Cascade Locks sits along Oregon's Columbia River Gorge, a historic port city and popular stop for Pacific Crest Trail hikers. It's small enough that losing a dozen affordable apartments would leave residents with few places to call home.

The preservation of Columbia View Apartments matters well beyond this town. With technical support from Enterprise's Rural Communities team, the property became the first Section 515 Simple Transfer to use Stand-Alone Rental Assistance (SARA), a national milestone with implications for hundreds of thousands of rural homes.

The ROAD to Rural Housing Preservation

For decades, rental assistance on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Section 515 and 514 properties was tied to the mortgage. Pay off the loan, and the rental assistance stopped, even for owners who wanted to keep these homes affordable.

A provision in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act fixes that. It provides a long-term solution by allowing rental assistance to continue after an eligible Section 514 or 515 loan is paid off. Through decoupling, eligible owners can enter into a 20-year rental assistance contract while committing to preserve the property as affordable housing.

ROAD also changes how rents are established for assisted units, generally using HUD Fair Market Rents while allowing USDA to approve higher budget-based rents when needed to support a property's operations. Assisted tenants will continue to pay 30 percent of their income toward rent.

A Handoff 18 Years in the Making

Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation (CCHC) is the new owner that will keep this 51-year-old property an important community asset. But it was the commitment of the previous owners, Daniel and Judith Bausch, that truly made this happen. Starting back in 2008, the couple began looking for a buyer that would ensure that the housing would remain affordable.

"Preserving Columbia View Apartments is about protecting an important source of affordable housing in Cascade Locks and ensuring residents can continue to call this community home," CCHC Executive Director Karen Long said. "This project took years of persistence and collaboration, and we're grateful to the partners who help make a long-term preservation solution possible."

While Columbia View's 18-year journey is an outlier, rural preservation deals rarely move fast as they wend their way through layered and complex processes and regulations.

These deals require finding a buyer willing to take on Section 515 restrictions, transferring ownership without displacing residents, navigating USDA approvals, lining up rental assistance, and stacking financing from several different sources, each with different timelines.

At Columbia View, that stack included a $1.2 million USDA Section 538 mortgage through Bellwether Enterprise and roughly $1.3 million from Oregon Housing and Community Services, the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, and other project sources. It's also the first SARA Simple Transfer paired with Section 538 financing, a combination other aging properties could follow.

Enterprise's Rural Communities team provided technical assistance to CCHC through USDA requirements, the transfer, financing, SARA, and closing, along with $10,000 in USDA-funded predevelopment assistance to keep it moving.

"This closing represents years of navigating a complex preservation process to ensure these homes remain affordable for the families who rely on them," Enterprise Rural Housing Director Tiana Joyner said. "We are proud to have supported this effort alongside our partners and to see Columbia View move into its next chapter with the resources needed for long-term preservation and rehabilitation."

Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing (ORFH) served as Enterprise's consultant partner on the ground. LMC Construction, Workshop Architecture, and a handful of legal and financial partners rounded out the team to see the work through.

"Preserving Columbia View Apartments is an excellent example of how a variety of partners - public, private, state, federal, local - can come together and make good things happen in the community," ORFH Executive Director Marty Miller said. "In this case, that means affordable housing retained in and for the community of Cascade Locks."

What's Next for Residents

The deal closed in two steps. CCHC took ownership first, which let preservation work begin, with USDA approvals, SARA, rehab planning, and permanent financing finalized in mid-August.

Construction has already started on Columbia View, and CCHC expects all 12 units back online before the end of the year. This work is extensive and includes a new roof, siding, windows, and exterior doors; rebuilt decking and stairs; updated kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, plumbing, and HVAC; site and parking work.

"These improvements will give Columbia View a new chapter, with updated homes that will better serve residents for years to come," Long said. "We're proud that CCHC can help preserve these 12 homes and help ensure that affordable housing remains part of the community's future."

Without a long-term preservation solution, USDA estimates that more than 94 percent of the units in its current multifamily housing portfolio will be eligible to pay off their loans by 2050, potentially resulting in the loss of about 333,000 affordable rural apartments from the program.

"Next to numbers like that, 12 homes may seem small," Joyner said. "But in a rural community, every affordable home matters, and keeping the rental assistance tied to those homes matters just as much. Columbia View offers a model for how this can be done in rural communities across the country."