In 1932, a female African American attorney in Portland ran for state office. Though Beatrice Morrow Cannady lost, her decision to run for the Oregon House of Representatives when fewer than 1,300 African Americans were eligible to vote citywide made her a "hidden hero," said Maxine Fitzpatrick, executive director of an African American-led Portland housing development group.

If all goes as planned, Fitzpatrick's non-profit agency will erect a five-story, 80-unit affordable apartment complex named for Morrow Cannady on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just south of Fremont Street.

Beatrice Morrow Cannady was one of Oregon's most prominent civil rights activists.

"It's going to be historical, it's going to be cultural and it's going to be diverse, so everyone living there feels good," Fitzpatrick said.

The Portland City Council on Wednesday gave a $2 million Northeast Portland property to Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives along with a $7.4 million loan to help build the complex.

The project's backers say it will be the first to successfully carry out the Portland Housing Bureau's preference policy to rent and sell homes in North and Northeast Portland to people displaced by gentrification who want to return.

They expect to start leasing apartments in July 2018 and have them all filled by the end of the year.

In the 1990s, gentrification displaced about 16,000 people living in then-heavily-black North and Northeast Portland, Fitzpatrick said.

"There was intentional gentrification and displacement of African Americans in our community," Mayor Ted Wheeler said. "This project... puts Portland in the unique position of being the first in the country to not only acknowledge that displacement as a result of gentrification, but it puts us in the unique position of seeking to reverse it."

The city failed in its first attempt to strategically reverse the displacement of people from the neighborhood when it offered micro-units--ranging between 387 and 556 square feet--to displaced Portlanders and then struggled to fill the subsidized building. The Beatrice Morrow complex will consist mainly of family-friendly two- and three-bedroom apartments.

The building will include 55 apartments affordable to households at or below 60 percent of the area's median family income. Another 24 apartments will be set aside for very low-income families who make 30 percent or less of the median family income. Section 8 vouchers will support 20 of the 24 most affordable units.

The building will include 6,000 square feet of commercial space and a community space on the ground floor, 29 parking spaces and 44 two- and three-bedroom units.

The African American-led non-profit and its development partner, prominent Portland development firm Gerding Edlen, intentionally designed the building to make it indistinguishable from higher-priced complexes, Fitzpatrick said.

"I appreciate the focus on serving low-income families, and I appreciate the vision that says poor people get to live in a beautiful building," Commissioner Nick Fish said.

Wednesday's transfer of the property came more than a decade after Portland slated the land for affordable housing development.

The Portland Development Commission bought the property for less than $200,000 in 2004. Two years later, the commission planned to sell the property to a developer and to spend $2.1 million to help develop a housing complex with first-floor shops. The Portland Housing Bureau took ownership of the property in 2010.

In September 2015, the housing bureau awarded development rights to the Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, which last year won another $4.5 million loan to develop affordable housing along Martin Luther King Boulevard after pressuring then-housing commissioner Dan Saltzman to cancel a $7.25 million contract with a California firm.

The $7.35 million loan from the city is urban renewal money designated for development around Interstate 5. It will add to more than $19 million of other public and private funding.

That includes construction financing from U.S. Bank, a tax-exempt bond from Oregon's Housing and Community Services and a grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust.

"I'm proud of my city in this moment for addressing historic wrongs done to the African American community," Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said. "We need a few dozen more projects like this to truly undo a lot of the damage done."

Note: This story was updated to accurately reflect the amount of the first loan the city granted Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives. Portland awarded the development nonprofit $4.5 million.

Note: This story was updated to more accurately reflect African Americans' voting rights in Oregon in 1932 and the full name of Beatrice Morrow Cannady. A 1927 amendment to the Oregon State Constitution gave African Americans the right to vote. Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives director Maxine Fitzpatrick incorrectly stated that African Americans were not allowed to vote when Morrow Cannady ran. The reinvestment group plans to name its newest apartment complex The Beatrice Morrow to honor her work. But she used her married name, Beatrice Morrow Cannady, at the time she advocated for civil rights and ran for the Legislature.

--Jessica Floum

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