PORTLAND, Ore. — Buying a first home can feel nearly impossible, even for families with moderate incomes. Even after the home is purchased, paying to keep it up can be another hurdle.
Now, a collaborative effort is creating sustainable options in a northeast Portland neighborhood.
A row of a half-dozen townhomes on the corner of Northeast Holman and 27th Avenue are receiving the finishing touches. Three of the homes will be "permanently affordable," thanks go a collaboration between the developer and a nonprofit, and financial assistance from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF).
Eli Spevak's housing development company, Orange Splot LLC, is leading the Concordia Townhomes project. They're working with nonprofit Proud Ground, a community land-trust organization that aims to make homeownership possible for working low- to moderate-income families.
"Three of (the townhomes) are permanently affordable," Spevak said. "They'll be net zero, thanks to PCEF funds."
This particular project is located near the University of Oregon's new northeast Portland campus.
"I love this development. It's sharp, it's great, it's very contemporary," said Roserria Roberts, Proud Ground's homeownership program director.
She said providing homes like these is critical.
"I think it's a real good plus for this collaboration to come together because of the high cost of housing and the low availability," Roberts said. "The stock, it’s really diminished and these are really great values."
The third critical leg of the collaboration is the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, a voter-approved effort that, in part, subsidizes the construction of affordable homes that are also energy efficient and net zero.
Shannon Todd Roth, PCEF's senior clean energy manager, describes what net zero means.
"There are heat pumps, heat-pump water heaters, high-efficiency walls and windows combined with solar. It means that over the course of the year they generate as much solar as they use in a single year and that's what we call a net zero project," she said.
Todd Roth said the townhomes fit the bill of the mission on several levels.
"They're creating great benefit for the folks that live there. They'll have ultra-low energy bills, and those savings mean reduced greenhouse gas emissions which is really what the Portland clean energy fund is all about," she said.
Homeowners of the townhomes will have ultra-low energy bills, if any at all. On the day KGW visited, workers were installing solar panels on the roof, key in the energy offset equation.
Spevak toured us through one of the units he said will not only be efficient, but comfortable for future residents.
"We have a heat pump water heater which is right in here," he said. "We got an especially quiet model because it's inside the home and it's three times more efficient than electric resistance or gas."
The homes are clean and compact, with all the modern amenities, including Energy Star appliances, and air conditioning.
They're just 15 feet wide, but feel more spacious than that. Each unit has three bedrooms, for families to become home buyers for the first time.
The city's PCEF funding allows three of the homes to be permanently affordable, priced new at a little under $300,000. The other three will be priced at market value, which is a little over $400,000.
"It's great to have mixed-income projects. These homes will be much less expensive than if a single-family home had been built on this lot; it would have been in the $800,000 to $900,000 range," Spevak said.
The three lower-priced units will be sold to those in Proud Ground's pool of qualified low to moderate-income families, of which 75% are those who identify as people of color. The other three will be on the open market.
A similar project is almost completed in the Alberta Arts District.