Modular housing units have been floated as a possible solution to help ease Oregon’s housing crisis. Assembling housing units en mass from mass timber allows for the units to be built more quickly by a team indoors, and shipped across the state as needed.
That idea has been put in motion in the Terminal 2 warehouse at the Port of Portland. Funded by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Sen. Jeff Merkley, the Mass Casitas $5 million modular housing prototype pilot project has been declared a success.
Funded through a state grant and headed by housing nonprofit Hacienda CDC, Mass Casitas — the six boxcar-sized housing prototypes — will be shipped out and installed for families in Portland, Talent, Lincoln City and other Oregon cities in June of this year.
“It’s not just a solution that we’re bringing to the table,” said Ernesto Fonseca. “It is a really fast solution that is reigniting…the timber industry that is so beloved in the state of Oregon.”
Fonseca is the CEO of Hacienda Community Development Corporation. The nonprofit provides affordable housing and family services among many other things to enhance BIPOC and Latino communities.
Though one of the first nonprofits to build small affordable housing, another modular factory has been doing it for years in Washington.
Hacienda CDC is leading a project called Mass Casitas, announced in January. Six prototype modular homes are being built at Terminal 2, a part of a pilot program to gauge the success of building the homes and delivering them to families who need them.
Portand’s KGW TV reports on this project.
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder magazine. Email at [email protected]
