November 14, 2018
Page 5
The new Beatrice Morrow apartment building at 3368 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. is housing devel-
oped by the African-American led non-profit, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Inc. (PCRI)
and its pathway 1000 initiative, a 10-year plan to construct 1,000 new affordable homes and rentals,
in particular for minority residents who have been displaced from inner north and northeast Portland.
A single bedroom living room on the fourth floor of The Beatrice Morrow apartment building, which
sets aside 80 affordable apartments for families making up to 60 percent area median income.
First Preference Housing
C ontinueD froM f ront
ing has on harnessing people’s po-
tential.
“At the end of the day, this is
about people. We have no idea
who will walk these halls. We
have no idea who will move into
these apartments. We have no
idea what doctors, what lawyers,
what leaders will come out of this
space,” Holt said.
The $26.7 building was also
constructed under policies to hire
minority owned and operated
construction firms, including the
main contractor Colas Construc-
tion, and Carleton Hart Architects,
two black firms headquartered in
northeast Portland.
Approximately 75 percent of
the building’s design-phase con-
tract services were done through
minority- and women-owned
firms, PCRI said, as well as one
third of the construction partici-
pation.
Citing the many black-owned
companies that were contract-
ed to make the building possible
as compared to the lack of black
construction work on MLK in his
childhood, Colas Construction
President Andrew Colas called on
even more efforts in the future to
lift up disadvantaged communities
with economic opportunities.
“We are a for-profit company,
but we have a non-profit mission.
And that mission is to not only
create housing, but to create jobs
and to create economic develop-
ment for all communities through-
out the United States. And that’s
important because it leads to ed-
ucation and the future leaders of
our country,” Colas said.
The building’s 80 apartments
will be rented to families making
no more than 60 percent of the
area’s median income—currently
just $49,000 for a family of four.
Apartment sizes range from studio
to three bedrooms, with the major-
ity being more than two bedrooms.
There have already been more
than 1,500 applications over the
course of two weeks for The Be-
atrice Morrow and a second af-
fordable housing building under
construction, an amount that far
exceeds the capacities, officials
said.
The city’s unique right to re-
turn policy is intended as a way to
make up for the role it has played
in displacing many African Amer-
icans from inner north and north-
east Portland neighborhoods.
Funds the city set aside for
affordable housing construction
geared to the African American
community started at $20 million
in 2014, and has grown to more
than $100 million. The funds’ in-
tended use is to provide afford-
able housing for people with ties
to historical black neighborhoods
who became displaced by urban
renewal projects and other gentri-
fication beginning in the 1960s.
Providing Insurance and Financial Services
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