Co-location of affordable housing and early childhood services

BuildUp Oregon: Oregon Housing and Community Services Facilities Fund

Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), in partnership with BuildUp Oregon, has committed $7.4 million in grants and loans to nine innovative projects that co-locate early care and education (ECE) with affordable housing developments across the state. These projects, which leverage an additional $20 million of public and private investment, will strengthen communities by simultaneously increasing access to affordable housing and opportunities for quality early care and education, serving families where they live and dream.

Projects with funding commitments:

Community Partners for Affordable Housing

Meadowlark Place Head Start

$750,000 in Beaverton, OR (Washington County)

Community Partners for Affordable Housing and DCM Communities are partnering with Community Action to co-locate a new Head Start facility with 104 units of senior housing. The center will offer three classrooms serving preschool-aged children and include ample indoor and outdoor play areas.

Home Forward

Immigrant and Refugees Community Organization (IRCO)

$850,000 in Gresham, OR (Multnomah County)

Home Forward and IRCO are co-developing a new early care and education center within a 60+ unit affordable housing project. Integrated into the ground floor of the building, the center will support four classrooms with culturally specific programming, as well as education and workforce development for immigrant and refugee families.

Housing Works

Antler Head Start

$750,000 in Redmond, OR (Deschutes County)

Housing Works will construct a Head Start facility in Redmond with three classrooms operated by NeighborImpact. The project will be part of a larger neighborhood development that includes 18 affordable for-sale homes by Rooted Homes and 60 affordable rental housing units from Housing Works.

Lighthouse Development

Willamette Education Service District

$850,000 in Salem, OR (Marion County)

Lighthouse Development will build an early care and education center on a site with 180 affordable housing units. The center will be operated by the Willamette Education Services District (WESD). They will have a total of four classrooms that serve infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as plans to tailor their classrooms to serve children with disabilities.

Home Forward / Killingsworth Housing

Native American Youth And Family Center (NAYA)

$207,000 in Portland, OR (Multnomah County)

NAYA is co-developing and will operate a new early care and education center within Killingsworth Housing, an affordable housing development in partnership with Home Forward and Portland Community College. The development will have 74 affordable housing units, and the center will include three classrooms serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. This program offers culturally specific programming in partnership with Early Head Start and Preschool for All.

Habitat for Humanity of Newberg

Head Start of Yamhill County

$700,000 – Dundee, OR (Yamhill County)

Newberg Area Habitat for Humanity, Head Start of Yamhill County, and Newberg First United Methodist Church are partnering to develop a three-story building in downtown Dundee. The housing development will include four 2-story condominium homes. On the ground floor, the project will house two Head Start classrooms serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Our Coastal Village with Affiliate Chestnut Management LLC

Elm Park Learning Center

$1,430,000 in Florence, OR (Lane County)

Our Coastal Village, Inc. will co-locate an early care and education facility in an affordable housing development that includes a mix of 32 two- and three-bedroom units. The facility will partner with two child care operators, Stepping Stones and Head Start of Lane County, and will have a total of four classrooms.

Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives (PCRI)

Learning Train Academy

$850,000 in Portland, OR (Multnomah County)

PCRI will include an early care and education center in the historic Williams & Russell Affordable Rental Housing project. The facility will be integrated into this dynamic community development with 85 affordable apartments units and offer culturally specific programming through its operator, Learning Train Academy.

Edlen + Co

Oregon Child Development Coalition (OCDC)

$850,000 in Ashland, OR (Jackson County)

OCDC will operate a new child care center as part of a mixed-income 100-unit housing development led by Sunstone Housing Collaborative. The center will have two classrooms, one for preschoolers and one for infants and toddlers. The co-located site will support working families — including housing for teachers in the Ashland School District — and offer integrated services in a growing community hub.

Child care facility in affordable housing complex

Playground with slide at affordable housing complex

Background: Statewide challenges

In 2021, OHCS partnered with the Oregon Early Learning Division (ELD) to develop the program framework for an incentive program to support financing for early childcare and education services that are co-located with affordable housing developments. The model of combining early care and education facilities with affordable housing locations is called co-location. As part of House Bill 5011, $10 million has been set aside to provide housing development projects to maintain, improve or build co-located early child care and education facilities.

Both OHCS and ELD have documented challenges across the state with access to affordable and high-quality housing and early childhood services. In the next 20 years, the State of Oregon will need to build nearly 600,000 housing units to meet demand. Prior to the Co-Location legislation, OHCS hosted a forum with child care and housing providers highlighting co-location strategies as a priority. Additionally, a report from Oregon State University indicated that as of March 2020, all 36 counties in Oregon qualify as child care “deserts" for infants and toddlers — meaning that there are at least three children under the age of 2 for every available child care slot in the county. The Low-Income Investment Fund (LIIF) completed a study on opportunities, considerations, partnerships, financing options, and funding sources as required by legislation. The study was used to design the program framework and to issue a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a subsidy program to incentivize co-location activities across Oregon.

LIIF completed extensive partner engagement with over 60 organizations, including:

Early learning providers
Private and nonprofit developers
Housing authorities
Community development corporations
Philanthropic organizations
Continuum of care organizations
Tribal nations
Other state agencies

The study shows families face challenges of affording housing, child care and early childhood education at the same time. Those on the margins, many of whom from Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities, have been particularly impacted by the decrease in supply and affordability of both housing and early childhood services. Read the study to learn more about co-locating early care and education facilities with affordable housing developments.

OHCS Role

In February 2023, Co-location Request for Proposal (RFP) was released based on the developed framework to be approved for an initial investment into the program. The Request for Proposal is for contracting with a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to administer the program. After the contracted CDFI has established the program, they will be working with developers to incentivize co-location of affordable housing with early child care and education facilities. In July 2023, OHCS entered into a grant agreement with Craft3 and three other Community Development Financial Institutions - Low Income Investment Fund, Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon and Network for Oregon Affordable Housing - to leverage existing best practices and develop and test new models to address the complex challenge of supporting both early child care and education (ECE) and affordable housing. This partnership, known as BuildUp Oregon, is partially supported by a $10 million investment, allocated by House Bill 5011, and it will support co-locating ECE facilities and affordable housing. BuildUp Oregon initially aims to create or preserve 600 ECE slots by supporting co-location with affordable housing developments. Increased ECE slots will help low-income families access early education, provide economic development opportunities, and strengthen communities.

In April 2024, OHCS and BuildUp Oregon announced the launch of the OHCS Facilities Fund. These resources would help bring affordable housing developers and ECE providers together to open and expand childcare services within or on the grounds of affordable housing developments. The amount of funding awarded depends on each project's needs, size, and costs.

Funds provided through BuildUp Oregon can be used for:

Technical assistance to ECE providers and affordable housing developers on how to co-locate
Relationship building between ECE providers and housing developers to identify potential collaboration opportunities and facilitate communication
Financial support to ECE providers and developers to build or expand operations within or adjacent to affordable housing developments

Learn more about BuildUp Oregon and OHCS Facilities Fund https://www.builduporegon.org/

Study and Framework

Co-location study