Four months after hosting forums on the past and future of gentrification in North and Northeast Portland—and nearly a year after the churn and controversy of an aborted attempt to plop a Trader Joe’s at NE MLK and Alberta—city officials late Friday finally fleshed out a long-promised plan to redirect $20 million in urban renewal cash toward affordable housing needs.
More than half of the funding in the plan (pdf)—$11 million—would be spent on developing as many as 140 affordable rental homes ($8 million) and “banking” available land that might one day be used for affordable homes ($3 million).
An additional 240 households ($4 million) would receive funding for repairs that are too expensive for current homeowners who otherwise would have to sell. The rest of the money ($5 million) would provide help with down payments and work with nonprofits to secure affordable single-family homes for up to 72 would-be homebuyers.
But the most important promise—and most difficult—concerns not just how that money will be spent, but on whom.
The housing bureau wants to lavish its assistance on those who’ve already been displaced from what was once a significant African American community (created by red-lining and discriminatory housing policies), sent east as new light rail and past redevelopment plans made it easier for developers and wealthier homeowners to snap up suddenly choice lots relatively close to downtown.
That goal, concerning something like a “right of return,” was a major part of the forums held last fall on how community members wanted to see the new money spent. But it has yet to be translated into a legal, foolproof policy, according to city documents.
There may yet be some hitches. Because the cash is coming from the Portland Development Commission, it’s legally bound for projects within the city’s Interstate urban renewal area. That zone includes much, but not all, of the gentrifying areas the city has flagged for attention. As such, the housing bureau says it will seek additional money this spring, from the city’s general fund, to create similar programs for residents whose homes are outside urban renewal boundaries but still subject to the same displacement pressure.
The $20 million from PDC comes atop a citywide policy of setting aside 30 percent of total urban renewal tax revenues for housing for people making no more than 60 percent of the region’s median income. That means it’s money that otherwise would have been spent on other projects, like improving businesses or fixing up streetscapes like North Lombard.
Housing officials also acknowledge what African American leaders see as a string of broken promises and misguided offers for help stretching back decades.
A community board would be created, the bureau says. And that board would spend the next five years judging progress, or the lack thereof, in “real time”—offering suggestions for adjustments as needed.
The proposal is up for a Portland City Council hearing at 2 pm Wednesday.
Instead of an actual good business that would have serviced all you mid-west hipsters who’ve moved into NE Portland, driving up the housing prices and driving out those poor ol’ black folks (most of whom never owned their property to begin with), we get ‘affordable housing’ rented out to losers by the city. I haven’t seen such a brilliant plan since SW waterfront.
So I’m curious. the map shows the percentage of the African american population of inner North Portland in 2010.
Gentrification affects people of all colors. I’m white and have been low income for most of my adult life. I’ve lived in the Boise Elliott neighborhood for over 25 years. I moved there because I was forced out of first inner Northwest and then Corbett Lair Hill by gentrification. Will assistance be available to all residents or former residents of inner North Portland neighborhoods regardless of color? Will assistance be available to the families that I know who fled in the 80s and 90s to keep their children safe from gangs, prostitutes, pimps, thugs and drugs or only those forced to leave for economic reasons?
This is a really difficult issue because most of the damage to the black community truly occurred before 2000 with the building of I-5, Legacy Emanuel Hospital, and the razing of Mississippi. The destruction of the black business class left the community in shambles and the City didn’t start to ‘renew’ until curious liberals began to find low housing prices in N/NE. But providing ‘affordable housing’ will only concentrate poverty and serve as a mechanism for the government to monitor individuals’ finances and lifestyles.
This is racist and demeaning. If you can’t figure out why then this is just the plan for you.
I wonder if there are mechanisms to make sure that the assistance goes to long-time residents. Lots of our new young residents qualify as low income as well. If we just build a bunch of affordable housing for our new waiters and artists, it will kind of miss the point in this particular area.
Building affordable(low-income) housing is one thing–and they’ve already been building that on MLK for years as it is. But it’s not going to bring back a lot of black-owned businesses because the population has dispersed all over the metro to the point that you’re not going to have a bar or music club or soul food restaurant that caters to black people and be able to afford N Williams or N Mississippi these days. The black churches and beauty/hair places survive in places, but that’s mainly it.
Hell, on N Williams everything new has to meet the new well-scrubbed yuppie vision, condo developers wouldn’t include an already popular Ethiopian restaurant in future plans, because they thought “people wouldn’t like the smell”.
Spindles- Actually most of the folks you refer to owned their own homes. They had for many decades. They were happy to sell and flee during the crack wars. The city encouraged the local industrial captains to build large cement buildings all along Miss. The city wanted the neighborhood to be all industrial. Most of those large buildings have been torn down and replaced with retail and apartments. Mississippi Commons is the last one left and has been greatly changed. Where the courtyard is was a loading dock. There was only one door in and no windows at all. By the time Gentrification started most respectable folks had left and mostly drug dealers and users were left. Those were the renters/ squatters.
just dumb. even if they did ”keep their promise” this plan addresses the effect not the cause. ”community leaders” would be doing a disservice to people to even acknowledge this stupid plan, but hey you can always get one or two of them to say ”yes i represent the community and this is a great solution, thank you charlie Hales for looking out for my community”.
fucking dumb how these jerks think they’re little band aid patches fool people, actually they know they don’t they just know no one will do anything to them.
No one flushes money down the crapper quite like Portland.
Curse you Portland city council, curse you too left wing remorseful white guilters. You are nothing more than a bunch of traitor joes. You shall not thwart the efforts to gentrify the ancestral homeland of the economically disadvantaged in the green valleys of Willamette. The Illuminati will reinvigorate their initiative to establish more and more premium grocer markets in the area. It is an unstoppable force. Bow down to your Overlords and learn to value the option of buying a bag of $11.99 kale chips has. Those chia muffins will not eat themselves. Would you prefer crack muffins, pcp crepes? The poor masses will spread their rich culture to other corners of the city just as hipsters bring forth their creative concepts of quasi originality and trustfund lined wallets. It’s a fair cultural exchange. Gold Sachs gave it the stamp of approval. I will now return to my auntie’s basement to iron out details in my masterplan as well as my uncle’s dress shirts. Good luck sleeping tonight!
Well we could just bring back the affordable housing act. If you build a big mansion or condo you have to then develop a house or apartment that someone making median income (25-35 thousand) could also rent. This means working families can raise their kids in nice neighborhoods and everyone gets a great education. This law made Portland great and it was the foundation of our moral principles.
Instead we get a system that just give millions to the biggest developers to make a shit impoverished neighborhood. This town has been sold and it is giving out charity when it used to do the right thing.
This whole thing strikes me as a foolhardy approach to rectify income disparity, and how it affects ever-changing neighborhoods.