During Building Boom, Chair of Housing Advisory Commission Urges Equal Opportunity for Contractors

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Workers of color “often don’t get rained up to be superintendent or foreman, they get dedicated to labor on-site,” Nate McCoy, chair of the Portland Housing Advisory Commission, said. “Construction has not done its best job in marketing itself as a career pathway for all communities. We’ve coined it ‘the FBI,’ because the way to get into construction is through your father or brother-in-law. Most of our businesses on the minority- or majority-owned side have been family-owned businesses. But I’m looking at affordable housing, knowing a lot of minorities live in it. They should see folks who look like them building the projects.”