The $46.9 million Bud Clark Commons is ready to open.

The post Photos: Bud Clark Commons appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Bud Clark Commons, formerly named the Resource Access Center, is “a triumph of perseverance,” Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish said.

“There are probably people out there who wondered if we were able to pull it off,” he said.

The Northwest Portland building is set to open to the public on Thursday, and services will begin in staggered fashion over the next month. The facility will provide 130 permanent housing units for the most medically vulnerable and chronically homeless people in Portland, 90 temporary housing units for men, and a ground-floor day resource center expected to serve approximately 400 people per day with showers and connections to community resources.

The $46.9 million project was in limbo for two years while grassroots organization Friends of Urban Renewal challenged the city’s use of urban renewal money. During the dispute, urban renewal dollars, which accounted for $29.8 million of project funding, was frozen. The project resumed when an appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals was dropped in September 2009.

“I would have preferred that we were opening (the building) sooner,” Fish said. “But in retrospect, the additional time has allowed us to rethink the project a bit.”

The building had been conceived as a full-block, two- and three-story building with wood construction, but it was revised to become a half-block, seven-story concrete structure. The smaller footprint reduced the cost of land acquisition, and the greater height is closer to the maximum allowed on its site – a better fit for the city’s density goals, Fish said.

The Bud Clark Commons will be the first building in the country to co-locate temporary and permanent housing with a daytime resource center, Fish said, and he hopes it will serve as a model.

“Increasingly, the thinking in government is to co-locate all of the core services under one roof,” Fish said.

The building and the permanent affordable housing apartments will be managed by Home Forward, formerly known as the Housing Authority of Portland. Home Forward spokeswoman Shelley Marchesi said that the first 30 tenants for those units were identified, and will begin moving in at the end of the month. Home Forward will have 14 full-time and six part-time staffers as well as contracted staffers working at the building.

The day resource center and 90-bed men’s shelter will be managed by Transition Projects, which will move its existing resource center and transitional housing from existing locations on Glisan Avenue to the new building around June 10.

“The project is trying to encapsulate the entire cycle of homelessness, from right off the street to having a permanent home,” Holst Architecture project manager Dave Otte said. This is part of the city’s “Housing First” policy – providing immediate permanent housing for as many people as possible.

“The city has found that we are more successful in helping the homeless when we give them housing first (and) then resources,” Otte said. The goal is for the building to allow self-sufficiency, with housing available and then counselors and resources designated for the residents there.

Each of the building’s three parts will have a separate entrance, Otte said.

“All three entries are serving separate populations,” he said. “It’s important that (for example) the men going to the transitional shelter are not sharing the same door as anyone right off the street.”

The new building at Broadway and Northwest Hoyt Street is designed to give a feeling of individuality rather than institutionalism, Otte said.

The city built a new building instead of using an existing one because “what we were trying to accomplish didn’t exist,” Fish said. The structure fits specifications and is “built to last,” he added.

“That’s one of the hallmarks of this building,” Fish said.

The goal is for the Bud Clark Commons to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification. Many of the windows in the 300-square-foot apartments are off-kilter and framed with eight hues of green, to reference a tree canopy, Otte said.

“We wanted to create an environment that is hopeful and lively,” he said. “So many (facilities) can be dreary.”

Fish and others were scheduled to officially open the building to the public at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning. The facility is named after former Portland Mayor Bud Clark, “the first Portland mayor who placed ending homelessness at the center of the city’s agenda,” Fish said.

The post First-of-its-kind center opens in Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Housing Authority of Portland in the last week took two big steps forward. First, the agency adopted a new name: “Home Forward.” And then one of its large housing redevelopment projects got the funding it needed to move ahead: an $18.5 million Hope VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Hillsdale Terrace will be among the last Hope VI grant recipients, because the program is expected to sunset this year. For years, the housing development on Southwest 26th Avenue in the Hillsdale neighborhood has been run-down and expensive to maintain, according to spokeswoman Shelley Marchesi.

“If the housing authority didn’t get this money (it) would have had to knock it down,” said Rick Nitti, executive director of Neighborhood House, a nonprofit provider of social services. Nitti lives in the area, and his organization works with Hillsdale Terrace residents. “It’s a horrible facility,” he said. “It was built in an area without adequate drainage: there’s mold in and outside.”

Home Forward’s application for a Hope VI grant to redevelop Hillsdale Terrace was rejected in 2009. The agency completely reworked the application, in particular where HUD focuses: community connections. The second time around, Home Forward also had more money secured for the project, including some that it had budgeted for the Resource Access Center/Bud Clark Commons project; it didn’t need it after receiving federal stimulus money.

