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Page A6
March 28. 2007
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H ousing t=i
Albina
Rotary grows
college fund
Sixty years ago Neil Kelly starteda
rem odeling com pany on a $100 in­
vestment and built it into a successful
enterprise. O ver the decades, he never
lost sight o f his north and northeast
Portland neighborhood, becom ing a
com m unity activist and cham pioning
many causes, particularly education.
Ten years ago, the A lbina Rotary
Foundation launched the Neil Kelly
Memorial Scholarship in his honor,
teaming up with others to annually
fund four $1,(MX)college scholarships
for deserving north and northeast
high school seniors.
T h e s c h o la r s h ip s a re fu n d e d
through earnings from a m odest en­
dowment fund. The goal is to fund
four renew able sc h o larsh ip s that
would follow a student for their four-
year college education. T o approach
this goal, the organization is working
to double the fund by raising about
$160,(XX) through a m ajor gifts drive.
Doubling the endow m ent fund is
one way o f honoring N eil’s decades
of com m unity service and the firm ’s
sixty year com m unity contribution,”
noted Tom Jenkins, form er Albina
Rotary President, chairman o f the Neil
Kelly Scholarship Fund and current
Rotary District G overnor.
“W hile we require a 2.75 GPA, our
greatest interest is to receive applica­
tions from students who have a real
need, show strong character and dem ­
onstrate dedication to their north/
n o rth e a s t P o rtla n d c o m m u n ity ,
through service, very much in the
mold o f Neil Kelly him self," noted
Jenkins.
For further inform ation on the Neil
Kelly Memorial Scholarship program
or how to provide funding assistance,
contact M argie Davidson at 503-287-
6930. Additional inform ation on the
Neil Kelly Memorial Scholarshippro-
gram is a vai lable at www.nei I kel ly.com.
Neil Kelly Scholarships Foreclosure Surge
Build Success
Area students make good on college help
medical geography and a mi­
nor in public health and com ­
munity m edicine.
During her college years,
she worked as acertified nurse
assistant and hospital com pli­
an c e a d m in is tra to r. A fte r
graduation she hiked the Inca
Trail in Peru for three months,
w orking in public health clin­
ics. Lila iscurrently working as
an esti m ator/contract m anager
for a residential/com m ercial
construction com pany in V ir­
ginia.
Neal Brown
Neil Brown received the
Neil Kelly M em orial S chol­
arship in 2(XXJ as he gradu­
ated from Jefferson High
School. He is a 2004 gradu­
ate o f the U niversity o f P ort­
land with a sociology d e­
gree and w orked with Self
Enhancem ent, Inc. as a co­
o rd in ato r fo r stu d en ts at
King Elem entary School.
Brown is now a recreation
coordinator for the Portland
Parks and Recreation at Pen­
insula Park, w here he super­
vises a w ide range o f sports
program s, including basket­
ball. soccer, football and
baseball.
His Neil Kelly scholarship
recognition helped Neal earn
other scholarship assistance
during his u n dergraduate
y ears and his lo n g -term
p la n s in c lu d e g ra d u a te
school.
Gene Vang
Lilamrta Logue
L ilam rta L ogue g rad u ­
ated fro m B en so n H igh
School in 2001 and was
awarded a Neil Kelly M em o­
rial Scholarship after work
in the com m unity in health
care, fundraising and low-
income housing projects, as
w ell as a w ide range o f
school sports activities.
In 2005, Logue graduated
with honors from the U ni­
versity o f W ashington with
a Bachelor o f Arts degree in
Lilamrta Logue
Gene Vang recei ved the NeiI
Kelly memorial Scholarship in
2(X)3 as he graduated from
Roosevelt High School, where
he also participated in a jo h
shadow program at Legacy
Emanuel H ospital.
At O regon State U niver­
sity, Vang earned early adm is­
sion during his senior y ear to
O S U ’s School o f Pharm acy.
He will continue one more year
o f p h a r m a c y s tu d ie s in
Corvallis, then com plete his
pharm acy degree after two
y ear’s study at O H SU in P ort­
land , in a clinical setting.
Vang was encouraged by
family and friends and sup­
ported by scholarship help, and
was encouraged by his work as
a pharmacist technician. He sees
th e p h a r m a c is t's ro le in
healthcare continuing to grow
and welcomes the new chal­
lenges.
Hurts Minorities
Defaults follow higher-cost loans
A cross the United States,
blacks and Hispanics are more
lik e ly to g et a h ig h -c o s t,
subprim e m ortgage when buy­
ing a hom e than w hites - a major
factor in a w ave o f foreclosures
in poor, often black neighbor­
hoods nationw ide as a housing
slo w d o w n puts m illio n s o f
“subprim e” borrow ers at risk of
default.
Even more troubling, real-
estate industry analysts say, is
an alarming proportion of blacks
and Hispanics who received
subprime loans by predatory
lenders even when their credit
picture was good enough to
deserve a cheaper loan.
In six m ajor U.S. cities, black
borrow ers were 3.8 tim es more
likely than w hites to receive a
higher-cost home loan, and His­
panic borrow ers were 3.6 tim es
more I i ke ly, according to a st udy
released this month by a group
o f fair housing agencies.
“ B lacks and Latinos have
low er incom es and less wealth,
less steady em ploym ent and
low er credit ratings, so a co m ­
pletely neutral and fair credit­
rating system would still give a
higher percentage o f subprim e
loans to m inorities,” said Jim
C am pen, a University o f M as­
sachusetts econom ist.
“ But the problem is exacer­
bated by a financial system
w hich isn’t fair,” he said.
In greater Boston, 71 per­
cent o f blacks earning above
$153,(XX)in2(X)5tookout m ort­
gages with high interest rates,
com pared to ju st 9.4 percent o f
w hites, while about 70 percent
o f black and Hispanic borrow ­
ers w ith in c o m es b etw e en
$92,(XX) and $152,(XX) received
high-interest rate home loans, com ­
pared to 17 percent for w hites,
according to his research.
“ It’s a huge disparity,” he said.
H igh-cost m ortgages usually have
interest rates at least 3 percentage
points above conventional m ort­
gages.
Predatory lenders m oved ag-
c
f
-
Economist Jim
Campen says
homebuying
financial
systems are
minorities.
gressi vely into the subprim e m ort­
gage market as a housing price
boom between 2(XX) and 2005 cut
the risk o f lending to people with
dam aged credit ratings.
M any fo cu se d on m in o rity
n e ig h b o rh o o d s in slick sa les
pitches that offered the A m erican
dream : hom e ow nership with no
money down and little worry about
poor credit.
M any traditional banks do not
run branches in poor m inority
n e ig h b o r h o o d s , c r e a tin g a
vacuum often filled by predatory
lenders and unscrupulous brokers,
said Stephen Ross, a U niversity o f
C onnecticut econom ist w ho stud­
ies lending.
W hen the property m arket was
strong, those brokers could tell
borrow ers that rising prices m eant
they could easily rem ortgage their
properties to keep up with pay­
ments. But since the market peaked
in 2(X)5. m illions are struggling to
repay those loans. This year, some
1.5 m illion hom eow ners will face
f o r e c lo s u r e , r e s e a r c h firm
RealtyTrac estim ates.
H O U S IN G
“O
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PCRÜ
CD
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Community in Motion
P ortland C ommunity R einvestment I nitiatives , I nc .
“Meeting the Affordable Housing Needs In the Community”
We are currently renting one, two, three and four bedroom affordable housing units.
For more information please call or stop by the office.
6329 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Portland, OR 97211-3351
503.288.2923 fax: 503.288.2891
www.pcrihome.org
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