EDITION
HOUSING SPECIAL
April 27, 2016
Nonproit Buys Land for Housing
C ontinued from p age 6
the Cully Neighborhood which
will be the future site of 15 new
affordable homes for irst time
homebuyers.
The Portland Housing Bureau
announced earlier this year that it
had invested $1 million in the Or-
egon Housing Acquisition Fund,
a revolving fund administered
by NOAH, a statewide nonproit
corporation that provides inanc-
ing and technical assistance for
affordable housing development.
The fund was established
so that developers could move
quickly to acquire land for afford-
able housing development when
opportunities become available.
In a hot real estate market such as
Portland’s, purchasing land for fu-
ture affordable housing develop-
ment is an important strategy and
is seen as a key anti-displacement
measure.
NOAH is leveraging the city’s
money with capital from Meyer
Memorial Trust, the Mac Arthur
Foundation, Oregon Housing
and Community Services, private
banks and NOAH’s resources
to lower housing costs related to
down payment and interest.
“This dynamic market called
for a tool that would give our com-
munity the lexibility to act where
there is need and opportunity.
We’re thrilled to see our invest-
ment already beginning to pay off
for Portlanders,” said Commis-
sioner Dan Saltzman, who over-
sees the Portland Housing Bu-
reau. “We commend Habitat for
Humanity for taking such quick
action where land is becoming an
increasingly precious commodity
so that more Portland families will
have a pathway to achieve home-
ownership.”
Obituary
Page 17
In Loving Memory
Jean Blocker was born Oct. 17,
1935 and died April 22, 2016.
Services will be held Mon-
day, May 2 at 11 a.m. at Van-
couver Avenue First Baptist
Church, 3138 N. Vancouver
Ave. Viewing will begin one
hour prior to service at 10 a.m.
Her inal resting place will be
Willamette National Cemetery. Jean Blocker
Vietnam and America
C ontinued from p age 11
slang, some of it in the form of
rap music, while the occasional
American who attempts to con-
verse with them speaks in broken
English. The fact that I required
a few moments to adjust to this
brought me up short and confront-
ed me with my own unexamined
expectations of Asian and immi-
grant characters. Of course the
playwright realizes that the char-
acters’ current-day American dic-
tion is not historically accurate in
one sense--but in another sense it
is accurate, because it helps us to
experience the characters much
more as they likely experienced
each other.
In the world of this play, Quang
and Tong are brave and angry and
frustrated and strong -- and hot.
Americans are the other; Amer-
icans sound stupid and ignorant,
often because they so relentlessly
confuse their perspective for the
truth without any curiosity about
the perspectives they are missing.
And importantly, in the world of
this play, U.S. intervention in
South Vietnam is not something
for which these refugees believe
they are owed an apology; in fact,
it is the commonly held Ameri-
can view that the Vietnam War
was a misbegotten adventure that
wounds these war-generation
Vietnamese people.
Playwright Nyugen recently
won a major critics’ prize (the
Harold and Mimi Steinberg/
American Theatre Critics Asso-
ciation New Play Award) for this
play, and has several more plays
planned that will explore his par-
ents’ experiences. His work is a
vibrant example of what a strug-
gle it can be for artists from out-
side the dominant culture to ind
their voices, with so few models
to follow--and of what unexpect-
ed gifts such voices can offer
audience members. OSF’s pro-
duction hums with humor and
physicality and raw emotion, and
sparks overdue curiosity about
the experiences of a long-neglect-
ed segment of the American com-
munity. It’s one of my favorites of
this OSF season, and well-worth a
sojourn to Ashland to see it.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the irst woman of color to serve in
that capacity. She also serves on
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
board. Her movie review column
Opinionated Judge appears reg-
ularly in The Portland Observer.
You can ind her movie blog at
opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com.
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