Long-term housing project for vulnerable residents opens in Eugene

Lane County has another pathway for homeless residents to journey from the streets into stable housing, where they can live long-term.

Bridges on Broadway is a new 57-unit housing development at 599 E. Broadway in downtown Eugene. It will start accepting new residents in September. 

Bridges on Broadway celebrated its grand opening Thursday, Aug. 21. Officials with Homes for Good Housing Agency, which led the development of the project, used the event as a chance to give tours of the four-story building and remind the community about the area’s chronic shortage of affordable housing.

“We’re not building our way out of this without a paradigm shift,” Jacob Fox, executive director of Homes for Good, told the group of county officials and other area leaders who gathered for the event.

Officials said work remains to build more affordable housing, even as new projects like Bridges on Broadway open. Lane County’s point-in-time count for homelessness in January found 3,509 homeless people, who were living either unsheltered or in shelters.

Officials stressed the collaboration of different agencies, including Lane County, that helped complete the project. Lane County purchased the building, a former hotel, in 2021 to shelter people who lost their homes in the Holiday Farm Fire, which hit rural regions of the county the previous year.

As those people left the hotel, the building continued to serve other homeless residents in the region. In 2023, Homes for Good received state funding to rehab and remodel the structure into a permanent supportive housing facility.

State funding covered about $8.8 million of the $11 million project, but other entities chipped in, including Eugene’s affordable housing trust fund, the Federal Home Loan Bank, and Trillium Community Health Plan, a coordinated care organization that contracts with the state to serve people on Medicaid.

Facilities like Bridges on Broadway, a permanent supportive housing facility, are for the most vulnerable among the homeless, such as those facing long-term chronic medical or mental health problems, or disabilities.

Unlike homeless shelters, where people generally stay temporarily, permanent supportive housing offers vulnerable people a living space where they can stay long-term. 

“If your health challenges are really intense and acute, you would be more likely to move into this building than someone who doesn’t have a significant health issue,” Fox said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

Bridges on Broadway will have on-site support staff and caseworkers who can help residents gain life skills — such as cooking, financial management and how to access social services like Medicaid and food assistance.

Lane County has 819 permanent supportive housing units with 1,036 beds. They are run by a variety of entities, including Homes for Good and private owners, county data show. As of July, those units were 91% occupied, with several dozen people waiting to move in, data show.

Lane County can refer people to Bridges on Broadway through its coordinated entry waitlist, which shares information about people seeking shelter with all of its providers, regardless of where someone seeks assistance. This allows the county and Homes for Good to identify potential candidates for the housing.

The rent is based on income. For example, a resident who has only an $800 monthly Social Security check would pay $200 a month. If someone has no income, they can live at Bridges on Broadway for free.

Each efficiency-style apartment, where one person or a couple can live, ranges from about 335 to 355 square feet, and has its own bathroom, fridge and induction hot plates for cooking that reduce fire risk.

There’s also a community kitchen that can be used for cooking classes and special events like birthday celebrations.

The fourth floor will have a common area with a TV and games.

Outside there is an area to walk pets and a hose to wash them. There’s also a bicycle storage area large enough for all 57 units.