More than 60 people, including community leaders and elected officials, attended the grand opening celebration on October 8 of Terracina Vista, an affordable apartment community in Gresham (Ore.), about 10 miles from downtown Portland.
Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall and other speakers detailed the importance of the 92-apartment “pro-family development” during the two-hour event.
USA Properties Fund and Northwest Housing Alliance recently completed the apartment community, located at 16503 E. Burnside Street.
Terracina Vista helps with the critical shortage of affordable apartments in Portland, where more than half of renters spend at least 30% of their income on rent.
“Oregon continues to work hard on developing more affordable housing and ensuring lower-income residents have quality, safe housing,” said USA Properties Fund President and CEO Geoff Brown.
Terracina Vista will save residents a significant amount of money compared to nearby market-rate apartments – and likely some time. The apartment community is along a MAX light-rail line and near schools, shopping centers and two freeways.
The affordable rent coupled with the hard-to-beat location of Terracina Vista is a “great jumping off point for working families and households,” said Trell Anderson, Executive Director of Northwest Housing Alliance.
Terracina Vista is available to residents earning less than 60% of the area median income, about $52,140 for a single-person household to $80,460 for a five-person household.
Terracina Vista offers one- to three-bedroom apartments and a long line of amenities, including a community room, indoor bike storage and computer workstations.
The $43 million development is possible thanks to a private-public partnership, with the City of Gresham, Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), and Oregon Metro as subsidy lenders. WNC & Associates is the tax credit investor on the project. The construction lender is Capital One and the permanent lender is Citi Community Capital.
Terracina Vista is the second apartment community in Oregon for USA Properties Fund, one of the largest developer-manager-owners of affordable apartment communities in the West. USA Properties and Northwest Housing Alternatives partnered on The Canopy Apartments at Powell, an affordable apartment community that opened last year in nearby east Portland.
Oregon needs about 111,500 more affordable apartments to meet the needs of extremely low-income households, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“Boosting housing supply is about making everyday life better and more affordable for the people we serve,” said Andrea Bell, Executive Director of Oregon Housing and Community Services. “OHCS is grateful to have partners in Northwest Housing Alternatives, the city of Gresham and USA Properties Fund to make what often feels like improbable hope, an undeniable reality.”
Feature photo: Ashton Simpson, Councilor-District 1, Oregon Metro talks at the grand opening about how Terracina Vista will help low-income residents, the neighbohorhood and the Portland area.
Photos by Erica J. Mitchell