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The following article appeared in the Burns Times-Herald, March 2002 Aspens Housing Construction Moves Forward
Harney County residents are no doubt aware of the winter construction flurry that has been taking place behind the Aspens in Hines. In fact, many folks may be scratching their heads wondering WHY a construction flurry during the snow flurry ! The project actually started about three years ago. Then the locally based board of directors of Harney Pioneer Homes, a non-profit organization which owns the Aspens, decided to apply for some federal grant money. The funds were available from the Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency. Only one such grant is awarded to rural Oregon each year. The Aspen Grove Apartments is operated under the guidance of Harney Senior Housing, also a locally based non-profit organization. It took two applications and hours and hours worth of work but the Board was finally awarded the grant money allocated to rural Oregon in 2000. They discovered that obtaining the grant money was only the beginning. Negotiations to get the land legally partitioned was required. Paperwork and coordination were needed for the construction of an access road. More paperwork, getting an architect and a contractor, and of course more paperwork were required before actual construction could begin. When everything was finally approved and the closing scheduled it was November - November 28th to be exact. It was the first big snow fall of the winter - the perfect time to begin a construction project in Harney County. Well, construction did begin and is ongoing. The long awaited "Aspen Grove" apartments are expected to open sometime in July. When complete, the single-story building will have 22 one-bedroom apartments with an indoor community space and outdoor patio area. Unlike the Aspens, which is an assisted living facility, Aspen Grove is designated by HUD as a 202. A 202 is simply apartment housing for households that are headed by someone age 62 years of age or older with a total adjusted annual household income of fifty-percent, or below, of the area.s median income. Aspen Grove is not an assisted living facility. It is completely separate from the Aspens and is meant as housing for independent residents. No services are available from the Aspens to tenants of Aspen Grove Apartments. A project rental assistance contract (PRAC) with HUD makes rent subsidy also available for eligible tenants. Applications to get on the waiting list for an apartment should be available soon. Those interested may contact John Davis at the Aspens. Harney Pioneer Homes, Inc. (HPH) and Harney Senior Housing, Inc. (HSH) are locally based 501(c)3 non-profit corporations. HPH is the owner of the Aspens Assisted Living Facility and HSH is the owner of the Aspen Grove Apartments. The board of directors for both corporations includes: Dave Harman, President, Mike Green, Vice-President, Sam Caizza, Treasurer, Ethel Bossuot, secretary, Dee Swisher, Bonnie Wood, and Gene Scrivner, directors. John Davis is manager of the Aspens Assisted Living Facility and will manage day-today operations of the Aspen Grove Apartments. Davis works for Concepts in Community Living, Inc. (CCL) which is the management company hired by HPH and HSH to run the operations of the buildings. CCL is based in Portland and is responsible for the management of 16 such buildings throughout Orego |
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