Home Improvements

Keller Williams at CPAh

Keller Williams employees who chose to help HBF with our project at Oleson Woods for their national "Red Day" of service also helped make history. For the first time, Home Building Foundation is embarking on an affordable housing project, expanding its traditional focus on emergency and transitional shelter to permanent, supportive housing. In early 2023, HBF approved a project with Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH) to renovate the exterior spaces of two apartment communities that house about 110 families. CPAH began 30 years ago as a small grass roots non-profit at St. Anthony’s Church in Tigard, and now runs ten affordable apartment complexes in Washington County and SW Portland. Because of the large size of the facilities, HBF opted to improve the natural and community spaces using its deep volunteer network.  

Lennar

Lennar Lends Muscle

Mountainwood gives back

Mountainwood Volunteers

The first of two projects, Oleson Woods is a 32-unit apartment complex, nestled in a wooded area near the Red Tail Golf Center. For this project, HBF’s scope of work is to transform large parts of the property that have become inundated with invasive Blackberry, English Hawthorn and Ivy. Kicking off in January of 2023, volunteers have since worked over 800 hours removing large areas of non-native brush, restored nature pathways, built fencing, seating and cleared trash from the site. Groups such as Lennar, Mountainwood Homes, Tivnu, and Old Republic Title have organized volunteer work parties totaling about 140 volunteers, who donated roughly $40,000 in donated labor.

HBF Executive director Brenda Ketah explains organizations like CPAH are important players in regional housing strategy including homelessness prevention. “Affordable housing is part of the continuum of housing. If we don’t have affordable housing options for people to move into after shelter or transitional housing, they can end up back on the streets or in unstable housing.” Ketah says CPAH is a great organization to partner with “because they also provide services and programs to strengthen their residents, providing housing stability and eviction prevention, youth and senior programs and community building activities.”

Stormy Setback

All fall down

Oleson Woods hit hard

Cleanup crew

Clean it up Mark Crew

Typical to other HBF projects, in-kind donations from local companies have also helped contribute to the modest $35,000 cash grant for the two projects. One of the most valuable contributors to the CPAH project so far is undoubtedly Clean it Up Mark! The local waste hauler removed ten dump trucks worth of invasive plant material from the site in 2023 free-of-charge. Then in January 2024, a catastrophic ice storm took out several of the original pine trees on the site, causing significant damage to the natural space and some of the residences. HBF Project Manager Chris McDowell quickly enlisted Clean It Up Mark! to haul away dozens of 10’ long sections of trees the arborist left behind. McDowell spent two days loading out Clean It Up Mark! trucks with the help of a John Deere mini-excavator provided by HBF donor, Pape Rents. Despite the destruction to the site, HBF with the help of Clean It Up Mark! and Pape were able to clear the site of storm debris and reopen the parking lot to residents.

Later this year, HBF will pivot to the Greenburg Oaks community – a 78-unit complex. In this case, HBF is tasked with renovating the outdoor community space at the heart of the property. Preliminarily Adair Homes has agreed to take the project on as Builder Captain and will help guide the transformation of the existing outdoor space with goals of improving accessibility, usefulness of the space as well as adding new covered pavilions and a central water feature. In a large housing community like Greenburg, the outdoor space is an amenity to help relieve congestion of the site and add a sense of belonging for families living in the complex. 

The new HBF partnership with CPAH has opened up new opportunities in the housing front. Just this month, CPAH and HBF were awarded a $65,000 grant from Tualatin Riverkeepers to reintroduce native trees and plants to Oleson Woods and begin the restoration process. The Greenburg Oaks space will likely break ground at the end of Spring and open to residents by the end of Summer . HBF has other affordable housing projects in its sights, including a new Habitat for Humanity site in Lake Oswego already in construction. If you are interested in volunteering or donating to these great shelter projects, contact Chris McDowell at chrism@hbapdx.org.