Rooted at Poplar provided affordable homeownership for essential workers in a region grappling with escalating housing costs.

The new community will be at 1699 W. Antler Ave. in Redmond. The three apartment buildings will have a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units available for households earning less than 60 percent of area median income. The duplexes, with two or three bedrooms each, will provide ownership opportunities for households earning less than 80 percent of area median income.

The community will include 60 rental units designed as garden-style walk-up apartment buildings for households earning less than 60% AMI (average median income) and 16 permanently affordable homeownership units designed as 2- and 3-bedroom, net-zero duplexes for households earning less than 80% AMI.

Residents will have access to on-site playgrounds, community gardens, ample parking, and walkability to social-service facilities along Antler Avenue. The commercial buildings will include the new offices of Housing Works and RootedHomes, as well as a secondary standalone building envisioned as a day care.

To help end displacement, preference for Rooted homes will be given to renters now living in Housing Works rentals. For this project, RootedHomes and Housing Works bought land, parceled it and then prepared to build both homes and apartments in the same community. The developers are doing the same thing in Redmond and La Pine and planning to follow suit elsewhere in Central Oregon.

Rooted Homes intentionally purchased land on the west side of Bend as the area contains a number of amenities. Keogh believes the homes should be dispersed through the community and not just centered in low-income areas.

Affordable housing in SW Bend aims to provide 99 affordable homes, apartment units.

New west Bend affordable housing project breaks ground.

RootedHomes expands to Sisters through a partnership with the Sisters School District

RootedHomes expands to Sisters: New development focuses on housing for area teachers.

Rooted has been meeting with the City, County, School District, and Sisters Woodlands, all of whom have been receptive to Rooted bringing its expertise to bear in Sisters.

Affordable housing appearing in Bend!

Nonprofit affordable homeownership developer Kôr Community Land Trust has rebranded to RootedHomes.

Ground was broken Monday on the latest RootedHomes development, the Poplar Community on Bend's west side. This low-income employer-supported housing is the latest project from the group which helps people attain homeownership.

"I had kind of given up on home ownership in this area," she said. "I thought it was just a dream I had to let go. But seeing what they were doing, I was like, 'I think this this could happen for me.'"

There’s a recipe for building affordable housing, which is fine, but RootedHomes goes beyond that. Our entire goal is to ask, ‘What is broken in the affordable housing system, and how can we fix it?’ The workforce housing program with the Bend Chamber does just that, bringing intentionality to homeowner selection and bringing in private investment to fund affordable housing.

Businesses join effort to help employees with workforce pilot. RootedHomes and the Bend Chamber have joined forces to build more homes for the people who work here. Partnering employers agree to cover $2500 in closing costs for homebuyers selected through lottery for Poplar Community, which breaks ground next month. Executive Director, Jackie Keogh, shared, "We found that affordable housing is no longer an industry problem, its an everybody problem." Kor announced 35 qualified employers whose employees will receive preference in the upcoming housing lottery.

New development slated for Bend's west side

Pacific Power grants help Central Oregon plug into electric vehicles.

Bend businesses chip in to help solve affordable housing.