La Grande School District extends Tiger Homes project for eight years

La Grande School District is turning Tiger Homes into a long-term housing pipeline, saying the student-built project will continue for the next eight years and expand onto additional land across from the current site in La Grande.

That makes the effort more than a one-off classroom build. District officials say the program is designed to give La Grande High School students hands-on Career and Technical Education experience while also adding homes in a county where housing and workforce needs are tightly linked. In March, Superintendent George Mendoza confirmed the expansion would add eight new lots, signaling that the district expects Tiger Homes to keep producing far beyond its first finished build.

The first Tiger Home was completed after almost 18 months of construction and opened for touring Feb. 28, 2025. The project consists of two townhouse units built by students enrolled in construction classes, and Grande Ronde Hospital is buying the first completed home to house medical providers. That sale is the clearest early test of whether Tiger Homes can do more than showcase student work: it is already feeding local workforce housing for one of Union County’s most visible employers.

The district said the project was made possible by a $515,000 federal funding allocation, along with community partners that included GCT Land Management, Grande Ronde Hospital, the City of La Grande, Eastern Oregon University, Union County Commissioners, Woodgrain, Boise Cascade, Miller’s Home Center, Columbia Basin Student Homes, Sherwood High Home Construction, TMC Construction, Team Oregon Build, Valley ICF and others. The original Tiger House land was purchased from Zion’s Lutheran Church using Oregon Measure 98 funds, and the first build began in August 2023 after six years of planning, research and strategizing.

The next public look at the project is set for Wednesday, June 3, 2026, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 3rd Street and I Avenue in La Grande. The open house will show a project that has moved from planning into a multi-year construction strategy, with the district now securing more land and preparing parcels for future development.

For Union County, the question is no longer whether Tiger Homes is a good student project. It is whether eight years of school-led construction can meaningfully add to the local housing supply while preparing students for jobs that keep them in the region.