{"id":4639,"date":"2012-10-04T15:29:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T22:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rmlsweb.wordpress.com\/?p=4639"},"modified":"2012-10-04T15:29:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T22:29:15","slug":"gentrification-and-fair-housing-a-local-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmlscentral.com\/v1\/2012\/10\/04\/gentrification-and-fair-housing-a-local-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Gentrification and Fair Housing: A Local Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gentrification and Fair Housing:\u00a0 A Local Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Jo Becker, Education\/Outreach Specialist, Fair Housing Council
\nServing Oregon and SW Washington<\/p>\n

In 2008, FHCO launched a tour of Portland\u2019s hidden history of discrimination.\u00a0 The 2.5-hour coach bus trip explores a multitude of the Northwest\u2019s \u201cequity skeletons\u201d hiding in our communal closet, some of which pre-date the Fair Housing Act (FHA)1<\/sup>.\u00a0 Others are recent enough you may remember hearing of in the news.<\/p>\n

On the tour we address inequities and injustices aimed at each protected class but this article will focus mainly on the protected classes of race, color, and national origin.\u00a0 Within that context a lot of different incidents and policies targeted toward a broad spectrum of ethnicities is reviewed.\u00a0 Among them is the public policy of urban renewal \u2013 oft referred to as \u201curban removal\u201d \u2013 that has been perpetrated against a variety of groups over many decades, most notably African Americans.\u00a0 The devastating consequences \u2013 whether intentional or accidental \u2013 of urban renewal are not only a national trend but also a local story.\u00a0 It is a story that continues to affect us in terms of public policies and current neighborhood demographics to this day.<\/p>\n

I recently reread an August 09, 2011 article in The Skanner by Lisa Loving2<\/sup>.\u00a0 The article does an excellent job of detailing the gentrification3<\/sup> Portlanders experienced in the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

The article first sets the stage by illustrating how vibrant and productive the Albina community was in the mid-50s.\u00a0 Due to accepted steering and redlining practices, Albina had become an openly segregated Black community.\u00a0 In fact, in 1950 more than half of Oregon\u2019s African American population (about 11,000) lived in two census tracts in Albina. They were concentrated into a single square mile east of the river in an area that had a density six times greater than the city as a whole.\u00a0 The remaining African Americans, about 2,000, were scattered in other areas around the state.<\/p>\n

The Skanner article goes on to describe how, in three consecutive waves spanning 15-20 years, city officials developed and passed plans to bulldoze a community located in what was becoming vital land within the city center as Portland grew.\u00a0 The first incident demolished over 450 homes and businesses to make way for the Memorial Coliseum in 1956.\u00a0 The same year Portland secured federal funding to, as Lisa Loving says, \u201cpave Interstates 5 and 99 right through hundreds of homes and storefronts, destroying more than 1,100 housing units in South Albina.\u201d\u00a0 Then, in \u201966 Portland applied for federal funds to expand Emanuel Hospital.\u00a0 This proposed project would flatten still more homes and businesses in the same area.<\/p>\n

At this point Albina residents picketed, but to no avail.\u00a0 Demolition began in the late \u201860s in order to make way for the Emanuel expansion; and was soon finished.\u00a0 In a cruel twist of fate, the federal dollars counted on dried up within a few years and construction on the hospital expansion never came to pass.\u00a0 If you drive the streets of Albina today, the expansive open lots that still surround the Hospital are a result of this failed development effort.\u00a0 Precisely on those plots were some of the homes and businesses that were ruthlessly expelled 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

You might wonder if this was a blighted community wrought with problems, making it a target for government-sanctioned improvements.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what Lisa Loving has to say about it in the section of her article subtitled \u201cCause and Effect:\u201d<\/p>\n

Contrary to popular belief, ghetto neighborhoods are not a chance occurrence, nor are they the natural evolution of \u201cold housing stock\u201d that hasn\u2019t been properly maintained by its owners.<\/em><\/p>\n