The existing 60-unit Hillsdale Terrace complex is at the end of a dead-end road in Hillsdale, nearly invisible to those nearby.

“People who live two or three blocks away don’t even know it exists,” Nitti said.

“One of the biggest design efforts is going to be that connection,” said Bill Lanning, project manager with Michael Willis Architects. MWA is working with Home Forward to design the development.

“There’s really no grid for us to connect to,” Home Forward planning and design manager Julie Livingston said of the property, which slopes to a low grade. “The site is a big hole in the ground,” she said.

Home Forward acquired properties containing three duplexes along the entrance road to Hillsdale Terrace, leading up to frontage on Capitol Highway. Livingston said that physical presence should help create a greater community connection.

In addition, the design team is looking at ways to connect the community to nearby California Street, an unfinished road that Livingston imagines as a “linear park” that could serve as a walking path for Hillsdale Terrace residents and others.

“I think the linear park idea could be surprising, delightful and well-used,” Livingston said.

The $47.3 million redevelopment project calls for tearing down existing units as well as the three duplexes on adjacent lots to create a 6.6-acre site. Then 122 residential units will be constructed in several two- or three-story buildings, as well as two community buildings where residents can access a computer lab, employment help, early childhood education and a community kitchen connected to a garden.

The existing Hillsdale Terrace has three-bedroom apartments of 1,000 square feet each, and 83 percent of the households have children. The new units will include a mix of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom units, with slightly larger floor plans, green building features and more daylight than the existing housing.

The plan calls for 73 of the units to be operated as public housing, 36 as section-8 affordable housing, and 13 with no rent subsidy to people who make up to 60 percent of the Portland area’s median family income.

Also, a new Habitat for Humanity project nearby will have seven houses available for purchase, with preference given to qualified Hillsdale Terrace residents.

Home Forward expects to issue a request for proposals for a general contractor this summer and then help residents relocate this fall. Demolition is planned for spring 2012. Tenants could begin moving in late in 2013, and Livingston expects the units to be leased completely before the buildings open.

Hillsdale Terrace will be the last of three (following New Columbia and Humboldt Gardens) big redevelopment projects Home Forward has led in the past 10 years, all funded by Hope VI grants. The agency operates 6,300 units it owns either solely or through partnerships.

The post HUD grant revives stalled Hillsdale housing project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Walsh Construction is requested bids for Ainsworth Court Apartments in Portland, Oregon.  This project is prevailing wage with Workforce Training Requirements. HAP has a 20% goal of DBE/MBE/WBE/ESB for this project. See the full sub bid request ad for details.

The post Sub Bid Requested for Ainsworth Court Apartments, Bids Due Jan. 27 appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Housing Authority of Portland isn’t giving up on its bid for federal funding for a $45.4 million redevelopment of a low-income housing complex it owns in Hillsdale.

Hillsdale Terrace‘s 60 units house 239 residents, and 80 percent of them make less than $20,000 per year. The 41-year-old affordable housing development is plagued by soil erosion and mold, and does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last year rejected HAP’s application for federal money; however, the public corporation now is partnering with Habitat for Humanity in an attempt to secure $18.5 million in revitalization grants.

The HOPE VI federal program provides grants to transform the nation’s worst public housing projects into mixed-income developments. The 15-year-old program has demolished 96,200 public housing units to produce 107,800 units of new or renovated housing, including 56,800 to accommodate for the most poverty-stricken families, according to HUD.

At Hillsdale Terrace, HAP plans to demolish 60 units of low-income housing and replace it with 122 units of housing for multiple income levels.

After HAP’s application was rejected last year, its director of development and community revitalization, Michael Andrews, met with a HUD representative to see how it could strengthen its next one. He discovered that HAP missed out on grant money by a narrow margin.

“Our first application was well received but not as competitive as it needed to be,” Andrews said. “We’ve spent the last year making it stronger.”

He said HAP did that by forming a new partnership with Habitat for Humanity that will allow several Hillsdale Terrace residents to buy permanent homes, and by developing an improved site plan to connect housing to nearby neighborhoods.

HAP plans to purchase property nearby for seven new homes to be built by Habitat for Humanity’s Portland Metro/East chapter, according to Steve Mezenetti, the nonprofit’s executive director. The plan is to give Hillsdale Terrace residents an opportunity to purchase a home via financial assistance offered by Habitat for Humanity. The homes are expected to meet Earth Advantage standards for energy efficiency.

“By partnering with HAP, we may have additional financing toward purchasing property in Southwest Portland,” Mezenetti said. “These houses will provide an opportunity for families to move out of subsidized housing and become homeowners.”

