Portland tabs $96M to reverse gentrification


City officials set aside money to build affordable housing and help residents stay in their neighborhoods.

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BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR

Portland officials are setting aside money to build affordable housing and help residents stay in their neighborhoods.

The cost of reversing gentrification: At least $96 million.

The vision includes a preference policy, inspired by a New York City program, to put both current residents barely holding onto their apartment and former residents at the front of the line for subsidized apartments and down-payment assistance.

No one pretends the program can make up for decades of displacement, which includes the destruction of entire neighborhoods for Emanuel Hospital (now Legacy Emanuel Medical Center) and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. From 2000 to 2014 alone, 8,900 African Americans moved out of inner North and Northeast as gentrification rolled through, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.

The money is “a long way from the amount that would make a difference,” said Tony Hopson Sr., founder of North Portland’s Self Enhancement Inc., a school and social-service center that serves mostly black families.

(READ MORE: OregonLive.com)

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