Portland observer., February 23, 2022, Image 1

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Volume LII • Number 04
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • Febuary 23, 2022
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Black residents protest the forced demolition of neighborhood homes to make room for urban redevelopment and the expansion of Emanuel Hospital in north Portland in
1973. Nearly 50 years later, a new effort calls for the city to make restitution to Black families who were impacted. (Photo from Oregon Historical Society collection)
Rekindling a Promise
Historic
displacement of
Black families
addressed
By Beverly Corbell
The Portland Observer
Black community members with histor-
ical ties to housing lost to urban redevelop-
ment and the expansion of Emanuel Hos-
pital 50 years ago should be compensated
with restitution, a financial promise by the
city at the time but never fulfilled, accord-
ing to new group of advocates rooted in the
Black community.
The Emanuel Displaced Persons As-
sociation 2 (EDPA2), comprised of fam-
ilies affected by the hospital expansion,
partnered last year with graduate students
in Portland State University’s Masters of
Urban and Regional Planning program to
create an in-depth study demonstrating the
negative impacts from housing displace-
ment of Black community members.
Much of the historically Black Albina
community in north and northeast Portland
was labeled “blighted” in 1973 and marked
for Urban redevelopment, which allowed
the city to condemn hundreds of homes
and businesses.
The executive summary of the report,
titled “Reclamation Towards the Futurity
of Central Albina,” states that in the ear-
ly 1960s, Emanuel Hospital (now Legacy
Emanuel Medical Center) and the Portland
Development Commission (now Prosper
Portland) began Urban Renewal projects
that entailed the removal of hundreds of
Black families and the demolition of nearly
300 homes and businesses.
Community members protested by
forming the Emanuel Displaced Persons
Association, and their efforts secured a
promise by city stakeholders in 1971 “to
guarantee restitution for their taken homes
and businesses,” according to the report,
but that promise was broken and no re-
placements were provided.
That’s the basis of current claims by
EDPA2, said co-founder Byrd, who goes
by one name. “The most important part
of the report is restitution of the unful-
filled agreement,” she said. “This is a city
of Portland problem, but it’s not just the
city, but also Emanuel, Home Forward and
Prosper Portland.”
The city’s answer to claims by both
EDPA and EDPA2 has been to build af-
fordable housing units such as apart-
ments, but Byrd says that does not satisfy
the original agreement because an apart-
ment is substandard to a house, and does
not allow for the accumulation of wealth
by those families.
Ed Johnson, director of litigation for the
Oregon Law Center, told Oregon Public
Broadcasting in 2020 that building more
apartments does not equate to restitution.
Continued on Page 16