October Newsletter: More Portland Housing Bond Openings

Dear Fellow Portlanders,

The challenges we face to secure affordable housing are big, complex, and at times, overwhelming. Despite the headwinds we face, I know that when we come together as a community around a shared vision, we will create progress.

Portland’s Housing Bond is a perfect example of how we have come together as a community to tackle our affordable housing crisis, and how this joint venture between the voters, the taxpayers and local government is creating a lasting impact for the people of Portland. Our collective alignment to build in 2016 is why this is a historic year for Portland’s Housing Bond—nearly 900 Bond-funded units will have opened their doors by the end of 2022, providing stable, permanently affordable housing for approximately 2,000 Portlanders.

Out of six Bond projects expected to open this year, three have already begun welcoming residents: Crescent Court, Cathedral Village, and Hayu Tilixam. I was thrilled to attend the grand opening of Cathedral Village a few weeks ago, and I’m eagerly awaiting Hayu Tilixam’s ribbon cutting. I’m especially excited about the family housing these projects are providing, including after-school enrichment activities for students, an arts and music studio for youth and at Crescent Court—home to the first Boys & Girls Club space located in an affordable housing development in Oregon—Central City Concern and the Boys & Girls Club just started providing after-school programs to resident children this week.

Let me be clear: we could not have achieved this amount of development without the support of Portland voters and those paying your property taxes for this measure—thank you!

In a few short years, we’ll be providing housing for nearly 4,000 of our neighbors. I call that progress.

Sincerely,