Our Story

Members of Astoria's First Presbyterian Church observed how the housing crisis unfolded – on our waterfront and in our downtown commercial district – and decided to involve themselves in looking for solutions. But simply volunteering time or contributing mission monies to the Warming Center and/or church basement Food Pantry seem only to address symptoms of this “desperation” dilemma rather than getting to its roots.

Consequently, we scoured the stock of vacant and/or little-used commercial buildings in town in hopes of creating this housing opportunity. Then, after a year of searching and negotiating, we identified a worthy downtown candidate and purchased it in hopes of repurposing an historical “boarding house” which has lain fallow since, at least, the 1940s - when its studios were full and last could be considered “affordable.”

Our objective is to restore to code a multi-use building whose apartments have fallen into disrepair but whose foundation and shell are both structurally sound. It is our hope the four-story, commercial structure located at 1159-69 Marine (once known as The State Hotel) may provide ground floor lobby and meeting spaces and the rest of the building, including the upstairs living spaces, can be reclaimed for affordable housing. Because Copeland Lumber originally owned and occupied this city block – and the Copelands were Astoria pioneers - we would like our “workforce” restoration to be known as Copeland Commons.

We have separated our housing outreach and development project from church, and recruited a volunteer board of community influencers to invite partnerships, solicit funds, and fine tune the vision. The new entity is registered as an Oregon Non-profit Corporation and is approved as “tax exempt” under IRS section 501(c)3.