Sammy’s Place developing new vision for housing

Sammy’s Place, a Nehalem charity serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, recently received a $744,000 grant to design an affordable housing development for land it owns in Nehalem.

Julie Chick, executive director of Sammy’s Place, said that the charity’s staff and board are working to develop a new model for the community, with both intellectually and developmentally disabled, and those without disabilities living side by side. Chick said that this plan, while still in its early stages, is part of a larger initiative by the organization to change the community’s perception of the capabilities of those with disabilities.

“What we’re doing is integrated housing so that people with disabilities finally have an opportunity that they have not been afforded in the past to participate in the community of their choice alongside their peers,” Chick said.

Kathy Jean Hrywnak founded Sammy’s Place in 2006 with a mission of giving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) on the north coast opportunities for respite. In 2014, following encouragement from Hrywnak, Chick, whose son has Downs Syndrome, joined the nonprofit’s board of directors, on the condition that the organization expand its mission to include creating living and working opportunities for the community.

In tandem with broadening its vision, the organization also assumed organizational responsibilities for Buddy Walk in Seaside and turned the event into a fundraiser that generated over $100,000 in three years. The organization used that money to develop a strategic plan for future programs for those with IDD and their families.

Around that same time, in 2018, Chick was involved in the county’s housing committee, with then-Commissioner Bill Baertlein, when he brought the property in Nehalem’s urban growth boundary to her attention.

Formerly owned by a logging truck driver, the three-acre property went into foreclosure following nonpayment of property taxes and fell into county ownership after nobody bid on it at auction. Baertlein offered to deed the property to Sammy’s Place, under an Oregon law that allows counties to give property to nonprofits for specific uses, including developing affordable housing.

At that point, the property was overgrown with blackberries and other plants and the dilapidated house and soil had extensive hazardous material concerns. But, luckily for the charity, the property’s condition and planned use came to the attention of officials at Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, who volunteered to donate staff time to remediate those concerns.

The two agencies spent more than $250,000 on the clean-up over the course of several years, and today the property is clear save a small storage shed, firepit and the concrete pad from the old house.

With that work completed earlier this year, the organization applied for a grant from the Fairview Trust, established when the state’s mental hospital shuttered in 2000, and was awarded $744,000 to pay for the project’s soft costs.

Now, Chick, who became the organization’s executive director in 2021, will work with the charity’s board and housing commission to develop a plan for the site.

Chick said that those at the charity see the project as an opportunity to rethink the way that those with IDD live. In Oregon, throughout the 20th century, members of the community were institutionalized at Fairview Hospital, while in the last 20 years, since Fairview closed, people with IDD have been housed in group homes for five to seven people, according to Chick.

While that approach is better than the institutional one that preceded it, Chick said that she and others at Sammy’s Place think it is time for a new paradigm.

“Now, that’s 20 plus years old and we’re going ‘now what? What’s the next evolution for people to live alongside their peers,’” Chick said. “And we are in the evolution.”

Plans are in their early stages, but Chick said that the team envisions a cluster of small houses that would use an ownership model and be open to a mixture of members of the IDD community and those without disabilities. The property is zoned for up to 17 units, but Chick said that while they don’t know how many they will build, “what I can tell you is it won’t be 17.”

In addition to the goal of creating a diverse community, the development will also be guided by the charity’s commitment to preserving and respecting the area’s nature. Chick said that they will not regrade the site and plan to work around trees on the property in their design. The project will also be built to universal design standards, so that all the houses are accessible to the entire community.

Though details are still coming into focus, Chick said that creating more housing options for those with IDD was part of a larger push to shift perceptions of what they can accomplish. Chick said that she also wants to work with area businesses to create employment opportunities and work towards involving people with IDD in Sammy’s Place’s leadership.

Chick exudes enthusiasm about the project and gratitude that all the pieces have fallen into place to make it possible. “Had all these different things not happened and aligned perfectly we wouldn’t be forcing this,” Chick said, “but it wants to happen.”