HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) — The state of Oregon has bought a house for an 86-year-old woman whose home of four decades stood in the way of a road project and who feared her mortgage arrangements put her at risk of being turned out without money for living quarters.
The state owns the Hillsboro house, but Patsy Burnsed, a widow, can live there rent-free as long as it’s her principal residence.
Burnsed had raised six children in her Washington County home and then used up the equity in the house through reverse mortgages that allowed her to live there rent-free until she moved out or died.
But the state wanted the property to make way for ramps and roads to accommodate an influx of tech-related traffic, much of it a result of Intel’s expansion plans. The project is expected to cost $45 million.
Normally, the department would take the property and compensate the owner. In this case, because of the reverse mortgage deal, the $196,000 payment was headed straight to the bank.
Burnsed said she didn’t have enough for long-term housing and fretted for months. A son recruited a lawyer, Jill Gelineau, who represented her for free.
Highway officials searched for similar cases of highway projects and reverse mortgages, used by retirees to gain cash from the equity they’ve built up in their houses. They said they didn’t find many examples to follow.
On Thursday, Burnsed signed papers on a house in Hillsboro. The Oregon Department of Transportation allowed her to pick it out and then bought it for about $200,000, a spokesman said, having it painted and repaired and putting in a new water heater.
It doesn’t have the view of farmland her old house had, but she called it a “happy ending.”
“I can sleep at night now,” she said.
“We reached an agreement that is comfortable for everyone involved,” said Don Hamilton, the department spokesman. “And ODOT can continue with a project that will play an important role in the future economic development of Washington County.”
