Oregon Public Broadcasting

Work has begun on a project aimed at widening the options for people who can't afford the steep cost of real-estate in Portland. April Baer reports that an old hotel is about to become the new face of affordable housing.

The conversion of the old Ramada Inn on Weidler Avenue  was years in the making. And Ed Blackburn says the whole project teetered on the brink more than once. The last few months of economic volatility added to the  uncertainty.

Ed Blackburn:  " You know, in this credit environment, it was very difficult to keep the financial package together."

Blackburn is the director of Central City Concern, a non-profit, anti-poverty agency that put this project together.

Blackburn says staff managed to preserve the necessary tax credits and loans. And enough funders stuck with the project -- including  U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and Albina Community Bank -- to keep the renovations alive and on schedule.

Rose Quarter Workforce Housing will offer 176 studio units for single people who are working or in work training programs. Some, Blackburn says, will be taking advantage of on-site rehab programs.

Ed Blackburn   "When people are able to get safe housing, housing that is supportive of lifestyle change, their rates of being able to stay sober, recovering from mental illness, recovering from medical fragility just go way up."

These apartment rents range from three-hundred seventy-five to four-hundred seventy-five dollars a month. They’re designed as permanent to long-term housing. Units like this, Blackburn says, are central to the Ten-Year plan to end homelessness, devised by Portland and Multnomah County. The market simply doesn't provide units like this on its own.

Turning an existing hotel into supportive housing is much cheaper than building from scratch. Blackburn says the average cost per unit is about half what Central City Concern would need if it were starting with a bare lot.

Demolition of the old hotel units is underway. The project is scheduled to be complete by next March.