For more than 60 years, North/Northeast (N/NE) Portland has served as the residential, economic, spiritual and cultural heart of the city’s Black community. Waves of urban development (beginning with seizing homes through eminent domain during the 1950s and continuing through more recent gentrification) have disrupted the community, and by the early 2000s, the area, once home to the highest concentration of Black residents in the state of Oregon, had lost two-thirds of its Black residents (Bates, 2013). 

In 2015, following years of organizing by Black community leaders, the City of Portland adopted a N/NE Housing Strategy with specific rental development, home repair loans and grants and homeownership goals. The goal of the N/NE Housing Strategy is to address the harmful impacts of urban renewal by creating affordable housing in now-gentrifying areas. The policy is tied to Portland’s Fair Housing Plan to advance racial equity through reparative action. The program builds new affordable housing with priority for families with inter-generational ties to North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods. A key aspect of the strategy is a Preference Policy that prioritizes applicants “who were displaced, are at risk of displacement, or are the descendants of families displaced due to urban renewal in N/NE Portland” (Portland Housing Bureau, 2019, p. 109). 

Portland, Oregon’s N/NE Preference Policy is among the first in the nation to recreate housing access in a historic community of color for those whose families experienced displacement due to urban renewal and gentrification. Applicants must demonstrate that they themselves, their parents, and/or grandparents lived in the neighborhoods affected by urban renewal since the mid-1950s. Those with the longest ties to the most affected areas have priority placement into new rental housing or homeownership opportunities. Families whose homes were condemned under a City eminent domain action receive the maximum priority. The application is open to former and current N/NE residents, providing both a path to return and an opportunity to stay in stable, low-cost housing.