Low-income military veterans will have a new rental housing option in Baker City as a 12-unit development opens, with the first units available this month.

La Grande developer Gust Tsiatsos started on the Baker County Veteran Village in 2021.

Work was slowed due to supply chain issues and workforce challenges during the pandemic, but the first three one-bedroom units are slated to be available this month, with the remainder opening over the next two months.

The development is just east of Elkhorn Village apartments and the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway, between H and F streets. The address is 1851 H St.

Tsiatsos (his name is pronounced “CHA-chuss”) owns GCT Land Management. The Baker City development is similar to the 10-cottage Veterans Village Union County that Tsiatsos built in La Grande. It opened in the fall of 2021 and is fully occupied.

He received almost $2 million from Oregon Housing and Community Services for the Baker City project.

Tsiatsos said “community partners” have also contributed, such as donating paint, or offering mental health support for veterans.

“Most of them didn’t contribute dollars, but they may have contributed value in some way,” Tsiatsos said.

The Baker City development includes 12 rental units — nine one-bedroom cottages and three two-bedroom units.

The homes are designed in the “tiny house” style, covering about 500 square feet. Each includes a fenced backyard, and the development will also have a community building for events.

“One of the benefits of doing small footprint living is we’re about to put quite a few living units on a parcel that, historically, would only be for two or three homes,” Tsiatsos said. “These are stick-built homes that give the tenant a kind of feel of living independently.”

Three one-bedroom units will be available this month, with five more in August and the remaining four in September, said Rick Gloria, Baker County’s veteran services officer.

There is a waiting list with about 30 people now.

To qualify for this housing, veterans must be making below the 30% and 60% of the average median income in Oregon, and carry a DD Form 214, said Desiree Myers-Nallusamy, housing manager with the Northeast Oregon Housing Authority.

Gloria started he started helping veterans with the application process a month ago, in collaboration with the housing authority.

“The only way to apply is (by filling out) the application online,” Gloria said.

Some of the information necessary to complete the 24-page application includes: a five-year residence history, two favorable landlord references and a criminal history background certification.

Renters can have either one cat or one dog per unit. Dogs are limited to 30 pounds and can’t be taller than 18 inches at the shoulder.

Gloria can be reached by email at rgloria@bakercounty.org or by phone at 541-523-8223.

Ownership a possibility in the future

Although the units under construction are rentals, Tsiatsos said he would like to expand the development, on the south side adjacent to F Street, to include homes that veterans could buy.

“We’re trying to find a way to create some homeownership for (veterans) in the same style of community,” Tsiatsos said. “But we haven’t been able to find a good way to finance that yet.”

Although the project started in 2021, supply chain and workforce challenges during the pandemic slowed progress, Tsiatsos said.

He started his company in 1994, building small, modular cottage homes.

He then moved into projects that build affordable housing for underserved groups, such as veterans.

Tsiatsos referred to such work as “moving the needle.”

In addition to the Baker City and La Grande projects, Tsiatsos is working on a 15-lot veterans village in Ontario.