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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1970)
AA/^ /¿/è f'7 5 ' 1 Northwest's Newest — Most Provocative — Newspaper This is your paper, because you have demanded it. Vol. 1. No. 1 Portland, Ore. — Something of interest to everyone. AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Portland office opened by HUD Thursday, Oct. 1, 1970 20 Per Copy Director welcomed for Model Cities The department of Housing and Urban Affairs has opened an area office here in Portland. This new office has assumed responsibility for all of the operations form erly performed by the FHA Insurance office, and is located in the same building. The director of this new of fice is Mr. Bussell H. Dawson. m r . Dawaon waa graduated from Northwestern University in W41 wlgh a B.S. Degree in political s c .enee. Following his gradii it ton, he entered the mili tary service and was trans ferred to the active reserves at the end of World War II. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and remained in service until he retire«] in De cember 1963. During the break in his active duty, he attended the John Mar shall law School in Chicago and did some graduate work in the school of Commerce at North western University. F o l l o w i n g his retirement, Dawson was employed by the e x e c u t i v e department, City of Seattle, as officer manager and budget supervisor in the Urban Renewal Division. He was later promoted to the position of project manager of the Y esler- Atlantic Neigh to r hood Improve ment Project, an Urban Re newal project in the ghetto area of Seattle. Because of his services with this project, Dawson was re quested to join the staff of the regional office, Department of Housing and Urban Development in San Francisco. He accepted the position and was assigned as a renewal representative and l a t e r promoted to director, P ro gram Co-ordination and Services Division, Community Services Branch, for the North- w e s t Area, in which position he had the responsibility for the coordination of all HUD's pro grams in the states of Washing ton, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. He chaired the monthly meeting of the area Community Services Panel, which consists of the directors of all the pro gram s. Under supervision of the HUD regional office in Seattle, the Portland area office will per form operations for HUD pro grams In the state of Oregon, the 35 counties of Southern Idaho and Clark, Klickitat and Skamania Counties, Washington. Included within the Jurisdiction are the present FHA Insuring offices in Boise, and Portland. The mortage Insurance func tions of these two offices will remain the sam e. The Portland area office is one of 23 being created In key cities to expedite action on HUD Hl SSEI.I. DAWSON programs and services. All will be operational by next Sep tember. "We visualize this as the ul timate step in Implementing President Nixon’s directive to decentralize our operations,” HUD Secretary Romney said. "When they are running in full gear, they will i>e handling almost all of HUD's programs at the local level. Among the functions of the re gional offices are supervision of area and insuring office opera tions, representing the depart ment in relations with other federal agencies and with the Governors, and evaluating and c o o r d i n a t i n g HUD activities throughout the region. The area office is set up to deal strictly with agencies, not with individuals. People in the Albina area will still have to go through the United Improvement Agencies, The Albina Neighlxir- hood Improvement corporation a branch of Portland Development Corporation, these agencies will do the processing of appli cations, with the aid of the area office, then the applications will be presented to Mr. Dawson's desk for final approval. 100 attend advisory meet The Area 1 Advisory Com mittee's Septemiier meeting was held at Jefferson High School Monday evening, drawing nearly 100 interested citizens who came to listen and to comment. The meeting was scheduled to tie held in the school's TJ Room, but the size of the audi ence caused a shift to the school cafeteria. All nine Advisory Committee members and the administrative staff of Area 1 were present. PSU Educational center welcomed Portland State University's Educational C e n t e r located at 2611 NE Union with Harold Wil liams as director is Portland State University's first "S tore front Cam pus". It's the place to come to study English, math, s o c i o l o g y , psychology, art, music, poetry, accounting, typ ing, and prepare for the G.E.D. high school equivalency test. There's a place for you here as a volunteer, too. Tutors in math and English are needed. C lasses are offered as the need a rises, which means wo can al ways use people who are inter ested in helping otiier people. All classes, credit and non- credit, are taught by volunteers from Portland State University and the community. Funds available from Port land State can cover only ba sic s: rent, heat, lights, chairs and tattles, salaries of Harold W i l l i a m s , director; Harvey Rice, assistant director; Rose Wayne, office manager; and Yvonne McKee, office assistant. "W e’ll lie glad to accept sucli items as looks, magazines, look shelves, potted plants, pic tures, floor lamps, strobe lights (for use at dances), vases, clocks, radio, stereo, paint for tlie portable wooden partitions to separate classes held in the large auditorium, an electric typewriter, games, comfortable lounge chairs. Any and all of these will help make people feel at home while they are here, and encourage them to come back again” , according to the director. "L e t us know how we can tie of service to you and the com munity - and feel free to come in and offer your time and your interest in making the Center grow. Our second year is just starting: the more people we can bring together, the lietter we will fe e ll," says the center's staff. Those Interested are urged to watch for news of tmsiness courses. The goals of the Portland S t a t e University Educational Center are to establish an edu cational base tliat is relevant to the total community and can re late tieyond a theoretical base to p e o p le that are not normally governed by the traditional pat tern of education. This meaning, not a deprived people, but people that are gone in separate directions in their educational structure; which serves to tie a unit of togetherness of people and institution with education lieing the total goal. Mr. Charles Jordan was offi cially welcomed as director of Model Cities at a function host ed by the Albina Ministerial Al- lianoe, and attended b) members of the community and agency personnel. Approxi mately 350 people were on hand for the celebration held at Mc Kinney Temple, on Sunday Sep- tambar 13, 3 :3 1 p.m. The program got under way a f t e r the processional of the Albina Ministerial Alliance. The invocation w a s pronounced by Plshop W. I . McKinney, after which Rev. F.ugene Boyd Jr. read the scripture 1st. Cor. 13th Chapter. The Maranatha youth choir rendered two beautiful numbers, a s lid the McKinney Temple Choir later in the program. Rev. Wendell Wallace, Presi dent of the AMA delivered a short dynamic sermonette on the subject "God Is A V erb". His Honor Mayor T erry D. Schrunk was introduced and spoke briefly, after which Mr. Jordan was welcomed by a lenghty ovation. Mr. Jordan opened his speech by emphasizing his belief in a higher power, by stating that to have faith in a higher power is a way of maintaining faith in oneself and in mankind. He likened his task to that of waging war, having poverty racism , poor education, housing and other social problems on one side. And fighting against these warmongers would be the de fenders or all the agencies in the area. He feels the people and agencies can win this war if they will but fall back and re group their forces and come out fighting anew. Mr. Jordan had much more to say, including the fact that be cause of his duty to serve the majority he w o u ld possibly incur the wrath of some with vested interests, but Jordan ex plained, that since the people w e r e "Model C ities" these people must be served, regard less of the criticism of these few. Mr. Jordan has come to Port land and the Model Cities posi tion well qualified to do the job. After the meeting a reception was held in the social hall of McKinney Temple at which time many of those present had an opportunity to talk further with Mr. Jordan and others. SCHOOL OPENING GOES WELL A r e a Superintendent Willard Fletcher reported that the open ing of Area 1 schools went smoothly in all of the area's 33 elementary and 5 high schools. He said enrollment is down by 1 1 7 elementary and 114 high school students twit that much of that decrease should lie made up in the next weeks. 1
