PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Public officials could soon finalize an agreement with Black Portlanders who alleged they were displaced from an area their community once called home.
During a meeting on Thursday afternoon, Portland City Council is slated to reach a settlement involving the December 2022 lawsuit from Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2. The association, representing 26 plaintiffs who live in the Albina district or descend from relatives who did, accused the officials of destroying Black people’s homes in the name of “urban renewal” in the mid-20th century.
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About two and a half years ago, KOIN 6 reported that several residents were displaced by the construction of Interstate 5 and Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the 1950s and 1960s.
The following decade, about 188 properties were demolished to make way for the new Legacy Emanuel Hospital. About 158 of them were residential properties, Black people accounting for about 74% of residents. The displaced buildings also included 32 businesses and four churches or community organizations.
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The lawsuit claims residents were not adequately compensated, and some weren’t compensated at all, after being intimidated by hospital representatives and told that the city would take their homes if they didn’t leave willingly.
In addition to the City of Portland, Prosper Portland and the hospital were all listed as defendants in the original complaint — but officials say Legacy Health settled their portion of the lawsuit late last year. Both the city and its economic development agency are still expected to dole out $1 million each to defendants.
“Portland’s systemic discrimination and displacement harmed Black communities, by excluding them from homeownership and wealth-building opportunities; by denying them access to educational resources, jobs and healthy neighborhoods; and by perpetuating segregation, displacement, and harmful stereotypes through the zoning code, deeds and covenants, lending practices, public housing and urban renewal,” the agreement reads.
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Along with the payout, officials are offering Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 a “static display” in the Keller Auditorium if it is renovated. The namesake of the neighboring Ira Keller Fountain led the urban renewal projects that impacted Black Portlanders decades ago, according to the city.
The settlement could also direct the music venue to give a “10-year hiring preference” to descendants of the Albina district and establish an annual “Descendants’ Day”, among other terms.
