CPAH creates and maintains healthy, sustainable housing with services throughout Tigard and the surrounding area.
Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH) honored Marianne Potts for serving 27 years on CPAH’s Board at the organization’s First Annual Fall Gathering at Cook Park in Tigard. She was the last of the original Board Members.
Marianne was presented with a bottle of wine, bouquet of beautiful flowers, and a plaque. The plaque reads, “In appreciation of your dedication as a founding board member and 27 years of community service improving the lives of families, children and seniors in need of affordable, healthy, and sustainable housing.”
In receiving the award, Marianne shared how CPAH was started by St. Anthony’s pastor, Fr. Loren, after hearing from a parishioner that they had three jobs and still could not afford for his family to live in Tigard. Fr. Loren had a parish Social Action committee take this on as a project and it grew from there.
She recalled the excitement of signing paperwork for an early CPAH property purchase, Greenburg Oaks, when she was the Board President. CPAH has since grown to 10 properties throughout Washington County and SW Portland.
The original CPAH charter listed Tualatin and Tigard as locations for affordable housing development. She and Doug Plambeck, former Board Treasurer, both lived in Tualatin and shared a vision for bringing affordable housing to the city. However, proposed Tualatin properties never penciled out until the current Basalt Creek project which will provide 116 affordable housing units.
During March 2020, Doug lost a battle with cancer. To honor his life and dedication to CPAH and affordable housing, the Tualatin property in predevelopment is now called, Plambeck Gardens. Marianne is happy that goal was finally achieved and will be part of the legacy she and Doug contributed to their beloved city.
Plambeck Gardens will be a home for working families and has partnerships slated with Centro Cultural and WorkSystems Inc. to support future residents with career coaching, business development, and start up technical assistance. This project is part of Metro’s Affordable Housing Bond program passed by the region’s voters in 2018 and will serve as part of the regional effort to mitigate the housing crisis.
Rachael Duke, CPAH’s Executive Director, said, “Community Partners for Affordable Housing is built on the good work of so many people. We are incredibly grateful for all that Marianne has invested so that we can continue to fulfill our mission of creating opportunities and housing stability for those who need affordable housing: families, seniors, people with disabilities, and people who simply have low and moderate incomes. We are so excited to bring Plambeck Gardens to Tualatin.”
To learn more about CPAH,
visit cpahoregon.org.
