Rosemont Court Among Affordable Housing Projects to Receive State Funding

On Monday, Oregon Housing and Community Services announced $72 million was approved to fund both new construction and the rehabilitation of existing properties to create a total of 421 residential homes and units for low-income seniors and members of the BIPOC community.

The funding covers an array of housing formats, from traditional apartments to two mobile home parks – one in Madras and one in Newport. Blossom Gardens in Salem will provide housing for refugees.

Locally, a landmark North Portland property that until recently housed a vibrant senior community will be rehabilitated.

North Portland Landmark

Rosemont Court was constructed in 1917 as an industrial school run by Catholic nuns, housing what were then termed “wayward girls” in a residential school environment. The Portland Development Commission purchased the school in the 1990s and renovated the stately brick buildings to house low-income seniors in studios, one- and two-bedroom units.

But the approximately 41,000-square-foot facility has been vacant since 2021, when an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease claimed the life of one resident and sickened many others.

Also known as Legionella pneumonia, the bacteria found in water droplets is ubiquitous but can grow into deadlier colonies in plumbing systems, and is particularly devastating to older individuals. It is notoriously difficult to completely rid a residential system of the bacteria, and despite efforts by county health officials and the Portland Water Bureau to sanitize the building’s plumbing and increase filtration, seniors at Rosemont Court continued to contract Legionnaire’s.

All residents had left by the end of the year, with the building’s owner, the nonprofit Northwest Housing Alternatives, paying relocation fees and organizing rental assistance for the relocated residents, who had been paying government-supplemented monthly rates. Last year, 32 former residents settled with Northwest Housing Alternatives after alleging the nonprofit and its management firm did not properly protect its tenants from the Legionnaire’s outbreak.

The empty brick campus on North Dekum Street has also struck at neighborhood morale. And affordable housing advocates point out that the cost of rehabilitating each unit, and the timeline for re-housing seniors at Rosemont, is a fraction of what is needed with new construction.

Northwest Housing Alternatives has struggled to secure the $6 million needed to completely replace the water system and maintain rental assistance, and executive director Trell Anderson told media outlets he requested the amount from local up to state government. He was unable to secure the full amount, not even from Oregon Housing and Community Services, which at the time stated it did not have the funding stream to aid Rosemont Court.

That appears to have changed with the $72.8 million the Housing Stability Council recently approved through its Oregon Centralized Application process.

More Rehab

Oregon Housing and Community Services director Andrea Bell emphasized how this latest round of funding reflected a somewhat creative approach to bridging the state’s affordable housing gap.

“We know there is more to do, but these are the types of community-driven housing gains that are possible when we work together,” she said. “Under Governor Kotek’s leadership, we remain relentless in getting things done that will make life better for the communities we serve.”

The other affordable housing sites include: