Page 6
New Prices
Effective
May 1, 2014
June 3, 2015
O PINION
Martin Refocusing Our Affordable Housing Goals
A pathway to
Cleaning building 1,000
Service homes
M AXINE F ITZPATRICK
Portland Community
Reinvestment Initiatives,
Inc. (PCRI), a 22 year
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nity development cor-
poration specializing in
the creation and management of f
affordable rental housing in north
and northeast Portland, is refocus-
ing its affordable housing goals.
Providing
homeownership
opportunities and housing coun-
seling assistance to low-income
families ensures long-term afford-
ability, stabilizes residents and
their neighborhoods and helps
families build equity and break
the cycle of poverty.
PCRI’s new goal to address ac-
tive and ongoing involuntary dis-
placement of African Americans
and other low income residents
from the neighborhoods we serve
is by building and creating 1,000
homes, beginning in 2016. The
homes will be located throughout
the city, with the primary focus on
the north and northeast Portland
neighborhoods where displaced
families previously resided.
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cally 2000 to 2010; 10,000 resi-
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cans, were forced to relocate out
of north and northeast Portland
neighborhoods. Essentially, three
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another place to live.
To address this in-
voluntary displacement,
PCRI has established a
displacement mitigation
initiative called Pathway
1000. The sole purpose
interested community members
to participate and learn more via
PCRI’s website, pcrihome.org and
social media channels, where a
forthcoming questionnaire will be
posted to determine eligibility and
housing needs.
PCRI will also conduct a se-
ries of exploratory sessions with
displaced residents and residents
on the verge of displacement. We
feel that those closest to and ex-
periencing the problem are closest
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displaced residents who were
forced to relocate due to
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and intent of the effort is slowing
and reversing the involuntary dis-
placement of our long term resi-
dents and current residents at risk
of displacement.
The 1,000 homes will be con-
structed at a level of 100 homes
per year over the next 10 years.
PCRI is targeting involuntari-
ly displaced residents who were
forced to relocate due to esca-
lating housing costs, or because
their rental home was sold to a
homeowner. PCRI encourages
to and best suited to provide the
solutions.
It would be fruitless to rehash
the details of how African-Amer-
icans have been displaced histor-
ically in Portland on at least four
different occasions. We cannot
undo the harms done, but rather
must focus on restoring hous-
ing justice for those who were
harmed. PCRI’s goal is to sup-
port and encourage displaced Af-
rican-Americans to focus on the
future. Homeownership is the sta-
bilizing solution to displacement.
Investing in opportunities and as-
sistance for low-income families
ensures long-term affordability
and stabilizes residents in their
neighborhood.
Community development cor-
porations like PCRI can support
displaced residents by building
community awareness of solu-
tions through advocacy and civic
engagement to create anti-dis-
placement policies.
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ment issues must be discussed
and addressed on a regular basis.
Residents must remind govern-
ment leaders and city planners
of displacement, and the reality
of unintended consequences of
strategic growth. Affected resi-
dents must get involved in their
neighborhood and they must ex-
pect and encourage equitable de-
velopment.
Be aware and look to learn more
about PCRI’s Pathway 1000 Ini-
tiative, a plan to bring affordable
housing back into north and north-
east Portland neighborhoods as
well as catalyze business growth,
development, and job opportuni-
ties. Our PCRI supporter partners
include the African-American Al-
liance for Homeownership and the
Portland Housing Center.
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ecutive director of Portland
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SEE CURRENT FLYER
FOR ADDITIONAL
PRICES & SERVICES
Call for Appointment
(503) 281-3949
A Crusader for a Tax on Inherited Fortunes
Teddy Roosevelt’s
legacy
R ICHARD K IRSCH
Republican lawmak-
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by voting to repeal the
estate tax. If they get
their way, the multi-mil-
lionaires and billionaires
who fund their election
campaigns will reap a huge tax break.
First, some myth busting.
The federal tax on inheritance only applies
to estates of more than $5.3 million for an in-
dividual and $10.9 million for a married cou-
ple. That’s only a few very, very rich people.
For example, it only applied to 5,000 of the
2.6 million people who died in 2013.
And for the record, only 20 of those estates
were small farms or family businesses. No-
body ever lost a family farm because of the
estate tax.
The estate tax is a way to get a few very
rich people to pay taxes they avoided while
alive. A lot of the wealth subject to the tax is
money made in the stock market — which is
taxed at far lower rates than money earned
from work.
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For a more basic explanation of why we
have an estate tax, a good place to start is with
Republican President Teddy Roosevelt.
Roosevelt came from a wealthy family
and made clear that he respected people who
made “a fortune,” as long as “it is honorably
obtained and well used.” He was also an avid
proponent of taxing inheritances.
The way Roosevelt saw it, taxing estates
was essential “to preserve a measurable equal-
ity of opportunity for the people of the genera-
tions growing to manhood.”
For this privileged man, wealth wasn’t just
an individual asset. He understood that people
got rich not by themselves, but because they
were part of a productive society. No one gets
rich on a desert island, after all.
Roosevelt also believed that massive un-
taxed inheritances served “no advantage” to
the individual, who by inheriting “enormous
fortunes” didn’t learn the virtues of work.
He knew what he was talking about, as he
saw the wasteful lifestyles and entitlement of
the people he grew up with. He viewed this as
anathema to core American values of equality.
Teddy Roosevelt’s values are particularly
meaningful today. Highly concentrated wealth
is undermining our economy and democracy.
The richest 1 percent of Americans holds 40
percent of our nation’s wealth.
Put more starkly, six heirs to the Wal-Mart
fortune own as much as 49 million low-in-
come American families combined.
Eliminating the inheritance tax would be a
$269 billion windfall over the next decade for
these few wealthy families.
That’s almost enough to pay for free com-
munity college for 9 million students, provide
pre-school for all children in working-class
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fund for roads, bridges, and mass transit.
Keeping great fortunes in the hands of
a few also gives the rich a much greater
voice in our democracy than the rest of us.
Through their political contributions, they
shape the agendas of their handpicked elect-
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Over the years, lawmakers have slashed the
taxes rich people pay while they’re alive on
income from stocks and bonds — precisely
the kind of income that’s most often inherited.
The estate tax is the tool we use, when the
wealthy die, to insist on a fairer tax system
in which they share responsibility for support-
ing the nation that made their wealth possible.
Teddy Roosevelt understood that, but today’s
Republican Party seems to have forgotten.
Richard Kirsch is a senior fellow at the
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