A Place to Call Home

A Place to Call Home

By Tyler Francke, Veterans News Magazine. Photos by Sarah Dressler.

It’s mid-March, and the Oregon weather has done what Oregon weather often does: forget what the weather’s supposed to be like in Oregon.

It’s a sunny, warm, gorgeous day, and U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Betty Pomeroy has come to visit the residents who live at a new Northwest Housing Alternatives apartment complex in Aloha, dedicated exclusively to serving low-income veterans and their families.

Pomeroy chats with the parents, plays with the children. She even kisses a baby or two.

She’s not a politician or anything. She just likes it here. You probably would, too, if the place was named after you.

U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Betty Pomeroy stands at the Veterans Memorial Gateway at the Washington County Fair Complex in Hillsboro.

Pomeroy has been active in a wide variety of causes and programs benefiting veterans, seniors and homeless Oregonians in the Hillsboro area, pretty much since the day she retired in 1988 after a 30-year career in the U.S. Army.

But she says she had no idea of the plans to name the development after her until shortly before it was announced to the public.

“It kind of blew my socks off,” she admitted. “Because I felt like I haven’t done anything a lot of others haven’t done.”

Mae “Betty” Pomeroy was born in Hillsboro but grew up in Forest Grove. Scraping by — while, at the same time, scraping together just enough to give something back to those less fortunate — was just a way of life, she said.

“It was ingrained,” she recalled. “It was just... That’s what you did.”

Some of it stemmed from the war effort. She and her friends would run all over town, pulling their Radio Flyers and collecting scrap metal to help out Uncle Sam.

Fire safety was also a big deal back then, in the wake of a series of devastating fires that ravaged old-growth timber forests in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, now known collectively as the “Tillamook Burn.”

They spent mornings pulling moss off their neighbors’ roofs (dry moss on a shingle roof is a major fire hazard) and afternoons collecting pinecones for the Forest Service to use in their reforestation efforts.

“And fundraisers,” she said. “We were always doing a rummage sale or a garage sale. We used to organize a rummage sale every year to raise money for the school newspaper.”

It was her interest in journalism that eventually led her to the military, where she was a recruiter, public affairs officer and commander throughout the Vietnam War.

You may think it might have presented some challenges, to be involved in the Pentagon’s public affairs office during an unpopular war, or to have been a female Army commander in a time when that was practically unheard of.

But, as is often the case, Pomeroy focuses on the positive.

“You know what? I never had a problem,” she said. “It’s all common sense. If you command respect, you get respect. In 30 years, never was anyone disrespectful to me.”

After retiring from military service, Pomeroy kept right on serving. She spent 13 years on the Washington County aging and veteran services council and was the first woman appointed by the governor to the Veterans’ Affairs Advisory Committee for ODVA. She was also named Woman Veteran of the Year in 2012.

You know, life has been awful good to me. People who have should give back.

She also has volunteered as a counselor for Gold Star widows and spent almost a decade helping realize the Veterans Memorial Gateway at the Washington County Fair Complex.

Veterans Memorial Gateway at the Washington County Fair Complex.

“You know, life has been awful good to me,” she said. “People who have should give back. Pay it forward, I’m a big believer in that.”

Pomeroy Place is a unique project, the construction of which was paid for by Oregon Housing & Community Services, Washington County, the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, the Community Housing Fund and Chase Bank.

In terms of its operational funding, it’s a bit of a patchwork, which could become a model for other similar developments across Oregon. Pomeroy Place features some units reserved for homeless or at-risk veterans through the VASH voucher program, while others are set aside for low-income veterans and families served by Section 8. The development also offers a community room, playground and clinical services through a VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC).

Pomeroy Place.

But when asked about the most important part of the Pomeroy Place project, she doesn’t hesitate.

“The kids are thriving,” she said. “They know they have a secure place to grow up. They know where they’re going to sleep tonight. That’s what really warms my heart. That’s what it’s all about.”

Betty Pomeroy says hello to Ghotai Akhtarzhi, a 5-month-old resident of Pomeroy Place in Aloha.