“All we’re asking for is affordable housing”

Mt. Hood students joined community members who gathered Oct. 15 to express their reservations regarding Rockwood Rising, a multi-use development planned for the area just east of 185th Avenue, between East Burnside and Southeast Stark streets.

Their concerns focus on affordable housing, urban development and the effects of gentrification the project could trigger in the Rockwood neighborhood of northwest Gresham.

Rockwood is home to 28,000 people, per the 2010 U.S. Census, a number that is likely much higher in 2017 with the influx of people that Gresham and the greater Portland metro area has received recently.

The event, titled “Save Rockwood,” was hosted by Pueblo Unido, a community organization. Diana Marin Duran, an MHCC student, describes the group as being committed to “connecting people with legal services… specializing in removal defense,” in situations such as detainment by ICE.

Duran said the Save Rockwood event was created to “inform people. We wanted to let people know what was happening in the community, because that information wasn’t accessible.”

She said that surveys were taken asking attendees what they knew about the Rockwood Rising project slated to be constructed and finished in 2019.

‘Market rate’ worries

According to its website, rockwoodrising.com, the construction project is envisioned to be an “ ‘economic engine’… that would not only alleviate the symptoms of poverty, but provide the pathways out of it,” with space for an “innovation hub,” “residential space,” and a “market hall.”

A chief concern Pueblo Unido has with the development is its plan for housing.

“We know that bringing in a new building that will be “market rate” will attract people who can’t necessarily live in Portland, because the rent is high over there, but it’s also going to push a lot of the Rockwood community out,” said Duran. She said that in her conversations with Rockwood CDC, the nonprofit development company behind Rockwood Rising, the proponents described the residential building as “an apartment complex with 100 market-rate apartments, 20 percent of which will be ‘affordable housing.’ ”

Duran describes 20 percent as “not enough,” saying Pueblo Unido believes that any construction that takes place in that neighborhood should be affordable. “Affordable housing, that’s all we’re asking for. That’s what we really want,” she said.

Duran also cites a potential conflict of interest as problematic. In an Oct. 10 email, she wrote that “Brad Ketch, the CEO of Rockwood CDC, is also the owner of a private contract company. [He] will benefit from the gentrification of Rockwood. If this project goes through rent will skyrocket causing the displacement of families.”

She goes on to describe gentrification as “the erasure of culture, its displacement… gentrification is rich white people coming into a neighborhood, a neighborhood with less resources than other communities, and basically trying to make a business and turn a profit off a low-income community.”

CEO: no conflicts

Ketch responded to the Advocate regarding conflicts of interest: “Several members of our board and staff have businesses, family relationships, and other board seats that could pose potential conflicts of interest. Our (Rockwood Rising) Board of Directors has a written Conflict of Interest Policy… At this time, the board knows of no violations of our policy.

“If anyone has evidence that one of our directors or staff members has violated our policy, we welcome him or her to contact us,” Ketch wrote in his email.

When Pueblo Unido brought these allegations to the Gresham City Council, that body was “defensive,” said Duran, though it remains unclear whether or not the Council found any evidence of a conflict of interest, she said.

Meantime, the Rockwood Rising development is already underway. An official groundbreaking took place earlier this year, and Rockwood Rising’s website says the property was fenced off Sept. 21 to begin construction.

Duran said Pueblo Unido is planning on attending the next City Council meeting, on Nov. 7. She said the group intends to bring community members together to raise more questions. She said Mt. Hood students or members of the community interested in Rockwood’s development can attend and testify to their own experience with housing, as well.

Information about Rockwood Rising can be found at rockwoodrising.com, at 503-618-2416, or by email at [email protected].