Brown,
Hardesty
Victorious
Soul of Albina
Concert to
celebrate
Portland’s soul
music history
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVII • Number 45
See Metro, page 9
Progressive
candidates and
causes do well
See Local News, page 3
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 14, 2018
D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Housing advocates and construction company officials from Portland’s African American community made the opening of
the Beatrice Morrow apartments possible and Thursday they gathered for the official grand opening. Pictured (from left) are
Aneshka Colas-Dickson, Colas Construction founder Hermann Colas, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiative, Inc. (PCRI)
Executive Director Maxine Fitzpatrick, and Colas Construction President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Colas.
photos by
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
The Beatrice Morrow’s affordable
apartments at Northeast Martin Luther
King Jr. Boulevard and Cook Street
are the first to open under the city’s
new right-to-return policy for displaced
African American residents.
First Preference Housing
Beatrice Morrow
first to open
under new policy
by D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
Affordable housing advocates are cele-
brating the opening of The Beatrice Mor-
row apartments, an African American- led
housing complex that is the first to open
under a preference policy for displaced
residents.
The building, which opened with a rib-
bon-cutting ceremony on Thursday at 3368
N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. is part of
Portland Community Reinvestment Initia-
tives, Inc.’s (PCRI’s) Pathway 1000 initia-
tive, a 10-year plan to construct 1,000 new
affordable homes and rentals.
The Beatrice Morrow, encompassing 80
affordable housing apartments prioritized
for historic residents of north and northeast
Portland, is named after Beatrice Morrow
Cannady, a renowned Portland civil rights
advocate from the early 20th Century who
was editor of the Advocate, the state’s larg-
est African-American newspaper at the
time, and one of the founders of the Port-
land NAACP.
“I feel really good, mostly for the com-
munity. You know, being able to provide a
place that people can return to communi-
ties they’ve lived in for generations,” said
PCRI Executive Director Maxine Fitzpat-
rick.
Dr. Bishop Steven Holt, who chairs a
community oversight committee on hous-
ing policies and anti-displacement efforts,
joined in celebrating the Beatrice Morrow
opening.
Holt recounted his own past struggling
to find housing and make rent in northeast
Portland when he was a young married
man. He spoke to the importance that hous-
C ontinueD on p age 5