Photos by TERRI WATTS

A ceremony was held Wednesday, April 6 to break ground on the construction of a new home in Hines. Once completed, the home will be auctioned off, and proceeds will be used to build additional homes in Harney County as part of a project to address the community’s lack of available housing. 

A ceremony was held Wednesday, April 6 to officially break ground on the construction of a new home, which will be located at 244 S. Saginaw in Hines.

“This home has been designed with many attributes to appeal to a wide population of folks,” Harney County Judge Pete Runnels said, adding that the home will be auctioned off upon completion. 

The goal is to use profits from the sale of this first home to continue constructing homes in the community. 

“This project is a small solution to the bigger problem of available housing,” Runnels said, explaining that the project was developed by a Community Response Team (CRT) task force.

Working with numerous local and regional partners, the task force brings city and county officials, realators, economic development staff, and community members together to address the lack of available housing in Harney County. 

Local and regional partners include the city of Burns, city of Hines, Harney County, Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC), Harney County Economic Development, Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation, Morrow Development Corporation, and Umatilla Electric.

“I hope I didn’t miss anyone,” Runnels said.

He added that, “Many partners came together, all ‘giving a little,’ to help with affordability for a home.”

The housing project follows the outline of a grant completed at the county level, suggesting that five homes be constructed every year for the next five years to address the community’s workforce housing needs.

Together with its partners, the task force hopes to achieve a couple of goals.

The first is to use incentives to help bring costs down, making projects “pencil” for local contractors.

The second is to provide homes for community members, ranging from working families to retirees.

“Although five homes a year is a large goal, our hope is we continue this process with profits from the first home,” Runnels said.