Barbara Scott Benedict of Otis family lost their home in the 2020 Echo Mountain Fire. Since then, they have been living in a 29-foot travel trailer. On June 7, all that changed.
The Benedicts are now preparing to move into one of Oregon’s first mass-timber modular homes. A large crane carefully moved the Benedicts new modular house into place Wednesday morning, June 7, as part of housing project called Mass Casitas. Mass is for mass timber, a highly engineered wood product, and Casitas is Spanish for small home or cottage.
A large crane lifts one of the first “Mass Casitas” into place at the Otis site.
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The new modular home resting at its location on Deerlane Loop in Otis.
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Barbra and Scott Benedict and their dog outside the family’s new modular home at Otis.
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Led by Hacienda CDC, Mass Casitas is described by developers as an innovative pilot project using Oregon-grown mass timber to develop prototype modular homes to help address the state’s housing shortage. Five of the homes are being delivered to communities this summer, including the new home in Otis.
The crane lifted the Otis Mass Casita in two large modules from flatbed trucks onto a foundation, forming a new home to replace the one that Barbara and Scott Benedict lost to the 2020 Echo Mountain fire near Lincoln City.
The new home has been donated by the nonprofit Cascade Relief team to the Benedicts. The couple expects to move into their new home in late July. The 1,136 square-foot home has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a den, and a laundry/utility room. Appliances are included and the structure is fire-resistant and solar-ready.
“We’re so grateful for the help Hacienda has given us with this home. You can’t imagine what it’s like going from homelessness to a place of your own,” Barbara Benedict told reporters as the new home was placed in Otis.
Oregon is short 140,000 housing units and needs to build more than a half-million homes over the next 20 years in order to keep up with demand, according to Hacienda CEO Ernesto Fonseca. Gov. Tina Kotek has set a construction target of 36,000 units per year, an 80% increase over current production.
“Oregon urgently needs more homes, not only for families displaced by disasters like wildfires, but for our many rural and urban communities that simply don’t have enough housing,” Fonseca said. “With Mass Casitas, we’re developing a process that could add many more homes throughout the state, at a faster pace than traditional construction.”
Mass Casitas is an innovative pilot project aimed at easing Oregon’s housing crisis. Prototype modular homes have been designed and developed with Oregon- grown mass timber. Delivery of the homes to communities began in May 2023 and will continue through the summer. The goal of the pilot project is to demonstrate how modular housing built with mass timber could provide a more efficient, faster and less expensive way to add urgently needed housing across the state.
Hacienda CDC (project lead — housing organizatio
Port of Portland (project partner‚ providing warehouse space and fund management)
1. Mass timber enters warehouse at Port of Portland’s Terminal 2 as large panels, which are assembled into boxes, or modules (studio is 1 module; 2BR, 3BR models are 2 modules).
2. Modules are assembled, four walls are framed.
3. Interior work — mechanical, electrical and plumbing installation.
4. Exterior work — windows, insulation, roof structures.
5. Modules are trucked to communities, placed on concrete foundations on-site (1-2 days)
6. Homes are affixed to foundations and hooked up to up to utilities; crews perform other finishing work (4- to 6-week process).
7. Community nonprofit partner or homeowner takes ownership of home.
Destination communities for prototype homes
Hacienda’s nonprofit partners will help select the people who will live in the homes.
Otis (Lincoln County, north coast) — (1) home; partner is Cascade Relief Team
Talent (Jackson County, southern OR) — (2) homes; partner is CASA of Oregon
Madras (Jefferson County, central OR) — (1) home; partner is CASA of Oregon
Portland (Multnomah County) — (2) homes; partner is Community Vision
