Melanie Sicotte
In 1982, the Whiteaker area's newly-formed Neighborhood
Economic Development Corporation established the East Blair
Housing Cooperative, Oregon's first low-income housing
co-op, with 22 varied living units in 10 buildings.
Maintenance, membership, and money are handled by
committees, important issues get every member's vote at
monthly meetings. An LA native who moved to Eugene in '91
after college at UCSB, business manager Melanie Sicotte has
served as EBHC's only paid employee since 1994. " Everyone
here is my boss. It's a part-time job but a full-time
commitment," she says. "My basic duty is to do the accounts
day-to-day. I'm also an advisor. I do research and know the
Oregon statutes. I like being a resource." She credits her
partner, Marq Bauman, for his patience and his job at
Symantec. Four years after she started at EBHC, Sicotte was
recruited for the same position at the Students' Cooperative
Association, a campus-area housing co-op that dates back to
1936. "Melanie is the backbone of both co-ops," reports EBHC
member Ken Rosemarin.
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 10 August
2006
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