Viking_Yearbook_70

For awhile it looked like urban renewal meant student removal. Portland Student Services Inc. was instigated in the early summer of '69 to solve the student housing shortage. Two programs, one temporary and another tentative, were thrown open to the university. With the first plan, PSS Inc. saved nine local apartment buildings from demolition for at least two years. It wasn't easy, and operational problems abounded. The leaky roofs, stubborn furnaces, broken windows, faulty wiring, and bad plumbing had to be patched, fixed or replaced. In October three apartments opened. Rent was cheap. By January the remaining six structures were in business. A tenth building was recovered to house the disadvantaged under Portland State's "Operation Plus" program. Over six hundred students found homes. Rooms were valuable.