Leaders must work toward recovery

, Mar 12, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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A team of community members assembled by Gov. Ted Kulongoski will soon begin work identifying projects in Oregon for financing with new federal stimulus package funds.

The decisions this team will make can create jobs and new industry in Oregon and lead the way to our state’s economic recovery. To make the most of this opportunity, Oregon will need tremendous cooperation among all those with a stake in the future, including public, private and philanthropic sectors.

Fortunately, we have a strong precedent from the affordable housing sector to use as a model as we approach this task. In an unprecedented partnership over the past two years, Meyer Memorial Trust, Walsh Construction Company, Oregon Housing and Community Services and other partners united to create the Housing Acquisition Fund to safeguard 7,000 rent-subsidized apartments that are at risk of converting to market rates.

This risk arises when private owners conclude federal contracts in which they promised to keep rents low in exchange for favorable financing. In a watershed first step, the Schnitzer Family sold the 235-unit Clay Tower building to a nonprofit operator. The nonprofit, which strives to provide low-cost housing, will maintain modest rents instead of transforming the building to high-end, market-rate housing.

The Housing Acquisition Fund, administered by Network for Oregon Affordable Housing (NOAH), will help other nonprofits buy and upgrade aging, subsidized apartments and keep operating them at low rents.

Meyer Memorial Trust has invested $5.2 million in the Fund, and the owners of Walsh Construction Company have contributed almost $1 million to this effort. Oregon Housing and Community Services awarded more than $2 million to the Fund, and the governor’s proposed budget includes an additional $16 million to help preserve these apartments.

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