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When Maxine Fitzpatrick moved to the Rose City to lead Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives Inc. (PCRI), her plan was to do as much as she could to improve the city’s affordable housing stock and then leave in about five years. Now, nearly 25 years later, Fitzpatrick is still finding plenty to do.

鈥淚 really didn’t come to Portland to stay this long,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut when I got here the problem was so intense, widespread and historical. Somehow those five years turned into twenty-four.鈥�

Fitzpatrick’s background in real estate, and affordable housing in particular, began in Michigan. She took a break during college to get married and start a family. When she and her husband divorced, she had three young children to take care of. She went back to college and got a summer job with a real state office.

鈥淚 just fell in love with real estate and development, so I started selling real estate,鈥� Fitzpatrick said, adding that she then went to work for an agency similar to Portland’s Home Forward. It was during the Reagan administration that officials through a national demonstration program invited people to submit proposals for how they would create affordable housing. Fitzpatrick’s proposal was one of 20 across the country to be accepted for implementation.

Her career later carried her to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she became director of a program that was underperforming in affordable housing production. She set a goal of 20 homes a year and laid out a plan for how to achieve that goal.

鈥淚 was an African-American female in a department with three white males, and they quit because they didn’t want to work with me as the manager,鈥� she said.

Fitzpatrick hired a new staff and they went from building 10 homes a year to 60. She learned how to work with private developers to sell some high-end units, generating profit that could help pay for the lower-income housing.

Her goal for Portland is 1,000 units over 10 years through an initiative called Pathway 1000. Launched in 2015, the initiative places a priority on residents who were involuntarily displaced or at risk of displacement from North and inner Northeast Portland. The initiative originally called for 800 rental units and 200 units available for ownership. However, Fitzpatrick realized that switching the ratio would be more beneficial.

鈥淚f we do 800 rentals, we’re perpetuating people living in poverty,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we do 800 homeownerships, we’re creating an opportunity for them to lift themselves out of poverty.鈥�

The first 22 units available for ownership include a mix of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and rowhouses. PCRI also is redeveloping the former Grant Warehouse site on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard into 80 apartments, ground-level retail space and community space. The development will be named in honor of Beatrice Morrow-Cannady, a pioneer in the fight for racial equality in Portland. Completion of The Beatrice Morrow is expected in 2018.

鈥淚 feel that this initiative gives me the satisfaction that progress has been made,鈥� said Fitzpatrick, who has earned an Equal Opportunity Award from the聽U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development聽(HUD) for her efforts to further fair housing.

In addition to working long days as PCRI’s executive director and chief executive officer, Fitzpatrick serves on the Development Review Advisory Committee for the Bureau of Development Services, the Portland Public Schools District-wide Boundary Review Advisory Committee, and the Metro Policy Advisory Committee. She credits her father for her stamina and work ethic; he raised Fitzpatrick and her younger siblings by himself after their mother died when Fitzpatrick was just 11 years old.

鈥淚 love people and I think I got that from my dad,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e was a businessman and did what he had to do to support his family. He did a fantastic job. He was a God-fearing man and he put the appreciation of God in me because I was the oldest one. He taught me the importance of giving, and in life we reap what we sow, so make sure that what you do is what you want to have come back to you.鈥�

On the rare occasions when she’s not working, Fitzpatrick enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren and listening to live jazz music. She often attends the Catalina Jazz Festival, takes cruises that feature jazz and said Jimmy Mak’s was one of her favorite clubs before it closed.

鈥淢usic lifts my spirit and it takes my mind off work, which I need because my mind is always on work,鈥� she said.