Lisa K. Bates

Like most American cities in the mid-20th century, Portland, Oregon used the federal urban renewal program to remake its urban core, displacing Black neighborhoods for highways, sports stadia, and business districts. By the early 2000s, these same  neighborhoods that had been considered blighted were rapidly gentrifying. In response to community resistance to a new urban renewal area plan, the City of Portland developed the first municipal housing policy to prioritize residents with a family history of displacement due to government actions. This presentation considers the outcomes for the North/Northeast Portland Housing Strategy from the perspective of community well-being, asking whether it achieves the goal of spatial reparations. 

Lisa K. Bates, Ph.D. is Professor in the Black Studies Department at Portland State University where she is also affiliated with the Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning. Her scholarship focuses on housing and community development policy and planningHer work to describe gentrification and displacement in Portland has been widely cited and used as a model for planning to address neighborhood change. Dr. Bates leads the Evicted in Oregon team, which tracks eviction cases, evaluates public policy, and uses community-based methods to develop insights about the practices and procedures of eviction as a mechanism of displacement. She is also collaborating with Dr. Amie Thurber to evaluate Portland’s ground-breaking policy to support housing opportunities for families displaced over multiple generations of urban renewal.   

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