Help Start Construction on Simple, Decent Housing

March marks one year since officially launching the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI). This collaborative way of working allows us to join residents, nonprofits, businesses, local governments and communities of faith to create a shared vision of revitalization within a neighborhood. 

We chose the Cully neighborhood in northeast Portland to pilot NRI because of the observable need. Annexed to Portland in the 1980s, Cully still lacks public improvements like sidewalks and paved roads and has few natural open spaces. Poverty is also a characteristic of this community. Nine in 10 Cully students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and one in four Cully residents live in poverty.

Correspondingly, there is concern around equity and displacement with growing gentrification. The City of Portland offered insight through a gentrification study that found Cully most at risk of displacing low-income residents and people of color. This data tells a story that can be summarized in one word: Instability.

For Cully’s children, a housing cost-burdened (42% of residents spend more than half their income on housing) neighborhood means an unstable life. Kids change houses and schools when their parents are forced to chase affordable places to live. Stability is the key driver of academic success. It takes kids months to academically recover from a school transfer and creates an added workload for teachers. And student mobility negatively impacts all students, even those who do not move.

In response to these concerns, Habitat has partnered with three long-time Cully based nonprofits – Hacienda CDC, Native American Youth and Family Center and Verde – to launch Living Cully; an eco-district, addressing disparities in education, income, health and natural resources.

Living Cully wants to redefine the sustainability movement as an antipoverty strategy. We have already brought together over 60 cross-sector partners to work on stabilizing and reducing poverty in Cully though collaborative activities.
Our vision is a Cully with parks, better roads and sidewalks, new businesses and improved schools. We want to achieve this through investment in current residents, so they are able to rise with the neighborhood.

While we have exciting plans and a foundation in place to accomplish great things, the challenge before us is significant. We need you to join us, with your time and resources to help bring this vision to fruition. I expect this new way of tackling the issues of urban poverty will have significant impact, and is already receiving national attention. With your support, we can achieve this vision and take it to the next neighborhood in need, so that Portland is a great place for everyone to live.

In Partnership,
Steve Messinetti, President and CEO