‘We’ve needed this for years’: CTUIR opens new temporary housing cottages
By Griffin Beach on Thursday, June 25th, 2026 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation showed off
three new transitional housing unites at an open house Wednesday.
The Mission Road Temporary Housing project consists of two 480 square-foot housing
and with a third 612 square-foot unit. Each unit contains a carport with utilities, fiber-
optic internet, patio space, and additional storage.
“We’ve needed this for years,” CTUIR Housing Director Marcus Luke said. “We would
get complaints of people living in their trucks and cars, overcrowded mutual help home,
staying in a motel, with friends, people feeling homeless and helpless.”
The three cottages will serve as transitional and temporary housing for CTUIR
members. They will also be available for the Housing Department’s maintenance and
resident services. Anyone staying in a unit would pay rent, with the monthly amount
depending on the tenant’s individual scenario.
“Under Resident Services, when a client becomes a tenant, that tenant puts in their 30-
day notice wherever they are currently living,” Luke said. “After they move here, we’ll
use a unit for their transition to become a tenant until their unit is rent ready.”
Luke said approximately $820,000 in COVID-19 funds from the American Rescue Plan
Act was used for the construction. The units should be available for tenants in the fall.
Photo of transitional housing unit courtesy of CTUIR