In her ground-breaking study, \u201cBleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940-2000,\u201d Portland State Urban Studies Adjunct Professor Karen J. Gibson detailed how municipal development policies, coupled with racism in the real estate and banking industries, left Portland\u2019s Black community segregated, ghettoized and, finally, scattered.<\/em><\/p>\n

In cities across the nation, urban power brokers, with the help of the federal government, eagerly engaged in central-city revitalization after World War II.\u00a0 \u2026\u201cThe whole transition has been racial,\u201d Gibson told The Skanner News this week. \u201cPeople paid taxes in Albina \u2013 what did they get for their taxes?\u00a0 \u2026The whole thing has to do with race, and it has to do with real estate.\u00a0 White privilege means something \u2013 it means a difference in wealth and the fact that you could just come in and take over the boulevard,\u201d Gibson said.<\/em><\/p>\n

Neither the residents nor the business owners were given time to prepare nor were they reasonably compensated.\u00a0 The housing stock was not replaced, nor much improved, and former residents were not provided assistance in relocating\u2026\u00a0 Again, quoting The Skanner article:<\/p>\n

<When the plans for> \u2026tearing down Albina homes and businesses for Emanuel\u2019s expansion in 1971 <was rolled out>, many local residents did not realize the plans had been laid years before, according to \u201cHistory of Portland\u2019s African American Community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Emanuel Displaced Person\u2019s Association was founded by Mrs. Leo Warren in 1970 after locals \u201cwere abruptly confronted with the expansion plans.\u201d The city required residents to move out within 90 days, offering homeowners a maximum $15,000 payment and renters a maximum $4,000.<\/em><\/p>\n

A much-hyped agreement signed by the hospital, the <Portland Development Commission> and the Housing Authority of Portland mandated they would use \u201cmaximum energy and enthusiasm\u201d in replacing the lost housing… none of which happened.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Mrs. Warren\u2019s response:\u00a0 \u201cDidn\u2019t they have a long-range plan? After all, if your life\u2019s investment was smashed to splinters by a bulldozer to make room for a hospital, you could at least feel decent and perhaps tolerable about it; but to have it all done for nothing?\u201d<\/p>\n

The sad thing (among a number of one sad things) about this story is that it is only one example.\u00a0 The same thing was happening in communities all across the country \u2013 always disproportionately impacting \u201crelatively powerless residents in central cities, whether in immigrant White ethnic, Black, or skid row neighborhoods,\u201d as PSU professor, Karen Gibson put it.<\/p>\n

Another sad reality is that these government initiatives, along side legalized discrimination, and following in the wake of Oregon\u2019s prominent Ku Klux Klan movement (reportedly the largest Klan west of the Rockies in the 1920s) has resulted in a lack of ethnic diversity and a history of segregated neighborhoods that continues to this day.\u00a0 In terms of segregated neighborhoods, think of Alberta prior to market-based gentrification; think of SE Portland and Gresham today, to name just three examples.\u00a0 As for our relative lack of diversity, many are surprised to learn that despite the Northwest\u2019s reputation for being progressive, liberal, and welcoming, it\u2019s no accident that Oregon\u2019s history has produced among the smallest African American populations in the entire country.\u00a0 According to data from the US Census Bureau, we rank 37th with a 2% Black population when the nation as a whole averages 12%.\u00a0 Washington state ranks only slightly better with 3.7%.\u00a0 One might think that with our proximity to the Pacific Ocean we would have high percentages of Asians and other immigrants.\u00a0 Again looking at data from the Census Bureau, the United States is made up of, on average, 22% non-Caucasians.\u00a0 Oregon is 12% non-Caucasian; Washington is 18%.\u00a0 In fact, Oregon ranks lower than the national average for each ethic group counted in the Census with the exception of indigenous populations native to America, Alaska, Hawaii and other Pacific islands.\u00a0 All of this helps explain why we, at the Fair Housing Council, continue to see ethnicity-based housing discrimination as the second largest area of complaints we deal with.<\/p>\n

