Bend Chamber and Mid Oregon Credit Union describe revolving loan fund used to finance workforce homeownership pilot

A city advisory committee heard Tuesday about a revolving loan fund the Bend Chamber and Mid Oregon Credit Union built to support workforce homeownership, using philanthropic seed dollars and a local credit union serving as lender.

Committee members were told the program’s objective is to fill financing gaps that private lenders or state grants do not cover, such as short‑term construction and land‑acquisition financing for projects serving households in the roughly 80–120% area median income (AMI) range.

Sarah Omdahl, representing the Bend Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber used its charitable arm, the Bend Next Foundation, to collect philanthropic seed funds and to shape program guidelines aimed at middle‑income ownership. Dan Stake, commercial markets director at Mid Oregon Credit Union, described the credit union’s role as lender and loan servicer and explained typical loan mechanics: maximum loan amounts of $500,000, a one‑year draw period and what the partners described as a short repayment horizon. Stake said the program’s loan rate was set at 3% fixed for two years, with the program designed so partners contribute to interest reserves and administrative costs.

Carly Colvin of Habitat for Humanity described the Fifteenth and Wilson project, a pilot the partners used to test procedures. Colvin said the land for that project was donated and that the program deployed a $75,000 construction loan to allow Habitat to use construction financing while holding cash for its other, deeper‑affordability projects.

Program structure presented to the committee included splitting the 3% loan interest into thirds: roughly 1% to Mid Oregon to cover costs, 1% retained by the Bend Next Foundation to support program marketing and grant applications, and 1% set aside to seed a down‑payment assistance pool. Staff said the fund started with $500,000 in seed capital and that partners expect to grow the pool through additional philanthropic and private investments, and to explore credit union foundation support through GoWest Foundation to expand capital at scale.

Committee members raised operational questions — including underwriting capacity, staff resources needed to manage loan compliance and the challenge of deed‑restrictions for resale — and suggested modifications to make the program usable by smaller infill builders. Speakers also discussed the limits of the current $500,000 seed, with panelists saying $3–5 million would be a more meaningful starting point to run multiple concurrent projects.