Gilliam County, like many communities in rural Oregon, faces an interconnected housing and jobs challenge that threatens the community’s long term survival. This project addressed the lack of adequate attainable housing, especially in the cities of Arlington and Condon. One of the project goals was to find strategies and implementation tools to increase attainable housing for workforce development and enhanced quality of life. Gilliam County would like to attract a new generation of workers and their families to local communities. In addition, increases in attainable housing would help enable Gilliam County employers attract the best qualified workforce. Attainable workforce housing also enables business succession planning efforts.
This Oregon Solutions project helped partners collect and analyze data, develop a housing strategy, solicit public feedback, and target implementation tools to benefit the communities. Stakeholders worked collaboratively and integrated their resources to attain their goals.
An outgrowth of the project was launched in March 2018. The Pioneer Community Development Corporation began offering incentives in the form of loans and grants for constructing and refurbishing single and multi-family housing in the county for use as primary dwellings. Terms of the programs are described in the following attachments:
Gilliam County Attainable Housing Cash Grant Programs (PDF)
Gilliam County Attainable Housing Incentive Programs (PDF)