Report
On
The Negro in Portland:
A Progress Report 1945-1957
To The Board of Governors,
The City Club of Portland State University:
In May of 1955 you authorized the appointment of a committee to examine the status of Negroes in Portland and to determine what progress had been made in race relations during the ten-year period 1944-1945. As with the 1945 City Club committee, whose excellent report was so well received, your committee has understood its assignment to be two-fold: (1) to study the treatment of the Negro in social and economic life of the city; and (2) to make recommendations for change in present practices and procedures which might lead to more just and harmonious race relations.
Since 1945, the Negro population in Portland has decreased from approximately 18,000 to about 11,000, which number represents about 3% of Portland’s population. With the cessation of war in 1945 and the consequent reduction in wartime industrial activities and its heavy semi-skilled labor demands, many Negroes who had migrated into Oregon from the South headed for areas where economic opportunities appeared greater. The 1945 City Club report quite accurately predicted that a more-or-less permanent population of approximately 10,000 Negroes would remain in greater Portland and concluded that this group would have to be “harmoniously integrated into the community life.” We as a committee believed, therefore, that our report should analyze as thoroughly as possible the extent to which these remaining Negroes had been incorporated into the economic and social life of Portland, especially insofar as housing and employment opportunities were concerned
We have discovered that some definite progress has been made, as it has throughout the country. But we also have found that prejudice and discrimination still exist in Portland, to the degree at least the most Negroes have not in any realistic sense been “harmoniously integrated” into Portland’s community life.
II THE STATUS OF PORTLAND’S NEGRO POPULATION
Over fifty percent of Portland’s 11,000 Negroes are concentrated in census tracts 22 and 23, better known as the Albina district (boundaries of which are Union Avenue on the east, Interstate Avenue on the west, Oregon street on the south, and Fremont Street on the north). A gradual expansion northward and northeastward into tract24, 25, 34, and 35 has been taking effect for some time. And although it is probably true that Negroes are residing presently in all of Portland’s 61 census tracts, over half of them are still concentrated in this one small area of the city which is about two miles long and one mile wide. A recent survey undertaken by the community Council estimated that living conditions in the Albina district are more crowded today than ten years ago due to the closing, after the war, of public housing developments at Guild’s Lake and Vanport which housed large numbers of Negro war workers.
It is the feeling of your committee that most white Portlanders are unaware of the social and economic problems which face the city’s Negro population. Responsible public officials have made little effort to publicize the presence of segregated housing and general slum conditions which we have found do exist. The previous city administration showed little interest in issues at stake, as evidence d by its appointments to the Portland Housing Authority and the consequent shift in attitude and policies of the Authority. No longer was the Authority primarily interested in promoting low cost public housing for low income families, particularly nonwhite families unable to find adequate housing. Urban renewal plans were never approved for the Broadway-Steel Bridge area, partly, your Committee feels, for the reason that no one was prepared to face up to the problem of relocating in adequate homes that displaced citizens, many of whom would have been non-whites. Neither the major nor the Council showed sufficient willingness or imagination to formulate a constructive housing program and to request the necessary operating funds from the electorate. The city budget for such matters has been totally inadequate for years. Your committee found the two city agencies which should be most concerned about blighted housing conditions, the Health Bureau and the Building Division, to be grossly understaffed and unconcerned. Even if the city so desired, it has not the manpower to initiate inspections for code violations. Unless a particular violation is reported to the Council, unhealthy and generally unsafe conditions are apt to remain unnoticed by public authorities. Only last September, Commissioner Ormond Bean stated: “It worries me that the city’s business has to be run on such a low budget. It’s false economy.”
There has been no indications as yet what the new city administration plans to do about any of these problems. Interest in urban renewal plans has been rekindled by Mayor Schrunk who feels strongly about the need for such a program. The program of whereto transplant Negroes who will be evicted from the Broadway-Steel Bridge area selected as the site of the Exposition-Recreation Center will present no easy solution unless prevailing attitudes toward integrated housing in Portland become more favorable.
III HOUSING
In confining a majority of its Negroes to a restricted section of the city, Portland has forced them to live in crowded, ancient, unhealthy and wholly inadequate dwellings. Recent estimates are that 4400 of the 5000 homes (not all of which are Negro by any means) in the Williams Avenue or Albina area were built prior to World War I. Furthermore, little or no new homes construction is taking place within the confines of what has become literally Negro ghetto. There has been a noticeable lack of available funds for home improvement loans except in the last year or so, and then on a limited scale. The City Planning Commission in its survey of the last Broadway-Steel bridge area for urban renewal, discovered over sixty percent of the housing to be substandard, Because of shortage of available Negro housing, it was found not uncommon for a Negro family to live in a single substandard room.
