New site secured for solutions to the Affordable Housing crisis in our communitySo many hopeful things are on the horizon, it’s hard to know where to begin. But the building at 888 Garfield St. is an excellent starting place! Daylight pours through high windows on every side of this former American Steel manufacturing plant dating to 1957. Its interior now also shines with a new promise: to help remedy a severe housing shortage for low-income Oregonians and offer new affordable housing solutions to our community.

HOPE: The newest affordable housing solution

SVdP recently secured title to this long-underutilized jewel of industrial property in west Eugene. Work is underway to upgrade it into a modern factory that will produce mobile homes quickly and at lower cost for those in need of affordable housing, including many who lost homes to wildfire. Supported by funding from the State of Oregon and Oregon Community Foundation, this innovative enterprise will operate under a nonprofit structure that’s unheard of the industry. You’ll hear more soon about HOPE Community Corporation (the acronym stands for Housing Options Production Enterprise), a nonprofit entity to operate alongside SVdP. We project a start to manufacturing in the second quarter of 2023, and in the meantime will open a St. Vinnie’s “as-is” thrift store in front of the future HOPE factory by the fall of 2022.

New Developments

We are excited about many other emerging developments, including eight units of transitional housing in south Eugene for families experiencing homelessness. Plans also are in motion to build 10 units of transitional housing for veterans in Santa Clara. And we recently opened The Phoenix House, a sober-living house for eight unhoused women coming out of treatment, at our 717 Hwy. 99N Hub Campus.

Even as we strive to build new and innovation affordable housing solutions, we remain committed to providing a social safety net of emergency shelter, food assistance, and services to help our community’s most vulnerable. As these new initiatives show, we also seize every opportunity to build long-term stability through housing, job creation, economic diversity, and sustainable solutions — many realized through creative partnerships and donations from supporters like you.

We see hope on the horizon, and we hope you’ll join us for the journey.

Terry McDonald / Executive Director                                      Bethany Cartledge / Deputy Director