A rendering of the new affordable housing building for veterans set to break ground Wednesday on the corner of Cottage and Court Streets in Salem (Courtesy/YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties)
The ceremonial dirt will fly, the speeches will go on and Salem will see the launch Wednesday to a project that will one day give local veterans a place to call home.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the corner of Northeast Cottage and Court Streets for a 34-unit housing complex designed for veterans.
The project, years in the making, is being undertaken by the YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties
The YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties and its Y Veterans Housing team.
Contractors will set to work on Monday, June 20, and expect to finish in 14 months.
When they are done, a complex to be called Courtney Place will provide affordable one- and two-bedroom apartments for men and women who are veterans with modest incomes.
But first, dignitaries will celebrate the launch.
After the obligatory shovel-wielding ceremony on the street corner, events shift across the street to the Oregon World War II Memorial.
There at 10 a.m., a local honor guard will be joined by an Oregon National Guard band to open the seated ceremony. A host of speakers is scheduled.
Among them will be Senate President Peter Courtney, whose devotion to the YMCA in Salem is legendary. He helped arrange state appropriations to cover the estimated $9 million cost of the veterans complex. Another $2 million came through federal funding arranged by U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Democrats from Oregon.
Chuck Adams, former YMCA president and now executive director of Y Veterans Housing, was in on developing the veterans housing idea.
In an interview Tuesday, he recounted the years when the original YMCA building fell into disrepair and the decision to replace it. That meant also doing away with 18 living units that had been part of the complex “for decades.”
He said he and others were considering what housing to provide in a new arrangement when he took a field trip to the Portland area. There, he saw a veterans housing project in Oregon City that sparked an idea for the YMCA.
The idea developed over years and finally made the turn to reality when Courtney arranged a state infusion.
Adams remembers every detail of the call from Courtney with the news. He was in an Applebee’s and it was 2:15 p.m. when the senator reached him.
“I got it,” Courtney reported.
Adams said the need for veterans housing is significant in Salem. Besides providing affordable homes, Courtney Place will also work with ARCHES to see that veterans get help with employment, health care and other services.
(Courtesy/YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties)
-Les Zaitz
