As a child, Quentin Staples lived in Northeast Portland until his family moved to Southeast Portland because of gentrification. The new neighborhood never felt like home.
“There’s not as many Black people out there as on this side so I had to deal with people not knowing my culture and my history and where I came from,” said Staples, now a photographer. “So obviously when we moved out there I had to deal with a lot more racism.”
From the 1950s through the 1970s, the city forced many families from their homes in the Albina District. Later, in the 2000s, rents doubled and tripled in Northeast Portland neighborhoods. Many more families could not afford to stay.
That has changed for Staples. He now lives in the Dr. Darrell Millner Building on North Interstate Avenue, due to the North/Northeast Preference Policy, aimed at providing some measure of restorative justice for the displaced Black community in Portland. Intergenerational ties to the neighborhood are part of the eligibility criteria, along with income-based requirements. Residents of the Millner Building must meet those criteria.
This summer, residents of the Millner Building participated in a free photography and writing workshop called If We Could Talk. Photos created by residents will be on display at the BLACK Gallery on Northwest Flanders Street in Portland from Dec. 12 through Feb. 16. The gallery is run by the nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland.
“It made me think how being displaced made me feel and the effects on me and my family,” Staples said. “I got to hear other peoples’ writing about how it affected their family. We had a day where we went back to our old homes in the neighborhood and we took pictures of that. It was interesting to see how my old house had changed. Something I noticed was that there were way more trees. Especially in front of my house. Why were there no trees when I was a kid?”
Summer workshop
If We Could Talk explores what home means amidst a history of racial displacement. Residents at the Millner Building, ages 13 to 60 years old, met every Tuesday throughout the summer for 90 minutes to write and take photos using 35mm cameras.
Gwendolyn Hoeffgen and Domenic Toliver, both working toward graduate degrees in art and social practice at Portland State University, facilitated the workshop.
“The purpose of the Millner Building is to create affordable housing for the Black community that has been displaced through urban renewal and gentrification, all conspicuous displacement in NE Portland,” Hoeffgen said. “We’re looking at the history of this area, people who have roots and ties to this area to bring them back. It’s all about the return.”
One workshop participant is a mother who grew up in North Portland and remembers streets and places from her childhood. Now her kids are growing up here.
Sometimes participants used writing prompts at the beginning of the sessions to garner ideas, stories, poems and letters. Prompts addressed what home looks like, smells like, tastes like. People wrote in response and took photos representing the senses.
“The photography workshop helped me share my message of finding strength in adversity,” said participant Yolanda Lampkin. “It showed me that our community is a place where we return to our strength again and again — rooted in connection and held together by love.”
‘Conspicuous displacement’
Most people living at the Millner building returned to Portland in the last few years, after the city worked to dismantle their community three-quarters of a century ago, and gentrification pushed many more out early this century.
From the late 1950s until the early 1970s, the city, Prosper Portland (then Portland Development Commission) and Legacy Emanuel intentionally displaced hundreds of families from their homes and businesses in the Albina District.
The city tried different tactics to get people to leave their homes, according to a 2022 lawsuit the city settled in June. From the late 1950s to the late 1960s, officials from Emanuel worked to intimidate people into leaving, telling them the city would take their homes whether they left voluntarily or not. It was a campaign of intimidation sanctioned by the city of Portland and the Portland Development Commission. After taking their homes, the city and Emanuel destroyed them. Many were never redeveloped, and remain empty lots today.
Then, from the late 1960s until 1973, the City and PDC publicized lies claiming the Albina District was “blighted” because of the plaintiffs and their families — the Black community. They took the remaining homes and businesses by abusing eminent domain laws, claiming they were carrying out urban renewal.
The city used eminent domain to take the homes of families in the Albina District for construction of Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum and the expansion of Emanuel Hospital. The law requires governments to provide “just compensation” in exchange for taking private property for public use. But many families forced from their homes for these projects got nothing in exchange for their homes.
In June, the city agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle the 2022 lawsuit filed by 26 descendants of Black Portlanders the city had forced to move, and who accused the city of conspiring to violate their civil rights.
One family involved in the lawsuit lived in a home on Northeast Knott Street they bought in 1951. In the early 1960s, Emanuel launched a campaign of intimidation to get them and other families to move. In 1963, the family sold their home to a real estate agent for $10. Emanuel bought the property for $4,332 in 1965 from a subsequent owner. The original family received nothing.
The City and PDC compensated Emanuel through tax credits for the cost of homes the hospital purchased and demolished during its intimidation campaign.
Although the Emmanuel Displaced Person’s Association tried to stop the relocation of Emanuel families, by the fall of 1971, some area residents had negotiated settlements and relocated into replacement housing. That added new problems.
“Some residents were moved to newly constructed public housing — often built in isolated or undesirable areas — creating new neighborhoods of concentrated poverty and disadvantage,” according to the Urban Institute.
Between 1971 and 1973, PDC demolished 158 residential and 30 commercial properties as part of the Emmanuel Hospital Urban Renewal Project. Of the homeowners, 74% were Black. Many were never compensated for the loss of their homes.
Later, at the beginning of the current century, rising property taxes, higher rents and the increased cost of living as a result of gentrification caused many Black residents to leave North and Northeast Portland. Staples and his family were among the group, and he remembers how it felt.
“How do I live here and feel comfortable when these new buildings, these new people came and now they’re looking down at me?” Staples said. “I’m being made to feel like I don’t belong here any more. How does that work? I’m from here. I’ve walked up and down these blocks all my life.”
In 2015, the city implemented the North/Northeast Preference Policy — aimed at helping people the city harmed through illegal eminent domain and unfair housing practices. The policy established a housing waitlist for people displaced or at risk of being displaced. Applicants who reside in North and Northeast Portland and those with historical ties to the area are considered first for housing opportunities.
‘Home is not gone’
Many people with similar experiences were forced to leave their homes and the community where they could attend school with friends, walk to church and feel safe.
For Staples, living at the Millner Building and participating in projects like If We Could Talk are a chance to rebuild those broken connections.
Staples said he feels more like a family with people from the class now and believes all neighborhoods should be like that. The facilitators concurred.
“For me, the best part of the project was seeing the relationships develop throughout the summer,” Hoeffgen said. “There was a moment in a later workshop when we talked about how home is not gone, even though it’s been tried to be erased. It is still here for people that are here.”
Toliver watched people in the Millner building coming downstairs together to the workshop on Tuesdays. They met outside, while children played on the playground. Residents and facilitators ate together and built community.
“Some introduced themselves and didn’t already know each other,” Toliver said. “They saw each other in passing and stopped to talk in the lobby. It felt cool to be part of that. They are so different from each other but in that space everyone can get along and relate to each other. That was really special. It was cool to see them grow into a family.”
The BLACK Gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. by appointment only. Visits can be scheduled by emailing info@theblackgallerypdx.com and student groups are encouraged.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2025 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 40.
This article appears in December 17, 2025.