Another criterion for HOPE VI grants is for the project to connect low-income housing with the community. Historically, that is a challenge for low-income housing, Andrews said. Hillsdale Terrace, for example, is on a hill back from busy Capitol Highway. To remedy this, HAP this year purchased three pieces of land surrounding the property so that the redevelopment can take place at street level.

“The topography in Southwest (Portland) makes this a challenging site,” Andrews said. “But we’ve found ways to connect. We’ll have two pedestrian connections and we’ve developed a partnership with a church on the Southwest corner of our site to develop a community garden to provide food for our residents.”

The project also has more financial backing than last year, Andrews said. HAP missed out on points last year under HUD’s category for financial leverage. This year, HAP has $6 million from its own budget, $5 million from the city of Portland and approximately $4 million in state low-income housing tax credits.

“The tax credit from the state is something we didn’t have the last go-round,” Andrews said. “It’s one more thing that shows we’re ready to proceed with this project.”

HAP plans to submit its HOPE VI application before the Nov. 22 deadline. The organization expects to hear back from HUD next summer.

The post Hillsdale Terrace tries for grant again appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced on Thursday the agency is giving 18 regional housing authorities across the state of Oregon a total of $11.5 million. These funds can be used for capital improvements to the public housing stocks of the various housing authorities.

The funds are part of HUD‘s annual , which this year totals more than $2.3 billion nationwide. Often the funds are used to make large-scale improvements such as new roofs or energy efficient upgrades. But they can be used for developing, financing or modernizing any public housing units owned by a housing authority.

The Housing Authority of Portland was the big winner receiving $5.1 million. The Housing and Community Services of Lane County received $1.3 million, and the Housing Authority of Clackamas County received $1.2 million.

The post Oregon gets $11.5M in public housing grants appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Celilo Court Apartments in Northeast Portland is getting new mechanical and electrical upgrades, sheet rock, doors, paint, furnishings, flooring and landscaping. Great Kate! Construction is the general contractor for the project for the Housing Authority of Portland. Work is scheduled to be completed by the end of summer.

The post Affordable apartments upgrade appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Martha Washington Building in downtown Portland was built in 1923. Now the five-story brick building at 1115 S.W. 11th Ave. is in the early phases of an extensive renovation.

When construction is finished in June, the building will have 108 affordable housing units, nearly half of which will serve homeless and chronically mentally ill people.

The project construction team includes general contractor R&H Construction Co. and designer LRS Architects.

The Housing Authority of Portland is the developer of the property.

The post Martha Washington Building appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

With $3.3 million in federal stimulus money coming its way for Old Town/Chinatown’s Resource Access Center, the Housing Authority of Portland can now spend some of its own money for other low-income housing projects.

HAP had planned to use some of its own general funds to pay for the eight-story, $46 million project that will provide shelter and counseling to the city’s male homeless population, said Michael Andrews, HAP’s finance manager.

But now, that money can be diverted to Hillsdale Terrace, an existing subsidized housing project that HAP considers one of its dingiest and most deserving of renovation.

The six-acre property, on the boundary between Multnomah Village and Hillsdale in Southwest Portland, needs several million dollars in renovation work. Previously, HAP received a Hope VI grant, which was set aside for that project. Hillsdale Terrace will be the agency’s first large-scale renovation project since Humboldt Gardens, which started in 2005.

HAP was one of 35 housing authorities nationwide to receive federal stimulus money. In addition to the $3.3 million, the agency previously received $11.9 million from the stimulus package that will allow HAP to proceed with projects that were negatively impacted by the recession and stricter lending standards.

At the national level, the grant is part of an additional $1 billion in Public Housing Capital Funds designated by the Recovery Act to be awarded competitively.

Grant applications such as HAP’s had to fit into four funding categories, according to the federal government’s Web site: improvements that either addressed the needs of the elderly or people with disabilities, provided gap financing or created energy-efficient, green communities.

HAP applied for the grant after making changes to the Resource Access Center’s design to save money.

“We had to reset a number of our assumptions on (the project) because of how the economy looked,” Andrews said.

For example, the project went from being a full-block building to taking up only half of a block. Walsh Construction will break ground on the project in November, when the housing authority plans to hold community events to celebrate the project.

Shelley Marchesi, spokeswoman for HAP, said the project will keep dozens of construction jobs in Portland. Once constructed, it will be an integral part of the city’s 10-year plan to combat homelessness, she said.

The post Federal grant frees money for local affordable housing projects appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Jose Jemenez with Timberland Construction checks the plumb of a wall section on the top floor of the University Place Apartments in downtown Portland. When completed in spring 2010, the building will house the Multnomah County Bridgeview Program, which provides support services, including case management, mental health and drug and alcohol treatment. The Housing Authority of Portland project is being built by R&H Construction Co., and was designed by William Wilson Architects.

The post University Place tops off appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.