Affordable housing remains a challenge for the Bend community, but a powerful partnership between a local non-profit organization and an exceptionally generous private business has brought the two organizations together to add to Bend’s affordable housing base according to Amy Warren, executive director of the Bend-based Kôr Community Land Trust.
During a recent visit to Kôr’s new five-unit project in southeast Bend, Warren went out of her way to laud the generous in-kind contributions to the project from Building Solutions, a building material supply company that serves Central Oregon from its facility in north-east Bend.
Kôr’s current project, called Kôrazon, will provide five new affordable units, each with two bedrooms and two baths. Construction work at the site off of 27th Street SE is well underway, and the five cottages will be available for occupancy in early 2021. Buyers for all five units have been selected through a lottery process carried out by Kôr.
Funding for the construction of Kôrazon has come from a number of sources, including the City of Bend’s Affordable Housing Program and major grants from the State of Oregon and the federal government. A number of generous individuals and local companies have also supported the project, but in this category Building Solutions stands out for the scale of its support.
To date, Building Solutions has brought over $40,000 of additional value to the Kôrazon project. This sum includes $25,000 in discounts for framing lumber and siding and another $15,000 in in-kind contributions for windows, doors and specialty wood products. To obtain these in-kind contributions, Building Solutions reached out to its own suppliers, including International Wood Products, Ridgeline Metal and JELD-WEN.
When asked recently what has inspired Building Solutions to assume this leadership role, the company’s Operations Manager, Jason Pickelsimer, offered the following thoughts: “As a building material supply company, we see every day how expensive homes in central Oregon have become. We also see what so called “affordable housing” really costs — not very affordable.
“When we met with Amy and her team and saw what the Kôr program is all about, we decided that this was the organization that we wanted to partner with,” Pickelsimer continued. “Even though we continue to make donations and support other groups, we have gone all-in with Kôr.
“We want to give back as much to this community as we can and help create truly affordable housing for our local workforce.” said Pickelsimer. “The development at Kôrazon helps accomplish this. There needs to be more of these programs here to allow “locals” to actually live and thrive here.”
Speaking for Kôr, Warren is equally complementary. “It takes a village to build a village and this partnership is a true testament to that,” Warren said. “Building Solutions has taken the term “locals supporting locals” to a new level. Not only does it recognize the value of keeping Bend a place, where our workforce can afford to live, but it has also gotten behind that value in a big and wonderful way.”
According to Warren, Building Solutions is not the only local contributor to the Kôrazon project, just the most generous on this particular project. She notes that the Kôr “is incredibly grateful for the many suppliers and contractors who have made our mission possible through similar support.”
Kôr is currently in the process of finalizing plans for its next project, to be called Crescita. This project, too, she says will have good opportunities for local support, and she knows that she can count on the Bend community to step up to help.
