10 Outcomes From 2021 That Are Bringing Us Joy
“Be joyful though you have considered the facts.”
This Wendell Berry quote graced a cheeky holiday card one of our staff received this month, and we couldn’t resist stealing it (with credit to Love Portland). We appreciate Berry’s advice as we reflect on the past year. Along with difficult facts, 2021 delivered powerfully uplifting outcomes to the organizations we partner with and the communities they serve. Here are some that are warming our hearts.
#1: Ya-Po-Ah Terrace is shining.
It’s one of Oregon’s largest affordable senior housing communities. It’s known to Eugene residents by the lighted “Peace On Earth” sign that sits atop its roof during the winter holidays. And now, thanks to a preservation effort led by owner Evergreen Union Retirement Association and assisted by HDC, the 50-year-old apartment tower is looking more radiant than ever. Ya-Po-Ah Terrace started off the new year thoroughly renovated and ready to serve residents—such as the sparkling individual pictured above—for decades to come.
#2: Centennial Place Apartments are making the housing-health connection.
We are grateful to be part of the team developing Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare’s newest housing community. The 71-unit apartment building, which broke ground in East Portland in late spring, will provide permanent supportive housing for people experiencing serious mental illness, plus deeply affordable family-sized apartments for Centennial neighborhood families who struggle with housing instability. That’s a win for the 23% of families who live below the poverty line in the project’s ZIP code area. Watch the video.
As a codeveloper of Nueva Esperanza (depicted above in a rendering by Scott Edwards Architecture), HDC is providing an enhanced level of technical assistance and shared risk to support Bienestar’s most complex housing development to date.
#3: Our joint venture with Bienestar is a triple “first.”
Scheduled to break ground early next year in Hillsboro, Bienestar’s Nueva Esperanza housing community will be HDC’s first joint-venture development. More significantly, the 150-unit development, which honors the legacy of hope and determination that led Latinx farmworkers to seek opportunity for their families in Washington County, will be Bienestar’s largest housing development in its 40-year-history; and its first designed with the needs of two culturally specific communities, Latinx families and Somali immigrant families, placed front and center.
#4: Five asset management teams are empowered.
HDC worked with Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, Bienestar, Human Solutions, ROSE Community Development, and Catholic Charities to train and coach their newly hired asset management staff and to develop and enhance their asset management plans this year. Now each of these five housing providers is better prepared to facilitate effective oversight of its housing portfolio—and to ensure its properties are in the best possible position to provide affordable homes to low-income residents over the long term.
New stairs and decks create a safer and sturdier living environment for kids and families at Village at Washington Square, one of nine housing communities HDC has worked with CPAH to build or renovate during a two-decade relationship.
#5: Village at Washington Square is all decked out.
Village at Washington Square provides 26 permanently affordable apartments, half containing three or four bedrooms for large families. HDC worked with owner Community Partners for Affordable Housing to refinance and renovate the 20-year-old Tigard complex to address water intrusion issues and to replace deteriorating stairs and decks. Now the family-oriented property is better than new.
#6: HDC staff and board are fired up.
The folks at HDC emerged from a two-year planning process energized and focused on using our position to advance housing justice. With a redefined mission, a transformative five-year strategic plan, a new leader, and an influx of new talent on staff, we are entering the new year powered with people, purpose, and possibility.
#7: Salem Housing Authority’s portfolio restructuring work is way RAD.
HDC is supporting Salem Housing Authority to preserve and restructure multiple properties in its housing portfolio—and to convert hundreds of public housing subsidies to flexible, reliably funded project-based Section 8 subsidies using HUD’s RAD program. The second phase of this work reached 80% completion in 2021, when two of the restructured properties, Meadowlark Village and Brush College Village, finished renovations and fully reopened to residents. That means 54 more homes in SHA’s portfolio are physically and financially positioned to serve community needs well into the future.
Walsh Construction worked with Housing Authority of Clackamas County to make sure garden beds were kept available to residents throughout most of Hillside Manor’s lengthy renovation period.
#8: Hillside Manor is earthquake-ready.
Built in 1970, this nine-story apartment tower provides 100 affordable homes to very-low-income families and individuals in Milwaukie. HDC worked with owner Housing Authority of Clackamas County and the rest of its project team to finance and manage a thorough renovation of Hillside Manor, including a structural seismic upgrade, asbestos abatement, new plumbing, elevator modernization, new interior finishes, and renovated community gardens that are sure to be blooming next spring.
#9: Colonia Paz II and Yaquina-Southfair are off the ground.
Sponsored by Farmworker Housing Development Corporation and Salem Housing Authority, respectively, these two HDC-assisted affordable housing development projects may look like muddy construction sites today. But by early 2023, they will be providing 210 new and redeveloped affordable homes to working families and individuals in Lebanon and Salem. Hear FHDC residents speak about what FHDC means to them.
#10: Harvey Rice Heritage, Golden Eagle II, Blackberry Hill, Tistilal Village, Sequoia Crossings, Marylhurst Commons, Good Shepherd Village, and Colonia Amistad are ready to rise.
These eight HDC-assisted development projects are fully funded and on track to start construction in 2022—soon to bring more than 480 new, redeveloped, and renovated affordable homes to communities across Oregon. We’re thrilled to be continuing our work with sponsors Sabin CDC, Northwest Coastal Housing, NAYA, Salem Housing Authority, Mercy Housing Northwest, Catholic Charities, and Farmworker Housing Development Corporation to deliver these homes to residents in Portland, Tillamook, Toledo, Salem, Lake Oswego, Happy Valley, and Independence. Read about Golden Eagle II’s preservation journey.