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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2016)
HOUSING SPECIAL EDITION QR code for Portland Observer Online ‘City of Roses’ Volume XLV Number 17 www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • April 27, 2016 Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity photo by C ervante p ope /t he p ortland o bserver Oficials from Portland Community Investment Initiatives, Inc. celebrate a future site for affordable housing on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the adop- tion of a city policy to help families that were displaced or at risk of displacement receive preference when new affordable housing is built. Pictured, from left, are Travis Phillips, PCRI housing development manager; Maxine Fitzpatrick, the nonproit’s executive director, and Andrea Debnam, PCRI manager of resident services. Right to Return Home Pathway 1,000 aims to ix troubled housing history by C ervante p ope t he p ortland o bserver Attempting to ix a troubled housing history in the city, Port- land Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Inc. (PCRI) and the Portland Housing Bureau have pi- oneered a new campaign in hopes of acknowledging and ixing the longtime displacement of mostly people of color and low income residents from north and northeast Portland. Approximately 10,000 mainly African American residents have lost their homes between the years of 1990 and 2000 in the city’s close-in and historically black neighborhoods. Statistically, that’s three people every day for 10 years having lost their home. PCRI’s Pathway 1000 Initia- tive may be part of the solution. As a part of the Portland Hous- ing Bureau’s North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy, the initiative is a displacement mitigation plan with the goals of dulling and in turn, reversing the involuntary displacement of those former long term Portland resi- dents that have been pushed out, as well as those who are current- ly at risk of displacement them- selves. As the longtime executive di- rector of PCRI, Maxine Fitzpat- rick has witnessed numerous Afri- can American families left abreast to Portland’s continual rising housing costs and loss of afford- able housing options. “We cannot undo the harms done, but rather must focus on re- storing housing justice for those who were harmed. PCRI’s goal is to support and encourage dis- placed African Americans to focus on the future,” says Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick and PCRI, along with the Portland Bureau of Plan- ning and Sustainability, the Port- land Housing Bureau, the Portland C ontinued on p age 7