Revitalizing old developments and expanding affordable housing is vital for Portland’s housing landscape, but it's not without growing pains. The projects can displace current residents and cause harm through a lack of communication and transparency.
Dekum Court, one of the first projects to receive Metro funding for affordable housing, may offer a blueprint for ethical development.
Home Forward announced it completed the first phase of its 187-apartment affordable housing redevelopment in Northeast Portland at an Oct. 10 press conference. Most redevelopment processes don’t involve press conferences announcing the completion of phases, but the Dekum Court project is different. Unlike most redevelopments, the building's original tenants never left.
Spencer Bolivar lived in Dekum Court for nearly a decade when Home Forward announced it planned to redevelop the site. Without a new approach to development, the project threatened to uproot him from his home, community and accessibility.
As a wheelchair user, moving is an exceptionally demanding process for Bolivar.
“It would have been a lot harder to have to move somewhere else during the entire building process and then have to move back when it’s done,” he said.
Instead, Home Forward saw an opportunity to keep current residents in their homes while redeveloping the site.
“The project presented some very unique opportunities for us to make sure that we did not have any interruption in our tenants' lives as we develop their new homes,” Ivory Mathews, Home Forward CEO, said.
Inclusion
Dekum Court sits on a little over five acres in the Concordia neighborhood. The original property only had 40 units, leaving ample room for further development.
“The topography lended itself where we had the opportunity to build their new homes, right adjacent to the current home,” Mathews said.
While Mathews said it’s not always possible to keep residents on-site during construction, there are other ways to minimize harm throughout the development process.
After notifying residents of the redevelopment in November 2019, Home Forward created a community advisory committee, which included residents like Bolivar.
Bolivar, who co-chaired the resident representation, said the committee discussed residents’ concerns and what they hoped to see in their new homes for over a year before construction started.
Bolivar acted as a liaison between the residents and the development team — gathering updates from Home Forward to report to the tenants and then voicing tenants' ideas and concerns in the planning meetings.
“For most apartments, they are not held to the same standards as public buildings, as far as (the Americans with Disabilities Act),” he said. “So being a wheelchair user, it was very important to me to get different perspectives from everyone … most perspectives aren't listened to.”
Implementation
Bolivar said Home Forward took the residents’ thoughts seriously, implementing most of their ideas.
“They listened to every single concern and every single thing that we wanted in our apartments and incorporated almost everything that residents in general have asked for,” Bolivar said. “They really listened to everyone that gave their opinion.”
Among the residents' requests were ceiling fans in the apartments to increase ventilation, built-in dishwashers, and open floor concepts to improve accessibility, all of which Home Forward included in its construction plans.
Home Forward’s approach was “refreshing,” Bolivar said.
“It showed that they were thinking of us instead of telling us what they want us to do,” he said. “It shows they considered what would be easier for us residents.”
Bolivar's only criticism was that construction blocked parts of the sidewalks, making it difficult for him to enter and exit the building. Otherwise, Bolivar said the approach was a success.
“The development team and the development itself really involved people that live here,” he said. “Instead of creating a plan and doing what they want to do, they asked us what we want in our building before they started anything.”
Replication
A 2018 voter-approved Metro bond supplied $652.8 million in funds for affordable housing around the region, according to Israel Bayer, a communications manager for Metro.
The bond aims to increase affordable housing by 3,900 homes. So far, Bayer said developers built over one thousand new homes using the bond money.
“Currently, Metro and partner agencies are on track to build about 800 more homes than promised, bringing 4,700 affordable homes to the region to house up to 14,000 people,” Bayer said.
Dekum Court was one of the first projects the Metro Council approved for bond funding, awarding $21.03 million to the project.
Among the factors the council considers in granting bond funds are a project’s plan for community engagement and strategies for advancing racial equity.
As affordable housing development increases in and around Portland, Dekum Court could act as a guide, Mathews said.
“Positive feedback from the families who actually are living on the site, I think, is an example that could be used around our community in general as people are developing affordable housing,” she said.
Developers may push back, saying the approach increases a project’s price tag because of the added planning time, the cost of keeping tenants on site, and the expenses that can come with ADA expansions.
Mathews is willing to push right back.
“There's always a cost with keeping people in place,” she said. “But the greatest cost is what we are doing to the families when there's a situation where we've got to interrupt them from a place that they have known and grown to love and call home.”
Editor’s note: Israel Bayer served as the executive director of Street Roots until 2017.
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