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When the Prosper Portland board recently approved a landmark Community Benefits Agreement for the Broadway Corridor project, it was due to the work of many organizations 鈥� chief among them the Healthy Communities Coalition.

Formed in 2015 by more than 20 organizations, the coalition aims to ensure development in Portland is built on a foundation of racial equity and delivers good jobs, quality, affordable housing and opportunities to Black, Indigenous, People of Color and working-class communities.

As part of the CBA on the Broadway Corridor project, larger subcontractors will be required to provide full family health care, and prevailing wages will be mandated on several aspects of the project. The deal also ensures that several millions of dollars will be earmarked for minority- and women-owned businesses, and large swaths of developable land will provide affordable housing.

鈥淗CC really came together not necessarily with the Broadway Corridor in mind. It came together because we wanted to bridge the gap on a variety of levels,鈥� said Vivian Satterfield, director of strategic partnerships for HCC-member Verde. 鈥淲e were seeing that, a lot of times, our own organizational goals were being used as wedges against each other.

We wanted to find a way that we could meaningfully engage in conversations about policies that impacted communities of color.鈥�

The Broadway Corridor CBA, which is likely the first of its kind on a project of such magnitude in the U.S., will also provide opportunities for BIPOC and women throughout its 20-year cycle.

鈥淲e were always unwavering that we could win these terms and set a new standard for how development is going to happen in our communities, especially for something as significant as an entire new neighborhood,鈥� said Satterfield, who served as deputy director at OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, where her involvement with HCC began. 鈥淲e鈥檙e glad to see that our partners were willing to step up to that challenge and have the political will to make it possible.鈥