CareOregon received a conditional use approval from the Planning Commission for affordable apartments at the former Red Lion Inn & Suites at 900 S. Holladay.

CareOregon has purchased the former Red Lion Inn & Suites for $8 million to provide between 50 and 60 apartments designed for low-income residents and workforce housing for regional health care workers.

The purchase on S. Holladay Drive is one of many tools social services agencies are using to add housing at all income levels, Leslie Ford, the housing strategy and development adviser for Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization, said in an interview with project partners.

“The need is so dire, that we’re going to see all sorts of creative solutions,” she said.

Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization, which is part of CareOregon and oversees Medicaid in Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties through the Oregon Health Plan, will oversee the management of the apartment project.

Clatsop Community Action and Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare will deliver on-site care and services for residents, including those who have experienced homelessness.

Clatsop Community Action provides food, housing and energy assistance to low-income people.

Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Clatsop County’s mental health and substance abuse treatment provider, will provide services to about 20 of the units to be used for supportive housing.

A live-in resident manager will receive a combination of free rent and funding for employment.

Behavioral health staff will be available for residents about 16 hours a day, Amy Baker, the executive director of Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, said. “These are generally folks with lived experience, who’ve been through it before and who are there to help folks out with day-to-day needs,” she said.

About 30 to 35 studio and one-bedroom units, managed by Clatsop Community Action, will be market rate and geared toward regional medical and social services staff.

Housing options for professionals will benefit the community by enabling providers to find short- and long-term housing solutions, Mimi Haley, the executive director of the Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization, said.

“It’s really in its essence about the health of the community, the health of the workforce,” she said.

Pam Cooper, director of finance for Providence Seaside Hospital, said a lack of workforce housing makes it more difficult to attract and keep staff. She anticipated little difficulty filling the apartments.

“Right now, it’s almost impossible to find anything,” she said.

The Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization is developing a request for proposals to attract firms to renovate or rehabilitate the former hotel, Ford said.

“We need to get the RFP out there and then make a selection of what firm looks like it suits us the best,” she said. “Then we’ll move forward with working with that firm to fine-tune the refurbishment.”

Haley said agencies will work collaboratively on the programming and design. “That will then lead into a collaborative discussion about the construction and the rehab,” she said.

The project partners are mindful of community concerns.

“We intend to be a good neighbor,” Ford said. “And of the projects that I’ve been involved in over my career, we’ve usually ended up being the best neighbor on the block. We want to make that commitment to Seaside as well.”

Project work will begin in September, with completion anticipated by spring 2024.