Housing Bureau no help for doomed apartments
Agency will not act because it did not receive an application for funding
I hate to see solid old houses and apartment buildings demolished. When I’ve been on the scene as the bulldozers and backhoes do their worst, the creaks, groans and crashes have cut to my core like a woman’s screams.
Many of the doomed structures have a quality of craftsmanship and materials impossible to replicate today. And in a time of housing shortage—especially of affordable housing—why do we destroy the most affordable homes we have?
I saw Portland State University raze two large student housing buildings in 2023. PSU leveled another classic courtyard apartment building in 2021. And now the school prepares to destroy two more impressive residential halls—Blackstone and Montgomery Court—designed by famed architects and having historic landmark credentials. Although the residential halls are for students, they were not and do not need to be exclusively for them.
The excuse has been that the structures are unsafe, and it would cost too much to repair them. Still, the costs of rehabilitation would be far, far less than new construction, which is PSU’s long-range plan.
So I asked the Portland Housing Bureau, whose mission is to “help all Portlanders afford a home” by constructing and maintaining affordable housing, if it was doing anything to save the Blackstone and Montgomery Court from the wrecking ball.
“While we have released funds on several occasions recently, including for affordable housing preservation,” a PSU spokesperson replied, “we have not received any applications for funding assistance for these buildings.”
And what about the greater mission?
“While this work does sometimes involve the preservation of existing homes, our preservation efforts are not focused on architectural or historic preservation, but primarily on preserving existing regulated affordable housing, which does not apply in this case,” he concluded.
So the bureau did nothing because PSU did not apply for assistance. Why would PSU apply, given that the university had already decided it wanted the buildings gone?
Is it too much to ask that the director of a major bureau do more than process applications? Such as advocate for a better solution. Perhaps connect institutions and individuals able to make a difference. We need a little creativity, not an excuse for doing nothing. That result can be achieved without spending $250 million a year for the Portland Housing Bureau.
Come on PSU! Doesn't the knowledge that rehabbing existing housing more environmentally sound fit your motto?
"We are not a typical ivory tower university. Instead, we are located right downtown, and we embody the university mission to "Let Knowledge
Serve."
Where is your sense of place? You brag about being right downtown. This building is historic. It's an important part of PSU's history. Old, beautiful, useful buildings are part of the legacy universities leave. Do you think Harvard, Oxford or the University of Washington tear down their historical buildings? I doubt it and only as a last resort. So disappointing. Jane Pullman, MUS and PSU Alum.
No ivy-covered halls for PSU. The last vestiges of the old neighborhood that survived the 405 demolition have left undistinguished buildings and nothing to signal the organic growth of the campus.