By ROBERT GABRIEL – Catholic Sentinal, 1982

PORTLAND, Ore. (NC) – Four Franciscan sisters and a group of residents in an area commonly known as Oregon’s Skid Road have made the Rich Hotel their home. There are no lobbies, room service or bellboys. But the structure seems different from other buildings in the Burnside neighborhood. It is clean — everywhere. “It’s nice, isn’t it?” says one of the residents. “Anybody who doesn’t want to keep it this way doesn’t belong.”

The sisters and residents have made the hotel a testimonial to the success of a cooperative program for low-cost living. The Rich Hotel is part of a cooperative program that Involves Burnside Consortium, a neighborhood association, and four Franciscan sisters who see running a hotel on Skid Road as a good way to live the Gospel. “We’re not heroines,” said Sister Marjorie Ilie, 42, hotel manager and spokeswoman for the four-sister community. We are here “to be sisters to the troubled and oppressed” and “to make a home for the homeless.” The 42-room hotel was opened last April with five paying tenants. Now it is home to 35 people. For $95 a month rent they receive a private room, clean linens and bedding, open kitchen privileges and a recreation room. They also have access to a coin-operated washer and dryer. There is more to the sisters’ presence than the mere fact of running a hotel, Sister Ilie said. “One of our hopes in coming here was that this could be home for people — not a home, but home.”