- Illustration: Jess Smart Smiley
Chloe Eudaly is a Portland business owner and mother whose son suffered a traumatic brain injury at birth; he has chronic health problems and relies on a wheelchair. Eudaly had lived in the same five-bedroom Northwest Portland home for 18 years when, in the fall of 2006, her landlord decided to sell the house. Her family’s continued tenancy didn’t fit with the new owners’ plans for the home.
Just like that, Eudaly learned she was getting evicted with her then-kindergarten-age son, who was sick with pneumonia at the time. Her moving date was December 31.
“If anyone had asked, I would’ve just wanted them to wait at least until my son finished the school year,” she says. “What was an intense traumatic hardship for me would have been a minor inconvenience for them; I mean it’s not like the house was going anywhere.”
After that first no-cause eviction, Eudaly found a smaller house in the Irvington neighborhood for $1,200 a month, and signed a one-year lease. When it was time to renew, her landlord increased the rent to $1,800. She couldn’t afford it.
So Eudaly and her son prepared for yet another move. She was able to find “a little two-bedroom, at the 11th hour, that was riddled with code violations and safety hazards.”
At this point in the interview, Eudaly pauses in her story.
“I feel a little bit scared talking about this,” she says.