\n

To expand on this historical perspective, I encourage you to check out The Skanner article2<\/sup> to learn more about this part of Oregon\u2019s history.\u00a0 I would also recommend reading about the discriminatory experiences of Dr. DeNorval Unthank, a noted African-American civil rights leader in Portland.\u00a0 If you\u2019re unfamiliar with the Dr. Unthank\u2019s all too typical story the Oregon Historical Society\u2019s site details it at http:\/\/www.ohs.org\/education\/oregonhistory\/historical_records\/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=b69f9218-1c23-b9d3-68aaccca8b57606b.\u00a0 Another, and comprehensive, read on current inequity in neighborhoods and the housing market borne out of longstanding policies and prejudice can be found in The Oregonian\u2019s summer 2012 series entitled \u201cLocked Out\u201d by Brad Schmidt (http:\/\/projects.oregonlive.com\/housing).<\/p>\n

As Winston Churchill once wrote, \u201cThe further back you look, the further forward you can see.\u201d\u00a0 Bringing history full circle to the present helps us see how our past colors our present and can influence our future.<\/p>\n

Please consider joining us on one of our \u201cFasten Your Seat Belt: It\u2019s Been A Bumpy Ride\u201d bus tours.\u00a0 Many of the individuals who have participated in our tours have shared their opinions that the tour helps provide a visual connection to Portland\u2019s history.\u00a0 Visit www.FHCO.org\/tours.htm for pricing and other details.<\/p>\n

—————————————————————<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This article brought to you by the Fair Housing Council; a nonprofit serving the state of Oregon and SW Washington.\u00a0 Learn more and \/ or sign up for our free, periodic newsletter at www.FHCO.org.<\/p>\n

Qs about your rights and responsibilities under fair housing laws?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Visit www.FHCO.org or call 1-800-424-3247 Ext. 2.<\/p>\n

Qs about this article?\u00a0 Want to schedule an in-office fair housing training program or speaker for corporate or association functions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contact Sandy Stienecker, Education \/ Outreach Specialist at sstienecker@FHCO.org or 503\/23-8197 Ext. 109<\/p>\n

[1] Federally protected classes under the Fair Housing Act include:\u00a0 race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (children), and disability.\u00a0 Oregon law also protects marital status, source of income, sexual orientation, and domestic violence survivors.\u00a0 Washington law covers martial status, sexual orientation, and domestic violence survivors, and honorably discharged veterans \/ military status. Additional protected classes have been added in particular geographic areas; visit FHCO.org\/mission.htm and read the section entitled \u201cView Local Protected Classes\u201d for more information.<\/h6>\n
2<\/sup> \u201cPortland Gentrification:\u00a0 The North Williams Avenue That Was \u2013 1956;\u201d http:\/\/theskanner.com\/article\/Portland-Gentrification-The-North-Williams-Avenue-That-Was–1956-2011-08-09<\/h6>\n
3<\/sup>http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com defines gentrification as the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.\u00a0 Lisa Loving quotes Portland State University (PSU) professor, Karen Gibson (author of \u201cBleeding Albina:\u00a0 A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940-2000) in The Skanner article, \u201cLuxury apartments, convention centers, sports arenas, hospitals, universities, and freeways were the land uses that reclaimed space occupied by relatively powerless residents in central cities, whether in immigrant White ethnic, Black, or skid row neighborhoods.\u201d<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2008, FHCO launched a tour of Portland\u2019s hidden history of discrimination. The 2.5-hour coach bus trip explores a multitude of the Northwest\u2019s \u201cequity skeletons\u201d hiding in our communal closet, some of which pre-date the Fair Housing Act (FHA)1. Others are recent enough you may remember hearing of in the news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[115],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/rmlscentral.com\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/fhco_logo.gif","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/rmlscentral.com\/v1\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":false,"player_link":false,"audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_play":{"key":"google_play","url":"https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Iinki5xppiud4zt7r4evlggzzcy?t=Real_Talk_with_RMLS","label":"Google Play","icon":"google-play.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/rmlscentral.com\/v1\/feed\/podcast","embedCode":"

Gentrification and Fair Housing: A Local Story<\/a><\/blockquote>\n