Portland Stories

Mar 13, 2021

Portland Business Journal

In 2021, when the entrepreneurial spirit came knocking again, I started my own company, Adre, hoping to fill a market need for affordable homeownership and mission-driven projects.

Portland for me has been an incredible place for community, a model for sustainability, a vanguard in activism and a place for innovation. Portland still captures the imagination of folks around the world, but for me it’s a place where I truly feel at home.

As one of the few Black developers in Oregon, it has not escaped me that when Oregon was founded in 1859 it was with the explicit goal of exclusion that banned any “free negro, mulatto” from living, holding real estate or making contracts.

Many of these founding principles still express themselves in land-use systems, funding mechanisms and public policies that were expressly developed to specifically exclude the Native and black and brown folks who are born and raised in Oregon. This gives me an immense sense of responsibility to the community to ensure that Oregon is a place where everyone can thrive.