Wiyot Tribe breaks ground on downtown Eureka affordable housing project

Forty-one affordable apartments, a licensed child care center and a small playground are set to rise from a downtown Eureka parking lot as the Wiyot Tribe began work on a project it says is meant to keep local families rooted in the city.

The project, Gou’Wik Hou Daqh, broke ground at Fifth and D streets on a 0.3-acre city-owned parcel that now serves as parking. City planning documents describe the development as a six-story, 61,944-square-foot mixed-use building with 41 dwelling units, a 4,081-square-foot ground-floor child care facility, residential common areas, bicycle parking, six off-street vehicle spaces and site and landscape improvements.

The tribe says the name means “Where the Families Are,” and the housing mix is designed for households with children: 16 one-bedroom units, 14 two-bedroom units, six three-bedroom units and five four-bedroom units. Tribal housing materials say the building is slated for completion in 2027.

Elizabeth Hernandez, the tribe’s education director, spoke at the groundbreaking and said she remembered looking for an affordable place to live when she moved to Eureka at 18. Her story matched the larger point behind the project: in a downtown where workers, elders and low-income families continue to be priced out, the city’s most visible underused land is being turned into housing tied to a child care facility rather than another vacant lot.

The development is part of a broader Wiyot-led strategy in downtown Eureka. In July 2023, the City of Eureka selected the Wiyot Tribe and the Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust to develop affordable housing on two city-owned parking lots, including the Fifth and D site and another parcel at 6th and L streets. Together, the two projects are expected to add 93 units downtown, with 52 senior apartments planned at Laquilh Hou Daqh.

Michelle Vassel has said the team wanted the building to look like it belongs in Eureka and drew on Wiyot plank-house design elements. That approach gives the project a cultural as well as a housing purpose, linking new construction in the city center to the tribe’s broader effort to keep Wiyot people in their homelands while responding to housing and climate pressures.

Funding for the downtown housing push has also moved forward. In July 2025, the tribe said it secured $4 million in funding through Redwood Capital Bank and FHLBank San Francisco to advance Gou’Wik Hou Daqh and Laquilh Hou Daqh. State tax-credit documents later showed Gou’Wik Hou Daqh moving through financing approvals, a sign the project has advanced from planning into one of the most visible Native-led redevelopment efforts Eureka has seen in years.