PORTLAND, Ore. — As Albertina Kerr wrestles with high staff turnover, the Portland nonprofit has come up with a potential fix: build more than 100 units of affordable housing in Gresham to put a roof over workers’ heads.
The project comes after chief executive Jeff Carr discovered at least one of his workers was experiencing homelessness. The problem came abruptly to the boss's attention in August 2016 when he approached a middle manager at an event for children the nonprofit serves. Carr asked how things were going.
"She then said to me something that just floored me," Carr recalled. "She said, 'Well, one of my employees, she's a mom with five kids, she's living in a tent in Hillsboro.'"
For years, Albertina Kerr has aided Oregonians with intellectual and developmental disabilities, running youth and adult group homes and helping clients find jobs. But the nonprofit has quietly suffered its own crisis: rising costs of living and comparatively low wages have left its workers struggling to stay housed.
