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Local landlord industry group MultiFamily NW held its glitzy annual ACE Awards tonight, and nattily dressed property management folks were breathless in anticipation for categories such as “Single-family Property Manager of the Year (Any Size Portfolio)” and “Renovated Property of the Year ($1 Million+).”

But whoops! Housing crisis.

As hopefuls arrived at the Portland Art Museum, they were bombarded by a few dozen demonstrators with the group Portland Tenants Unite, who shamed anyone who walked past with bullhorns and taunts. Low-paid museum security guards to highfalutin rent gougers—no one was spared derision.

Local gadfly Charles Johnson asked me for a cup of water. PTU leader Margot Black handed out a host of fake awards: “Biggest Rent Increase,” “Most Dramatic No-Cause Eviction,” and “Top Crisis Profiteer” (which went to mom and pop landlords). And a whole lot of people walked into what must have been a sumptuous dinner with bemused and awkward grins plastered to their faces.

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I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

4 replies on “Housing Activists Showed Up At a Landlords’ Gala. Here’s What Went Down”

  1. I’d say they were more “gnatty” in attire than “natty” but I suppose fashion taste is subjective. Thanks for being there, Dirk 😉

  2. Sad that the Merc wants to see everything devolve into a shrill Black Lives Matter vs. Trump Rally garbage fest of unchecked emotions and irrational college kiddie idealism.

    The people who work for property management companies didn’t create the housing shortage. The people who moved here from god-knows-where to scream and wave signs did. Time for a reality check, Dirk.

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