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Let’s talk about the relationship between Portland Business Alliance, Home Builders Association, and other relevant groups facilitating criminalization and gentrification in our communities. Buckle in, this will be a long one.
First and foremost, what is the relevance of the Home Builders Association (HBA)? Some people have pointed out Urban Housing Development (UHD) LLC is a member of HBA. UHD LLC is the company who bought Red House when it was foreclosed: https://twitter.com/BashingFash/status/1336907082616848384?s=20
As correctly pointed out, we cannot make a direct link to collusion between Ted Wheeler and UHD. However, it is worth noting the Home Builders Association is one of the members of United for Portland (remember that PAC that helped Wheeler get reelected?) https://twitter.com/insektmute/status/1336814375164755969?s=20
As many may remember, Portland Business Alliance was one of the key organizations behind the United for Portland PAC. We discussed briefly how PBA is empowered through the Clean & Safe Enhanced Services District (ESD) and how that relates to the PAC: https://twitter.com/StopSweepsPDX/status/1314683085334540288?s=20
This is definitely not the first time PBA and HBA have worked together. Earlier this year, for example, they helped draft a letter responding to covid-19 (all the ESDs signed on as well). Of course, they did not mention any eviction or sweep moratoriums: https://portlandalliance.com/news/2020-03-20/-regional-business-leaders-respond-to-covid-19.html
Now, we’re not trying to claim PBA and HBA are somehow the masterminds behind the foreclosure and eviction of the Red House. It’s just important to understand the type of companies who make up these lobbying organizations.
There is a lot of overlap in board membership and lobbying initiatives between Portland Business Alliance and Home Builders Association, as well as other groups, such as Building Owners Managers Associations (BOMA), Portland Metro Association of Realtors (PMAR) and NAIOP.
But these are just lobbying organizations at the end of the day. Who has the power in the City to act on the will of these lobbyists and developers? Why, of course, that would be none other than Prosper Portland, Portland’s urban renewal agency.
Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission (PDC), is responsible for a large majority of the gentrification in Portland, stemming back to their formation in 1958. Most notably, the Emanuel Hospital Expansion. More info: https://prosperportland.us/what-we-do/urban-renewal/
There is a lot written on the Emanuel Hospital Expansion if you want to learn more. We recommend reading the book “Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City” and this article “Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment”: http://kingneighborhood.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BLEEDING-ALBINA_-A-HISTORY-OF-COMMUNITY-DISINVESTMENT-1940%E2%80%932000.pdf
Many often view urban renewal as a thing of the past, but it is still actively happening. Prosper Portland currently has 11 ongoing urban renewal projects. One of them is the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Plan. You may have guessed it, the boundary includes the Red House.
One of the stated goals of this urban renewal initiative is to increase affordable housing. This next part is speculative; however, we can probably assume HBA and their members have a vested interest in this urban renewal plan (more land to build on!).
“Affordable housing” sounds good in theory, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. In the words of LA Tenant’s Union, “affordable housing” policy is scam (please read!!): https://latenantsunion.medium.com/affordable-housing-is-a-scam-9a4c43ba8149
To summarize, privately owned affordable housing units will convert back to market rate when public subsidies run out. Basically, private companies receive public money to build housing which will eventually make a lot of profit when they become market rate.
Furthermore, oftentimes construction of “affordable housing” requires the destruction of people’s homes. Homes that sometimes are actually affordable for poor people. This leads more people into homelessness and facilitates gentrification.
Remember, we have enough housing to house every homeless person. Many of those houses/apartments are vacant however. The need isn’t to build more. The need is to open these vacant homes to everyone in need.
This is why groups like Home Builders Association display on their website they proudly support and lobby for affordable housing. It has nothing to do with actually supporting poor people. It’s all about how they can profit off of it.
Back to the Interstate Plan, what’s going on with it right now? Glad you asked! Next week, December 16th, City Council will vote to increase funding for the urban renewal district by $67 million. More details here: https://www.interstateplan.com
Tonight at 7pm, Emmanuel Displaced Persons Association is hosting a zoom webinar to talk about the plan and why we all should urge City Council to vote no on the expansion of the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Plan. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsdeurqjwqHdKsY752SUTv7nhnu-q7olZF
We urge you to attend the webinar tonight. If not, we still encourage you all to follow closely what happens at City Council next week. Pay attention to who is lobbying in support. What are their affiliations? You might hear some familiar names.
In conclusion, the relationships between all of these lobbying groups and Prosper Portland is extremely incestuous. Mapping out what all of these relationships actually are warrants much more than a Twitter thread.
One thing is for sure, these groups and their members are often directly responsible for putting more people into homelessness. And when they are homeless, they lobby to sweep them out of sight. All the while, profiting off the exploitation of poverty.
