An affordable housing project is making its way to Portland, OR’s Black community.
The Williams & Russell project is looking to revive the Albina community, an area in North Portland that was once home to many Black families and Black businesses, until they were pushed out, KPTV-12 reports. The soon-to-be revitalized area was expected to make room for an expansion of Legacy Emanuel Hospital in the 1970s, however plans never materialized, KGW-8 mentions.
“They came in and they demolished everything with the idea that this would be developed, and it just sat vacant for five decades,” Bryson Davis, president and board chair of Williams & Russell CDC, said per KGW-8.
Righting the wrongs of the past, the Williams & Russell project is looking to create more than 100 affordable homes, consisting of townhomes and apartments, on a 1.7 acre lot on the corner of North Russell Street and North Williams Avenue. To be eligible for the apartments, which come in one-to-three bedroom options, individuals must have an income ranging from 30% to 60% of the area median income, which for a single-person household would be approximately $25,000 to $49,600.
“Portland’s already relatively unaffordable for people to live, and a lot of the African American community in this region of town have been pushed out,” Davis explained, per KPTV-12. “This will hopefully give them several different locations to both buy and rent back in the neighborhood where the community used to be.”
Furthermore, the Williams & Russell project will also lead to the creation of a Black business hub.
“Having a business hub, a business center that can support upcoming businesses, Black-owned nonprofits and various avenues for people to make their career,” Davis added.
The Williams & Russell project is expected to break ground in the spring of 2025, beginning with the townhomes to be completed by 2026. Additionally, it is expected to be finalized in its entirety by 2027 after receiving $10.3 million in pre-development funding. On July 12, 2024, Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley revealed that the most recent contribution to that total was $1.6 million. So far, funding has been sourced from Oregon Housing & Community Services (OHCS), Congressionally Directed Spending, the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), and Meyer Memorial Trust’s Justice Oregon for Black Lives, as noted on its website.
Also, more than $23 million in funding is pending from the Portland Housing Bureau and Prosper Portland.
“It has been a long time coming, and one of the things that makes this whole process slow down is to make sure that we involve enough people to really make sure that the development reflects the desires of the community,” Davis said, per KPTV-12.
