Nonprofit affordable homeownership developer Kor Community Land Trust has rebranded to RootedHomes. Over the past two years, the organization has not only expanded the number of net-zero homes it is building in Central Oregon but also centered its homebuyers’ needs in its community designs and organizational leadership. In listening to its homebuyers, the organization recognized a rebrand would better engage the community and demonstrate the mission-based work of the organization.
“Feedback from our homebuyers has shaped us into the nonprofit organization we are today,” explained Jackie Keogh, executive director of RootedHomes. “In collaborating with homebuyers to choose our new brand, RootedHomes better connects the community to the intentionality of our brand and our value of sustainable building. Our homes root homebuyers to the Central Oregon community; now our brand does too.”
RootedHomes’ Homebuyer Committee, composed of people with lived experience with housing instability, led the rebrand. RootedHomes was selected for its clear representation of the organization’s work in equitably building sustainable communities. The Homebuyer Committee’s lived experiences helped convey the importance of feeling rooted in home and community.
“The rebrand allowed us to talk about what Kôr was doing in a way that was not confusing or ambiguous and halted the issue of people not connecting with the mission of providing affordable housing for Central Oregon’s workforce,” shared Jasmine Wilder, RootedHomes Board Member and Homebuyer Committee Chair. “The rebrand is a better representation of the changes and trajectory of our organization and the strategic moves that are happening at RootedHomes.”
The Why Behind RootedHomes
Homebuyers Selected for Rooted at Poplar
The Bend Chamber and RootedHomes are excited to announce that from a pool of 35 employer partners, these four have had employees selected to be homebuyers in Rooted at Poplar, the under construction affordable homeownership community.
- St. Charles Health System
- Sage Window Cleaning
- Mt. Bachelor
- Deschutes County
“From a 911 call taker at Deschutes County to the operating room secretary at St. Charles, the selected homebuyers are essential workers in our community,” shared Keogh. “We are pleased to build another sustainable, equitable community to ensure more folks can afford to live where they work.”
The remaining three homes will be sold to Housing Works’ clients currently living in affordable rental units. By creating affordable housing communities where renters can advance into affordable homes for purchase, RootedHomes essentially creates two units – one for the resident moving out of their rental unit and purchasing a home and another for a lower-income resident moving into the available rental. The homeownership units are permanently affordable, with each subsequent resale serving another rental household.
Rooted at Poplar includes seven three-bedroom, two-bath homes designed to net-zero energy standards for households earning equal to or less than 80 percent of Area Median Income. These homes, designed by Ten Over Studio and constructed by Solaire Homebuilders are located on Kôr land and retain a deed restriction that ensures each subsequent home resale will preference employees of qualified employer partners, extending this benefit to the Bend workforce in perpetuity. The homes are anticipated to be completed in winter 2024.
About RootedHomes:
RootedHomes, formerly Kôr Community Land Trust, is a nonprofit that creates sustainable, affordable homeownership communities for Central Oregon’s workforce. Using the Community Land Trust model, RootedHomes ensures that the community will have access to healthy, affordable homes for generations to come. RootedHomes develops to goal net-zero energy standards to ensure equitable access to energy-efficient homes and the health and savings that come with it. RootedHomes is committed to providing access to healthy homes to homebuyers who have been excluded from the opportunity to build wealth through homeownership.
