I think you may have meant to link to this story:http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=435384&category=22101

Oops! Sorry mate. It's changed.

I'm probably the only regular reader of this blog that cares about this, but where did you hear that the going rate on those efficiencies went down to $335? I didn't even know that place was up to code yet.
Also, people, please stop buying wicker furniture from thrift stores. That's the bedbug's favorite food.

I heard from a current tenant. They haven't kicked anyone out of the hotel since the city bought it, and it still absolutely sucks in there.

I'd say it's story time in two weeks, if things haven't improved a whole lot.

I'm not sure where you're going with this one, Matt. I don't have a lot of experience* with HAP, but the few HAP tenants that I do have get their apartments inspected by the housing authority on a regular basis. If their apartment has issues, I think I have 30 days or so to get it up to speed or else I don't get the rent. I have a fair amount of confidence in Income Property Management (they really manage that now? Weird.) and I'm sure they'll make the necessary improvements to pass inspection. There is a long list of things (bedbugs included) that absolutely cannot be fixed without evicting the current tenant.

*The asterisk is because I just took over a building in outerish SE, my first outside of the Hawthorne/Belmont area.

Thank you, Martin, for your comment.

It is HAP's plan to immediately take steps to install fire and life safety upgrades to the building (a fire sprinkler system and a sophisticated fire alarm/detection system) in addition to exterminating the mice and cock roaches.

The building will be upgraded and improved as quickly as the work can be done. In short order, The Grove will be a descent place for people to live for the first time in decades.

Good news. I hope, as Randy says, people follow through and make conditions more livable at The Grove.

Sadly, many people who leave psychiatric hospitals, homeless shelters..etc are given housing there. Usually paid for by the persons SSI/SSD which they get because of a mental illness or physical disability (war vets). Former residents there who I've spoken with through my job in mental health all attest: the place has a tons of bugs, filthy, cannot leave their apartment without being accosted by drug dealers, hard to sleep at night due to the noise inside the building.

The fact that I pay $575 for a nice place in a super nice area of town and those folks were being charged similarly for a place there? Sad sad sad! We are even taking monetary advantage of our absolutely most dirt poor citizens? SAD!!!

Hopefully the joint is fixed up - no bugs or animals is a great start! With a cool name like The Grove, who wouldn't wanna rent there?

Matt, where are the BEFORE pictures?

Randy, the BoB, or whatever it's name is now, should have shut down the Grove + the Home + the Westwind + the Stewart + the Kent + the Joyce decades ago for firetraps they are. If not BoB, then check your own law - Chapter 14B.60 Chronic Nuisance Property.

Anyone who says these dumps are reasonable housing for unreasonable people are full of arrogant fhit. Challenge you to empty your pockets and go spend one night in any of these places. Until then, shut up about "a descent place for people to live."

Thanks, Commissioner, for commenting.

To be fair, C, Randy's to be applauded for his initiative in taking over the Grove, isn't he? Although you do make a point that conditions in places like it have been appalling for years.

To be honest, I'm a little irked, artistically speaking, that the Grove is going upmarket. Where am I going to do my gritty photo-expose now? Oh, yes. There's still plenty of places left.

I must say, I am hearing stories coming out of the Grove that are quite surprising. Especially for a City-owned building. And bed bugs are only the start.

Do you work in or around the Grove, or somewhere like it? Are you interested in working on a story with me on conditions?

mdavis@portlandmercury.com
503 294 0840

Martin: Your copy of "apartment manager" magazine arrived in the Mercury's postbag this afternoon. I think I'm going to subscribe! It's fascinating!

To be clear, Matt, the sale of The Grove just closed this week....maybe you could give us a fair amount of time (you decide how much time that is) to improve the conditions there before you do an expose on slum housing owned by the city.

To be etc, congrats to HAP for stepping up and buying the Grove. The BEFORE pics will quickly show the energy and ingenuity of the HAP's makeover crew.

But the remaining buildings - and I could name a dozen more - are archaeological remnants of Portland's merchant marine history. Gentrification, and perhaps evolution, ended their original purpose of sheltering drunken sailors quite a while ago, yet the iron and stone persists, as do the slumlords and cockroaches.

Over the years, many have been ironically converted into transitional housing for people in recovery from addiction and mental illness. But the more decrepit buildings are packed with the acutely drunk and mad, who's rent is often paid via government stipends, and, again ironically, at a much higher cost.

