January 8, 2020
Page 5
Housing and a Backup Plan
C ontinued from f ront
older people who are “always on
the receiving end, and the first ones
out the door,” she said. “My idea is
to work with community college
districts to see if we can get folks
trained in different career paths so
they can have a backup plan.”
Horner served previously as
executive director of economic
development for the city of Ox-
nard, Calif. but her department
was eliminated after California
decided to pull redevelopment
funds from cities to help balance
its budget.
That hurt California, she said,
because 20 percent of property tax
revenue went toward affordable
housing, and now it can’t catch
up with the demand. But PCRI is
working hard to win that battle in
Portland and the state of Oregon.
“We are a nonprofit affordable
housing entity and we lead in this
industry for Portland, especially
when you’re talking about getting
communities of color into afford-
able housing, PCRI is leading the
way,” she said. “We sort of set the
tone on how affordable housing
should be developed in this com-
munity.”
PCRI builds and manages
multi-family properties for rental
and buys, develops and sells con-
dos and houses to expand home
ownership. Work is almost com-
plete on a 70-unit apartment com-
plex in the 6000 block of Northeast
Martin Luther King Boulevard
for income-restricted rentals, and
over the years the organization
has bought hundreds of homes and
sold them to low-income residents
at below market prices.
Down payment assistance to
help future homeowners can come
after applicants complete pro-
grams that PCRI offers.
“We don’t just pick people and
put them into homes, we prepare
them for home ownership that
teaches people how to save and
get into home ownership, even if
it takes a couple of years,” Horner
said.
According to its website, PCRI
“will preserve and manage afford-
able, high quality, scattered site,
single family homes; expand and
manage our portfolio of small
multiplexes; and acquire/develop
multi-family housing to preserve
affordable housing choices in our
community.”
That overall goal includes Path-
way 1000, which will take on new
life once Horner hires a new hous-
ing director early this year.
“Once that person is hired we
will be moving full steam ahead,”
she said. “We’re looking within
our portfolio for land that could be
used to construct new units.”
Horner has 42 employees at
present, and though they’ve al-
most outgrown their location in a
historic house at 6329 N.E. Mar-
tin Luther King Blvd., she says
they’re going to try and stay put.
“We are a landmark and des-
tination place for people of color
and those who have had challeng-
es in terms of creating home own-
ership and home stability,” she
said. “This is a place where people
come and shed their tears over this
table and we tell you how to cor-
rect your situation and get ready
for either home ownership or how
to get into our affordable rental
projects. It’s beautiful.”
In addition to overseeing the
daily operations of PCRI, which
manages over 700 units of afford-
able housing, Horner now puts
renewed emphasis on Pathway
1000, a project with an estimated
cost of $250 million that is pro-
jected to provide $875 million in
economic impact for communities
of color and will encourage gener-
ational wealth.
Building housing is very ex-
pensive because of the high cost
of land, she said, pointing to the
collaboration and partnerships
needed to get it done, along with
a lot of creative thinking.
Horner said one new way to
add housing stock that’s gaining
momentum is for homeowners to
build ADUs, or additional dwell-
ing units, on their property.
“We’re working with Haci-
enda, another nonprofit housing
team, and other nonprofits to build
ADUs onto properties, starting
with a prototype of 527 square
feet, the dollar amount that pencils
out to a little more than $100,000
to construct that unit,” she said.
“But what we’re trying to do is get
that property owner trained up and
in reality being an entrepreneur…
we think that individual home-
owner will receive about $200 a
month income stream.”
Portland is way ahead of other
communities in battling the hous-
ing crisis, Horner said, and one
reason is that the city realizes its
past mistakes in displacing com-
munities of color in the name of
“progress.”
“This organization started in
1994 and has been through some
very challenging things that hap-
pened to the African American
community,” Horner said. “The
city’s recognized that and that to
me is rare and an oddity, that the
city recognizes that displacement,
that mistakes have been made,
and so they have a commitment to
correct that. That’s what Pathway
1000 speaks to.”
To learn more about PCRI, call
503-288-2923 or log onto pcri-
home.org.