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Efforts to build more affordable housing in Portland got a boost last week when the Design Commission gave final approval for the St. Francis Park Apartments. The 106-unit, 73,000-square-foot building will mostly include workforce housing, though 20 units will be reserved for homeless women and those who have been victims of domestic violence.

The new complex will be built on a portion of the existing St. Francis Park on Southeast Stark Street between 11th and 12th avenues, in the heart of the Buckman neighborhood.

City planner Jeff Mitchem said the U-shaped structure will be four stories on the 12th Avenue side and three stories on the 11th Avenue side.

MWA Architects‘ design calls for a community room, a communal front porch and a 6,300-square-foot enclosed plaza for residents. Mitchem said the open part of the U-shaped building will face Stark Street and the plaza will face Oak Street.

Mitchem said the commission included a couple of conditions with its approval: going back to an original design for building massing, and adding metal panel inserts under the windows.

鈥淭he two end components were wrapped in a box frame around the entire building mass,鈥� Mitchem said. 鈥淭he commission felt with the ends different, it felt too broken up. The intent was for (massing) to be broken down with subtle material shifts and not big form exchanges.鈥�

Commissioners called for the metal panel inserts to help break up the fields of box-ribbed metal and give a more traditional expression to the windows, he said.

Diana Moosman, an architect associate with MWA, said the commission was 鈥減retty quick鈥� in approving the project after only about 45 minutes.

鈥淭he next step is building permits,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e’re hoping to start construction at the end of February.鈥�

The developer for the project is Home Forward, the city’s housing authority. Mike Andrews, director of development and community revitalization for Home Forward, said it’s important that more affordable housing is being made available throughout the city. All of the St. Francis Park units will be priced for people who make 60 percent of the median area income or less, he said.

鈥淭he state of the housing crisis for renters is pretty prevalent and you hear about it everywhere,鈥� he said. 鈥淔amilies are really struggling in particular in the good neighborhoods, like Buckman.鈥�

The Buckman area has seen a lot of development in the last couple of years, Andrews said, and the St. Francis Park Apartments will help meet the needs of lower-income residents.

鈥淭here’s not been a lot of opportunities for low-income residents,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut this is in a great neighborhood where they can take advantage of good transportation, be close to jobs and reduce reliance on automobiles.鈥�

The city is contributing $6.5 million to the $15.3 million project, Andrews said. Home Forward and Catholic Charities purchased the land from St. Francis of Assisi Church for $7.9 million in September 2014, he said. The general contractor for the project, he said, is O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders.

Andrews said he was pleased that the Design Commission approved the plans for the new apartments.

鈥淭hey like what we presented and went back to a design we originally presented and made some landscaping changes,鈥� he said.

Home Forward has built more than 150 new affordable housing units in the past year. Stephens Creek Crossing Apartments, in Southwest Portland, has 122 affordable units, and Beech Street Apartments, in Northeast Portland, offers 32 affordable units, Andrews said. Both opened in 2014.

鈥淭his is what we do,鈥� Andrews said of Home Forward.

Management of the new St. Francis Park apartments will be contracted out to Cascade Management, said Trell Anderson, director of housing and community development for Catholic Charities. Anderson said Catholic Charities is collaborating with St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Home Forward to fund the project.

Anderson agreed that the location of the new complex is important for the Buckman neighborhood.

鈥淲e think it’s a significant project for the central east side and it’s very exciting to be able to offer affordable housing in a neighborhood where we see rapid rises in market rents,鈥� he said.