Matt, you could do an story about how the city plans to install a $250k sprinkler system in an old 1920s hotel they overpaid for by more than $700k. As much as I appreciate Commissioner Leonard and respect him as a former firefighter, I have to wonder why a total replumb is in order. You're rehabbing a HAP property, not building a McMenamins.
Consider the following quote from the original story that was linked: "HAP Director Steve Rudman believes that in three to five years, the Grove will be redeveloped into "something else" that will be in line with the redevelopment of Old Town."
This whole thing is starting to give me the impression that the city is just going to put all those SSI folks through remodeling hell for the next 6-24 months and then turn around and sell the property for less than they paid for it.
As with any change with residential building ownership, I would advise your contact at the Grove to move out now and save himself the hassle and heartbreak.

Geez Matt, nothing else to complain about today? So your big scandal is what? The city is lowering the rent for disadvantaged tenets in a town starved for cheap rent? Meanwhile they diabolically bring the building up to code to insure the above tenets' safety?

Actually elwood, I wasn't complaining. I was writing a news story. Still, you're probably not used to it from me.

Commissioner Leonard, you're right. I'll give The Grove Expose the same time in the cooker we give when reviewing a new restaurant, which is a month or two.

Thanks, everyone for weighing in. Very interesting discussion.

Interesting reading. I logged on to find out what the hell a "ham wallet" was, but since this is my field, I'll comment on the Grove.
First, Matt, the issue of affordable housing is way more complicated than doing an expose about bedbugs and slumlords. And I'll give you an example of what I mean, especially in response to the person who thinks the Grove along with the Westwind, Kent, etc.. should all be closed down. Here's the reality.
Most low-income SRO housing is being purchased by non-profits and managed by professional property mgmt. companies, CCC, etc. When this happens the first thing the owner does in start doing background checks on perspective tenants, so many people with criminal backgrounds, or who have scetchy backgrounds for a number of reasons, often due to mental illness and/or drug addiction, are automatically left out of the loop and are often unable to find housing. I know, I work for a property management company and manage a low-income property and I turn people away all the time because of their criminal history. So... where do these people live? At the Grove, the Westwind, the Stewart, the Home, the Kent, the Joyce. Those places don't do background checks so those building serve an important role in urban society in part because the state won't properly fund mental health care. So does that make it OK for the owners of those places to be slumlords. NO. But we shouldn't close those places down either. It would be better to work with the owner, as the city and fire marshall are doing with the Westwind owner, to just become better managers, since they can afford it. I don't think the Grove owner was very open to this, however.
Anyway, some of you might think "Why the hell should we make it easy for criminals and child molesters to get a place to live?" I'll tell you why - because you'd rather have those people housed that not. Everyone should be housed. The cost to our city both materially and psycologically is much higher than housing people. It's better to have freaky people living in a place where at least there is a desk clerk that might see a red light if one of the residents comes in with a little kid, etc... So this is why I'm actually quite concerned that the Grove has been purchased by HAP and the city because they will now start doing background checks, thus diminishing the number of available rental units available to people who are difficult to house. I work with agencies who use those buildings to house some of their problem mentally ill clients who can't live anywhere else, including HAP public housing.
The situation sucks and is very complicated, so you don't want to say let's just get rid of all those flea bag hotels because if we do, we'll feel it on the streets.
So Matt, if you really want to understand this world come on down here to 3rd St. and talk to those of us who do this for a living.
Thanks.

After re-reading some of these posts I think a few people need some education about bedbugs.
1. Bedbugs don't eat wicker. The live on blood like fleas.
2. To the landlord who thinks you absolutely can't take care of a bedbug problem without evicting people. Wow. See ya in landlord/tenant court, bud.
Anyone can get bedbugs. They're not limited to fleabag hotels and scumbag people. I've had a few bedbugs problems in my building and they occured in units occupied by some of the most clean, neat residents.
Multnomah county has a lot of good information about bedbugs and will probably be holding another info. workshops soon on the subject. I suggest you all look into it.

Jan, I'd like to come down and meet you. Drop me a line, 503 294 0840.

mdavis@portlandmercury.com

As a City of Portland staff person pretty close to this deal, I want to clarify that the City has not purchased the building - the Housing Authority of Porltand (HAP) has. The City did request that HAP purchase it and is developing the financing for the acquisition and rehabilitation. HAP closed on the building on Tuesday and has prepared a plan to address tenant and building concerns in an aggressive fashion. The plan is for the building to provide housing for those with the greatest housing needs in a responsible way for an interim period of 3-5 years to allow time to develop a plan to replace it either on site or nearby with a new building that will provide affordable housing for at least the next 60 years. The effort here is to improve what has been a bad situation for the neighborhood and the residents for many years.