Troubled Cabana Apartments on S.E. 37th reinvented as “Kailash Eco-Village”
SUSTAINABLE LIVING (AND BUSINESS!)
Ole and Maitri Ersson are transforming the former Cabana apartment complex near Holgate Boulevard into a sustainable community of “co-housing” for renters.
Elizabeth Ussher Groff / THE BEE
The Cabana apartment complex on S.E. 37th Avenue just north of Holgate Boulevard, is undergoing a radical transformation. You might say, from cops to crops!
The 32-unit apartment complex was originally built in 1959 on land sloping up and away from the sidewalk — with a swimming pool at the far west end, a Lanai lounge and bar under apartment #1, and a gymnasium to keep tenants fit. The idea was to attract tenants seeking a Hawaiian atmosphere in Southeast Portland.
Over the years, the complex declined significantly, causing some disgruntled residents to recently refer to it as “the meth apartments”.
In December 2007, Ole and Maitri Ersson bought the complex, with its massive asphalt parking lots and long-buried swimming pool, from its absentee landlords.
The Erssons moved in last January. “We have had many dramas,” confides Ole, referring to calls to the police for various problems. But gradually, the place is taking on a new, vital life.
Under their care, the apartment complex, now called “Kailash Eco-Village”, is blossoming into a sustainable community of “co-housing” for renters. (Kailash is a Sanskrit word that means “the abode of Shiva”, and rhymes with “eyelash”.)
Co-housing, which usually requires investment in a house or condominium, tends to exclude people of more modest means. “A mortgage payment would be two or three times what it costs a renter to live here,” observes Ole. “You need good credit or equity to live in most co-housing, and a lot of young people don’t have that.”
Kailash Eco-Village offers its tenants the best of co-housing opportunities — activities to do together, such as gardening, and shared facilities for laundry and recycling. The long- defunct bar and lounge area is being remodeled into a room for vegan potlucks and community meetings.
A bleak breezeway has gained new interest with a small pile of “freebie” items on display (what tenants don’t select will then be donated to a charitable organization), and a growing number of books will soon become a library. Envisioned for the future are on-site daycare for up to a dozen 3-4 year olds, yoga and art classes, and individual garden plots.
The Erssons have transformed several former weed-infested areas into large organic gardens and colorful flowerbeds. A 70 x 20 foot pumpkin patch will supply tenants with harvested pumpkins, and a plot of corn will yield so much corn on the cob that Maitri says they may have to have a corn party.
Removing dirt from the swimming pool to create a holding tank for harvested rainwater is a project on the horizon. And Ole says the complex has “unexcelled solar potential.”
If this all sounds like a full-time job for the Erssons, it is not. Ole is a physician who works four days a week for Multnomah County, and Maitri works in a preschool, so all of this work is done and overseen in their spare time.
Born and raised in Corvallis, Ole has long loved gardening, and in fact subscribed to “Organic Gardening and Farming” when he was only nine years old. Maitri, too, is an avid gardener, and balances hard work with guitar-playing and yoga, which she has practiced for over thirty years. Her name, Maitri, a spiritual name given to her by her first yoga teacher, means “friend of the universe”. She grew up in the Philippines.
It is clear the Erssons’ heart is in the transformation of this apartment complex. “Part of why we’re doing this is to impact people’s lives in a good way,” says Maitri.
The Erssons are aware that transformation and change can also bring challenges. Most tenants are eagerly embracing the changes, but a few are resistant to some aspects, such as recycling (which nonetheless has cut garbage volume by two-thirds in six months).
Only two tenants have been asked to leave; one for severe property damage, the other for illegal activities. Ten new tenants have replaced the few who have left.
Most tenants and neighbors are delighted to see a small farm growing in the neighborhood. In the future, some of the complex’s massive parking lot will be transformed into a more creative and functional space.
In the meantime, the Ersson’s bumper sticker sums up the change going on at the old Cabana: “Co-housing — creating an old-fashioned neighborhood in a new way.”
To learn more, visit the Internet websites: www.kailashecovillage.com, and http://ersson.sustainabilitylane.com.