Mission

The mission of Housing Northwest, Inc is to provide quality affordable housing in a way that supports the personal growth and development of its residents.

To assist in this mission we have developed the following value statements:

Responsible Community

• We value a safe environment by fostering a sense of responsible community.
• We honor the diversity of human relationships, practice sustainability, and promote the learning of life skills through example and teaching.

Affordable Quality

• We value providing the best quality housing and related services that are demanded by our residents and customers in the most affordable way possible.
  

Change and Improvement

• We embrace change, innovation and continual improvement.
  

Resident Governing Power

• We believe in having significant and active membership of residents on all our boards and management committees.
• We believe in facilitating ways for residents to speak directly to the board on a regular basis.
  Our mission and philosophy are incorporated as an integral part of each employees day to day performance.

History

Housing Northwest was founded as Portland Student Services, Inc. in 1969 on the Portland State University campus in Portland, Oregon as an outgrowth of an urban studies class. The urban studies class was examining the need for student housing in the University’s downtown campus environment. At that time, the University was considered by the Oregon Legislature to be a commuter campus, and the enabling legislation providing for the University did not permit student housing.

A group of students in the urban studies class saw an opportunity to meet a substantial need for housing through a recent acquisition by the Portland Development Commission (the housing and urban renewal agency for the City of Portland), of several old apartment buildings for the benefit of Portland State. The University believed it was embarking on a period of aggressive growth and considered the land on which the apartment buildings were located to be suitable for academic expansion. Funds for this expansion were to be provided by the 1969 Oregon Legislature, but when this funding did not materialize, the buildings were targeted for demolition and the land slated to be utilized for city parking. Portland Student Services, Inc. was established with its most immediate purpose being to prevent the demolition of the apartment buildings and to preserve their use for students of Portland State University. This group of students convinced the University and the State Board of Higher Education to allow them to operate the buildings as independent student housing. With two $5,000 loans, a board of directors was selected and a president was elected. The buildings have since been recognized as a permanent part of the University campus.

1972 marked the beginning of a period of housing expansion at Portland State University. Portland Student Services opened a newly constructed, 221-unit high-rise in the Goose Hollow neighborhood as an addition to the housing stock at Portland State University. Funded through a loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, this building was the company’s first significant asset. Over the next 15 years PSU purchased or developed another five projects, totaling 610 units and executed a lease with Portland Student Services for lease-up and management.

In 1988, College Housing Northwest entered into an agreement with the Housing Authority of Portland to renovate and manage three vintage apartment buildings in close proximity to the Portland State campus. The agreement provided that up to 50% of the 96 units are used to house students, while the remainder was to be leased to qualified low-income tenants. This partnership between government and the private sector for the mutual benefit of students and low-income tenants was the first of its kind in the City of Portland. This agreement struck a cord with the staff and Board of Directors and in 1996, at a majority vote of its membership, Portland Student Services, Inc. became College Housing Northwest, Inc., with a new direction to serve its mission wherever there was a need.

In the last ten years College Housing Northwest has provided housing and food services to Warner Pacific College in Portland, managed housing and food services at a 780 bed student housing complex serving two educational institutions in Chico, California and entered into a lease to manage the residence hall at Central Oregon Community College in Bend, OR (still under management).

In its final metamorphosis, College Housing Northwest, Inc. became a subsidiary of a parent Limited Liability Corporation developed to expand the mission of the organization and the potential customer base for housing development and management to include affordable housing. Housing Northwest, Inc. was established in 2004 to be committed to providing the highest quality affordable housing to students and households of modest means in the most efficient way possible.

Under a 35-year lease agreement with Oregon State University, Housing Northwest opened The Gem in spring of 2006. This $12 million rehabilitation of the College Inn located in Corvallis, OR provides 231 units of housing to junior, senior and graduate students of the University and acts as a model for effective reuse of “tired” residence halls on campuses across the country.