New memory care facility, focused on veterans, coming to La Pine

'It's so hard to find assisted living for veterans in our area.'

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) – There’s a large building on Burgess Road in La Pine that may not look like much now. But in a few months, it will become something many in the community have wanted for quite a while.

The building is about to become home to the La Pine Comfort Village, a 30- to 60-bed memory care facility focused on veterans, but open to all.

Vint Gordon, president of the La Pine chapter of the Band of Brothers, told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday, "This is going to be huge, because I don't know any other facility that does things like this for the veterans."

Bill Minnix, vice chairman of La Pine Veterans Outreach, said, "Currently, it's so hard to find assisted living for veterans in our area."

Gordan said it's something the community has asked for since the La Pine Veterans Outreach started about five years ago.

"We have so many homless veterans that are living in the woods and the streets,” Gordan said. “They have things wrong with them, like brain injuries."

He said they looked at purchasing this same building a few years ago for a memory care facility.

"We couldn't get the funds raised to be able to get it and do it,” Gordon added. “So I'm glad somebody else was able to pick up the ball and run with it."

That someone is a group of partners in Portland with backgrounds in both memory care and assisted living facilities.

Milo Brandt, one of the owners of Comfort Village, said, "There was a beautiful building available. We had the capability to execute on it, and there was a need -- and we couldn't be happier to be down there and bring this resource to the community. "

After some renovations, Brandt and his partners are hoping to open in May, much to the delight of Gordon.

"I'm very excited about this getting done,” he said.