City Officials Break Ground On Forthcoming Affordable Housing Apartment Building

PORTLAND, OR — Central City Concern on Wednesday helped kick off its Housing is Health initiative by breaking ground on the first of three new buildings that, once completed, are expected to add 380 new, affordable apartment units in the Portland metro area for the city's homeless or people at risk of becoming homeless.

The other two Central City Concern (CCC) apartment complexes — a 153-unit workforce housing building and a 175-unit medical clinic/apartment building — will have ground-breaking ceremonies before the end of October, according to a CCC statement.

Dubbed the Charlotte Rutherford Place, the new building will contain 51 apartments (34 one-bedroom and 17 two-bedroom) and is expected to immediately contribute to the city's effort to increase affordable housing options, which was bolstered in September 2016 when five Portland-area hospitals and one nonprofit healthcare provider collectively donated $21.5 million toward the initiative.

"The Housing is Health contribution is an excellent example of health care organizations coming together for the common good of our community. Housing for lower income working people is critical to the improvement of health outcomes," Ed Blackburn, CCC president and CEO, said in a statement. "This housing will remain affordable for generations and it couldn't come at a better time."

Named after the Honorable Charlotte Rutherford, a community activist and former civil rights attorney and administrative law judge, the Charlotte Rutherford Place is also part of the city's North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy — a five-year plan to invest $20 million toward addressing the city's gentrification and affordable housing issues, which have plagued underserved residents in the area for nearly 30 years.

"I'm so honored to accept this for the entire Rutherford family, especially my mom and dad," Rutherford reportedly said during the ground-breaking ceremony.

Rutherford's parents, Otto G. Rutherford and Verdell Burdine, were the president and secretary, respectively, for Portland's NAACP chapter in the 1950s, during which time they made significant impacts on the city's civil rights movement and helped pass the state's Civil Rights Bill in 1953.

At Wednesday's ceremony, Rutherford was joined by Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith, City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, Oregon regional chief executive for Providence Health & Services Dave Underriner, and Vice President for KeyBank's Key Community Development Corporation Beth Palmer Wirtz.

Along with Providence Health & Services, the other five contributing organizations include Adventist Health Portland, CareOregon, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Legacy Health, and Oregon Health & Science University.

After the investment announcement in September, OHSU President Joe Robertson spoke to Associated Press reporter Gillian Flaccus about the initiative's anticipated effect:

"I'm incredibly excited about the impact that this project will have, but what I'm even more excited about is the example that we are setting," Robertson told Flaccus. "Most of the story is already written by the time these people show up in our health system, so we have to do something and do it in a manner that is different than what we've done before."

Last month, on July 11, CCC celebrated the opening of the 39-unit Hill Park Apartments, which was also built to address issues of homelessness, poverty, and substance abuse.

Top Photo Caption — From left: Dave Underriner, Commissioner Dan Saltzman, Ed Blackburn, Hon. Charlotte Rutherford, Commissioner Loretta Smith, Beth Palmer Wirtz.

Photo Courtesy: Central City Concern