Apartment complex near Portland ICE facility offers help to tenants amid nightly protests

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The company that manages a low-income apartment building near the Portland ICE facility is offering more help to tenants during the ongoing protests and increased federal activity.

Last week, the FOX 12 Investigates team learned that REACH Community Development, which owns and operates Gray’s Landing in South Portland across from the ICE facility, has spent $150,000 on protective measures.

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REACH says those measures include HEPA air filters throughout the building, free earplugs for residents, sticky mats at doorways and increased staffing.

The company is now planning to install in-unit filters for individual apartments starting next week to improve air quality in response to tear gas and pepper balls being deployed nearby by federal agents, according to a letter sent to tenants on Monday.

REACH’s website says Gray’s Landing houses over 200 very low income seniors, veterans and families, and is the home to their central offices.

The letter also says REACH is asking city leadership to consider changing traffic patterns and street access to prevent federal activity near the southwest corner of the property.

REACH has launched a funding campaign to help cover the costs incurred addressing the effects of tear gas and pepper balls near the property.

More information about the campaign can be found here.

Additionally, REACH says the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition will be working out of a commercial space in the Gray’s Landing building that was previously vacant.

PIRC volunteers, who work with people who have appointments at the ICE field office to inform them about their rights and responsibilities, will be working out of their own office space on Moody Avenue and will not have access to residential entrances or any of the apartment’s facilities, according to REACH.