24 more units and may be open for occupation by late 2021 or early 2022. The new apartments and addi- tional Elder housing will increase the number of Tribal housing op- tions to 257. Housing Department Administra- tive Program Manager Joan Dugger says that the Tribe has applied for a $5 million federal grant that, if received, would allow the Hous- ing Department to build out the planned 48 apartment unit complex on the north side of Tyee Road with 20 more apartments – five more buildings that include four apart- ments each. “We have a decent chance at that,” Dugger says. Land availability plentiful The Grand Ronde Housing De- partment is in an enviable “Field of Dreams” scenario: If they build it, Tribal members will come. Land availability is not an issue, says Leno, who easily lists proper- ties in Grand Ronde owned by the Tribe that could be used to build The interior of the units under construction in one of the two new apartment complex buildings in Tribal Housing. The new buildings will bring the number of apartments in Grand Ronde to 28. Construction continues on two new apartment complex buildings in Tribal Housing on Wednesday, Oct. 2. housing. Sites include the 86.48-acre Rink property east of Grand Meadows, the eight-acre Windsor property south of Grand Meadows and east of the Grand Ronde Fire Station, and several smaller lots along Grand Ronde Road that are big enough for two or three lots. “They are all close depending on how big of a neighborhood you want to build initially,” Leno says. “We’ve looked at doing a pilot one initially to kind of show that we can do it here in Grand Ronde and that it will work.” Leno says that home ownership would fill a housing void in the area. “If you look at the overall spec- trum of housing, we have what I consider introductory housing. So a person could get in the introductory low-income housing. As they move up the (income) scale, they could ac- tually rent a market rate unit and then there is kind of a void where a person does not have the opportu- nity for home ownership, but then we also have Elder housing on the other end,” Leno says. “So the void we have is in the home ownership piece where a person could buy their own homes and move out of a rental.” Leno says a recent survey of Tribal members and employees is currently being analyzed to determine how many people are prepared to buy a home in Grand Ronde. Since the homes would be built on trust land, the Tribe would extend 99-year leases to homeown- ers, which would help them acquire traditional mortgages. The Tribe is also currently awaiting approval of its Tribal Leasing Ordinance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs that would allow the Tribe to write and See HOUSING continued on page 9
