Call This Home Conversation Series

(2017 Project)

This partnership between Portland Housing Center, Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, City Club of Portland, EcoNorthwest, Neighborhood Partnerships, North Star Civic Foundation, Open:Housing, and Oregon Humanities was hosted with generous support from JP Morgan Chase.

Our city faces a housing crisis. Current policy conversations focus on the urgent needs of shelter and escalating rents. But the problem is not just economic. It is deeper – and longer reaching. Local civic partners hosted series of conversations, "We Call This Home: Race, Wealth, and Home Ownership," that focused our region on one of the toughest challenges facing our city: How do we ensure that the decisions we make as a growing city reflect both the wisdom we've gained through our shared history of inequality, and also the visions we share for a safe, abundant, and affordable place for all to live?

We Call This Home discussions were designed to focus on wealth inequality in our region, explore what more equitable outcomes might look like, and envision a path toward new outcomes.

Events: 

Look Again: New Perspectives On Our Housing Crisis

At this event, we host a provocative conversation between two dynamic national leaders, Dr. Rhea Combs and Rukaiyah Adams. Dr. Combs is the Curator of Film and Photography at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Ms. Adams serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Meyer Memorial Trust. Together they will explore both civic and cultural aspects of the questions of race and belonging in our region in a wide-ranging, no holds barred conversation.

Think & Drink on Poverty, Displacement, and Inequality

At this event, we'll talk with Portland leaders and activists working on creative ways to use land to mitigate the effects of the city's housing shortage and build more stable, prosperous communities. Our guests include Alan Hipólito, executive director of Verde, and John W. Haines, executive director of Mercy Corps Northwest. Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, will moderate the conversation.

Verde is a social enterprise and advocacy organization focused on building environmental wealth through projects benefiting low-income communities and communities of color. It is a founding partner in Living Cully, a collaborative effort with Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, Hacienda Community Development Corporation, and Native American Youth and Family Center that reinterprets sustainability as an anti-poverty strategy by concentrating environmental investments at the neighborhood scale.

Mercy Corps Northwest provides a variety of programs to assist low-income citizens of Oregon and Washington to create more productive, secure, and satisfying lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. Their efforts include the first-ever community investment trust, a financial arrangement designed to enable people to make small investments in commercial property in their community.

Think & Drink is supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust: Oregonians investing in Oregon’s arts, heritage, and humanities. We are also thankful for the support of our media sponsor, Willamette Week; our corporate sponsors, Tonkon Torp and Stoel Rives; and our community partners, Portland Housing Center, North Star Civic Foundation, City Club of Portland, and Agora Journalism Center.

Racial Wealth Gap: Hidden Costs/Visible Solutions

The hidden cost of being African American in the United States includes an unrelenting cycle of intergenerational poverty for many families. In his forthcoming book, Thomas Shapiro reveals how "The lack of family assets along with continuing racial discrimination in crucial areas like homeownership dramatically impact the everyday lives of many black families, reversing gains earned in schools and on jobs, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which far too many find themselves trapped."

He will join Jesse Beason, Vice President of Public Affairs with the NW Health Foundation for a conversations that connects national problems to local realities. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jesse served as Executive Director of Proud Ground, and as Senior Policy Director of Housing, Culture and Planning for then-Commissioner Sam Adams. 

Join these two dynamic speakers to learn about the hidden costs of the racial wealth gap – and visible solutions developed by communities in need.

Pushed Out: No Affordable Homes in Portland

In five years, most homes inside Portland's city center will be out of reach for most Portland families. This leaves many families in Portland with no opportunity to become owners close to jobs, schools, public parks and the social and financial centers of the city. 

This is the stunning conclusion that Portland Housing Center and EcoNorthwest draw from analysis of current real estate and economic trends. What does this mean for our growing city? Is this outcome inevitable? How can we learn from our history of inequality to ensure that we develop policies and planning tools to change the tide, and keep Portland affordable and welcoming to the next generation? Join Dr. Lisa Bates, professor of urban studies at Portland State University and Lorelei Juntunen, partner a the economic consulting firm EcoNorthwest,  for a look at how we got here – and new ideas about how to move forward. 

Think & Drink on Land Ownership and Belonging

A discussion about the history of discrimination in land ownership and the effects of this history on identity and belonging. In Oregon, only 30 percent of Black families own their home, compared to 62 percent of white families. Nationally, Black Americans own less than 1 percent of private agricultural land. 

Why is land ownership so unequal? At this event, the first in our 2017 Portland Think & Drink series, we’ll explore how Black Oregonians and other communities of color have been affected by exclusionary land ownership policies. Our guests are Rhea Combs of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gwen Carr of Oregon Black Pioneers, and Melissa Lowery, director of the documentary Black Girl in Suburbia. The conversation will be moderated by Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities.

From Housing Crisis to Housing Action

Join us for a conversation with housing leaders about steps to close the minority home ownership gap now. 2017 has been a year of intense focus on housing. We are proud to close the "We Call This Home" conversation series for 2017 with a panel of local leaders focused on concrete next steps. Moderated by Janet Byrd, the panel will include Margaret Salazar, Director of Oregon Housing and Community Services, Ernesto Fonesca, the new Executive Director of Hacienda CDC, and Maxine Fitzpatrick, the Executive Director of Portland Community Reinvestment Initiative.