Local developer receives $2 million grant for Baker City Senior Village
By Joe Hathaway on Thursday, November 9th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY — A La Grande-based development firm has received a generous grant to begin another affordable housing project in Baker City.
GCT Land Management was awarded $2 million from the Oregon Housing Stability Council to begin construction on Baker City Senior Village, an affordable housing development for low-income seniors.
The award was part of $56 million awarded to 11 affordable housing and veteran housing developments across the state. The senior village will consist of 10 homes and will be open to seniors who meet certain income criteria.
GCT is currently underway with construction of the Baker County Veteran Village in Baker, a similar project for local veterans who need housing. That project is expected to be completed and operational by next spring.
“We’ve been seeking projects, mostly housing different concepts to try to help offset the housing need in the area,” said Gust Tsiatsos, owner of GCT Land Management. “We’ve got a project in Ontario and La Grande going on that are very similar”.
Both the Senior Village and Veteran Village will be located on lots south of H Street in Baker, just west off the Leo Adler Trail.
Tsiatsos, who started his company in 1994, says he’s noticed how difficult the housing need is in eastern Oregon the last several years and how complicated it is to build housing.
“I noticed that whatever happened in the subcontractor world, in the workforce world, it became more difficult to complete a home. Our last home that we built took about 16 months to complete for one gentleman and it just didn’t seem very fitting under the circumstances that we live in for the housing needs,’ says Tsiatsos. “So we tried to figure out a way to streamline our process and make more housing available and these cottage homes are very simple.”
Tsiatsos says it’ll take a few months to get the necessary approvals completed and that he hopes to break ground on the Senior Village next spring.
He says he hopes to bring more housing projects eventually to Baker.
“We have another 10 acres right there and we’re trying to figure out what we should do with that. We’re hoping to maybe figure out how to partner with St, Alphonsus for some housing for their staff or even the Baker school district. We’re not trying to play favorites or whatever but knowing that those two populations of people are very needed in the community.”
