While chatting in the lobby of their apartment complex, Jay Alaniz and Frederick Tognoli kept an eye out the window.
They were on the lookout for neighbors.
“He’s from Texas,” Alaniz said, pointing at a man with sunglasses and a hat marking him as a veteran. She and Tognoli waved at an older couple, who they said frequent downtown restaurants and take daily walks. They debated whether another passerby, at 30, is the youngest veteran living in the building.
The two agreed that Courtney Place, new affordable housing for veterans in downtown Salem, feels different than other places they’ve lived. Each has their own apartment in the building and said they know almost everybody.
“It’s more of a community, I can already say that. Living in other apartment complexes doesn’t feel like we’re just going to come and hang out in the lobby,” Alaniz said.
“I sit down here in the lobby more frequently than I ever have at any apartment complex,” Tognoli added.
Alaniz and Tognoli, who moved in over the summer, are among the first veterans to live in the apartments which opened in April. The four-story building filled up in August, with 34 veterans living in one and two-bedroom apartments, some joined by spouses.
The apartments come with supportive services like help getting employment, food, health care and transportation. Every resident also gets a free YMCA membership. The Salem YMCA is across the street, and Courtney Place came from a years-long effort by its leadership.
One-bedroom apartments start at $865, and two-bedrooms start at $1,035. Residents can earn no more than $38,400 and the income limit goes up by roughly $5,000 per adult.
The apartments appealed to Alaniz, who had been couch surfing for months. It had straightforward requirements, and was achievable for her. The complex is permanent housing, meaning there’s no time limit on how long someone can live there so long as they meet the income requirements.
“It sounded like affordable housing, versus low-income housing or temporary housing. That’s important,” she said.
They’re both happy to be there, but said it was also hard accepting the help.
Alaniz, 58, was a single mom for most of her military career, and said she’d always paid her own way. She enlisted in the Army National Guard in Portland in her late 30s.
“I was in a midlife crisis, got divorced. Don’t want to do welfare, don’t have a college education, don’t need a partner. ‘Hey Uncle Sam, let’s do this,’” she said of her decision to enlist.
Alaniz started as a combat medic in the behavioral health field. Over her 19-year military career, she worked in administration, as an analyst and in food service. In the early 2000s, she was the coordinator for the Oregon Army National Guard’s substance abuse programs and helped soldiers access treatment.
She rose to the rank of sergeant first class, which meant that the room stood at attention when she entered it.
It was a hard shift to civilian life afterward, she said. She had trouble keeping a job after repeatedly butting heads with managers who she said didn’t have the organization skills she was used to in the military.
“So I go from walking on water, and then I can’t pay my rent. I can’t hold a job,” she said. “I’m stuck with ‘What do I do now?’”
Last year, Alaniz left Salem and moved to be near family, bouncing between several states. While living in Arizona, she found herself facing the possibility of moving into a shelter.
“I’m not going into a shelter. I’m already in a deep, dark place, and you’re going to push me further into the closet. We’re not okay with that,” she said.
She spoke with one of her army buddies up in Salem, who told her who to call. Upon her return to Salem, she soon had the key to an apartment at Courtney Place in-hand.
Tognoli agreed that the shift to civilian life was a hard one.
He enlisted in the Navy in 1995, at age 20. He graduated from its nuclear power training program, and over his 10 year career served on the USS Enterprise and at Pearl Harbor. The work included 20-hour days working in the engine rooms.
He later worked in the tech industry, where his degree in nuclear engineering brought in good money. But he said it was a volatile industry, and he lost his job in 2019, and ended up in Independence.
“It all kind of fell apart just before Covid, then during Covid was almost impossible to put back together,” he said.
After an eviction, he couldn’t pull together enough money for a deposit on another apartment. During the pandemic, he was living in a tent behind the Salem Home Depot.
After some couch surfing, he landed a room with the Tanner Project, a Salem homeless shelter which has 36 beds for veterans. He lived there from September 2023 to this June, when he moved into Courtney Place.
Both were nervous to move into their new apartments. Tognoli said that being around other veterans tends to trigger his PTSD.
Alaniz, who was assaulted twice while on active duty, was wary of being one of the only women in the building. She’s one of four women veterans at Courtney Place.
But both say it’s unlike anywhere they’ve lived before, and somewhere they feel like they can talk about what they’ve been through with neighbors who understand.
“I do feel safe around these people,” Tognoli said. “It’s that bonding and camaraderie that we were supposed to have felt while we were in that maybe some of us didn’t always feel.”
Alaniz agreed, and said she feels like she can freely talk about her experiences, both on active duty and afterward, without being judged.
“A lot of us, very recently, have been in a situation where we’re either facing homelessness or we are homeless,” she said.
It has motivated them to become better neighbors themselves.
As two of the younger people in the building, they frequently help their neighbors use technology. Even if they’ve had a long work day, they look forward to evening hangouts with neighbors in the common spaces, or outside in the smokers’ area.
Alaniz works at VETcare, which helps Marion and Polk County veterans who are homeless or previously incarcerated re-enter the community. Her work includes organizing community lunches, fundraisers and field trips, which she said is especially important for combating senior isolation.
An important planning component is knowing when the Oregon Ducks are playing, as most residents are fans. Tognoli has plans to watch the next game with a neighbor who doesn’t have the right streaming service.
Tognoli landed a job at the YMCA with help from coordinators at Courtney Place. He can see his workplace from his window.
Both said the downtown location is a benefit.
“Salem has a different downtown than what it used to be. I wouldn’t have lived downtown, back in those days, just because there really wasn’t a lot here. But now with the restaurants, the bars, the coffee shops, the Reed Opera House,” Tognoli said. “Man, every given day I can go find something to do.”
Sometimes, Alaniz’ daughter calls from Arizona while the veteran is sitting by her window, overlooking the World War II Memorial, “listening to the sounds of the city.” Her apartment is alive with wall-to-wall potted plants, and she’s planning to rearrange furniture for more room to cook.
She used to want to save up and buy a house, but now she’s considering a condo.
Tognoli lives with his dog Pepe and his cat Darth Awesome. He’s decorated with Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons and Marvel memorabilia, and wants to expand his bookshelf. He doesn’t want to be at Courtney Place forever, but getting a roof overhead gave him some space to breathe.
“I thought of this like it was a new beginning. But it’s more that freedom to know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train. It’s actually a light, and I get to choose what that light is,” he said.
CORRECTION: The income limit for Courtney Place is $38,400 and goes up by roughly $5,000 per adult in alignment with the AMI, according to executive director Andrew Holbert. A previous version of this story incorrectly said the limit was $35,160. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
