EUGENE — St. Vincent de Paul of Society of Lane County (SVdP) recently installed new ductless cooling/heating systems in 86 of its affordable-housing units — just in time to bring residents air-conditioned relief from this summer’s severe heat, while also promising lower utility bills during the next cold season.
These so-called “mini-split” systems are now keeping residents cool at SVdP’s South Hilyard Terrace and Mac McDonald properties in Eugene, and Alona Place in Junction City.
“We’re thrilled that we can improve the lives of our residents in this very real, tangible way, and also save them money in the long term on utility costs,” says SVdP Executive Director Bethany Cartledge. “We continue to experience more severe and prolonged weather extremes, both in the summer and winter, and we’re committed to helping our residents stay safe and comfortable in their homes. Everyone deserves to feel the comforts of home.”
The nonprofit SVdP owns and manages some 1,600 rentals for low-income residents in Lane, Linn, Marion and Multnomah counties. Anything but a typical profit-focused landlord, SVdP continually seeks to increase the inventory of affordable housing in the communities it serves while keeping rents as low as possible for residents who can’t afford market-rate housing.
More than that, SVdP’s always-resourceful staff strive to secure outside funding and supplemental resources to better serve the agency’s residents. In this case, SVdP was able to qualify for funding made available through the State of Oregon’s 2022 Emergency Heat Relief Act (Senate Bill 1536), which established a variety of grant programs to help protect residents who are most vulnerable to extreme heat, cold, and poor air quality.
SVdP secured some of those funds via the Oregon Department of Energy (ODE)-administered Oregon Rental Home Heat Pump Program, designed to support landlords in installing new heat pumps in rental homes. SVdP then effectively multiplied that funding, with rebates and incentives from Energy Trust of Oregon and the Eugene Water & Electric Board, to purchase and install as many of the highly efficient new heating/cooling units as possible.
“We saw a deadly ‘heat dome’ event in the summer of 2021, when a lot of people passed away from extreme heat across Oregon. And it’s only a matter of time before that happens again, so we need to be prepared,” says SVdP Special Projects Manager Aaron Toneys.
Most of the 96 Oregonians whose deaths were attributed to that June 2021 weather event were elderly, largely isolated, and in areas with urban “heat island” effects that retain and amplify heat. Victims were also disproportionately from vulnerable populations, including the unhoused and those with very low incomes living in homes without air conditioning or any type of cooling other than a fan.
Toneys, who led this project for SVdP, performed an analysis of the organization’s housing inventory to determine both where the greatest needs existed and where the greatest numbers of units could be most easily and effectively retrofitted with wall-mounted cooling/heating heads in the main living areas.
And the timing of the project’s recent completion couldn’t be better, as the Eugene area just set another sizzling milestone early this July with a record five consecutive days of 100-plus-degree high temperatures.
“Obviously, the heat is on everyone’s mind right now and it’s great that we’re able to give so many of our folks the comfort of A/C,” Toneys says. “But I think they’ll be almost as excited in the winter, when they should see their heating bills drop as well!”
The 2024 Oregon Legislature added $4 million more to the Oregon Rental Home Heat Pump Program, after landlords across the state utilized all of the $15 million allocated in 2022. Toneys says the intent is for SVdP to pursue another round of new funding to install heat pumps at even more properties in the near future.