Overcrowding, below-average living conditions and the generally lower economic level of Negroes have conspired to produce disquieting symptoms of social disorganization. The incidence of crime in the William Avenue area is greater than for the city as a whole: broken homes are common and children are not infrequently the victims of family description. In Eliot school, which serves the neighborhood, 42.5 % of the children have only one parent at home.
Such conditions create a drain on the taxpayers’ dollar the cost of social welfare, police and fire services is considerably above the revenues obtained through property taxes in this depressed district. The better housed and more prosperous citizens of Portland pay annually for the confinement of the Negro minority to an old slum neighborhood .
The impact of segregation in housing reaches into almost every other aspect of Negro life. The existence of a Negro ghetto implies segregation in education, in fact if not in form, for the schools in the neighborhood reflect the preponderance of Negroes residing nearby. Moreover, if Negroes are blocked from moving into better homes as their economic capacity warrants, an important incentive for self-improvement is taken away. Earnings which might have been devoted to payments on a new house are diverted into other, often less beneficial channels. Finally, confinement to an inferior and relatively unattractive neighborhood is a daily reminder of the prejudice of the white majority, and constant reinforcement of feelings of inferiority and resentment.
BASIS OF SEGREGATION
Portland’s minority housing problem is caused by two factors: the relatively low income of Negroes and their resulting inability to acquire better places in which to live; and second, a pattern of resistance to non-white purchase of homes in predominately white areas of the city. The first cause is an economic one, which depends for cure upon better education and employment opportunities. The second is a complex weave of community attitudes and fears, and financial and commercial practices. This section of the report deals only with the difficulties financially qualified Negroes have in finding homes suitable to their tastes and stations in life.
Primary source of residential segregation is the “myth” that property values will decline when non-whites enter a previously all-white neighborhood. This notion has been fostered, perhaps, by the low-quality housing in which most of our Negro citizens have lived. But it must be remembered that this inferior housing is all that has been available to most Negroes, and where they are permitted to go beyond the confines of their “assigned” district, it has almost invariably been in an area in which the property values have already been declining for some time. In short, the Negro has been traditionally allocated those neighborhoods which the whites no longer want because they have grown old or undesirable for some other reason.
Until 1952 the doctrine that Negroes depress property values was the official position of the Portland Realty Board. At present, this doctrine has been officially abandoned, but it is common knowledge in many circles that 90 percent or more of the real estate brokers in Portland will not sell a home to a Negro in a white neighborhood even though the prospective buyer can handle the deal financially. Your committee feels that such practices constitute a violation of state policy as declared in the Fair Employment Practices Act of 1949.
The real estate brokers defend this practice with a two-fold argument. They contend, first that they have a duty to help maintain property values and that sale to a Negro would violate this trust. Also, they point out that if they sell to Negroes in white areas, their business will be hurt by resentment from angered residents of the affected neighborhood.
The fear of reprisals could be eliminated, your committee believes, by either an order of the Governor or an amendment to the state real estate law requiring all brokers and salesman to conform to Oregon’s declared policy of non-discrimination. If such official action were taken the broker who sells to a Negro otherwise qualified could answer criticism by pointing out that he is doing only that which is required by law. Moreover, no other broker or salesman could steal away business since all would have to comply with the law.
As to the argument that Negroes depress property values, most available evidence tends to disprove this claim. Studies have shown, however, that values may decline if white neighbors panic and flee, selling their homes at rock-bottom prices. In some instances, especially in the eastern United States, such “block-busting” has been instigated by brokers themselves in search of easy profits
In Portland, available evidence includes a recent study conducted by the Urban League which concludes that the allegation that the introduction of non-whites into a residential area results in depreciation of property values is unsupported by fact and is “without valid foundation.” The study consisted of comparing the market values of property in five test areas where non-whites had purchased homes with market values of property in the same period in five similar control areas where non-whites had not entered. Considering the test areas as a whole, the trend of property values generally followed an upward curve, the total average price gain in re-sales after the introduction of non-whites being 27.7 percent. At the same time, the total average price gain in the control areas was 28.7 percent. The difference of one percent appeared to be accidental and without significance.
While the Urban League study did not exhaust the opportunities for gauging the impact of non-whites on property values in Portland, inasmuch as there has been considerable scattering of non-whites among the census tracts in the city, nevertheless the conclusions offered by the report are in harmony with the results obtained in similar studies in other cities. Moreover, there has been at least one small but successful attempt at an integrated housing development in Portland.
If in specific cases the entry of non-whites into a hitherto white neighborhood has lowered property values, your committee feels that this result nor from any defect inherent in non-whites as property-owners , but rather from the ignorance, fear and hostility of white people already present in the area. Property values are, of course, ultimately subjective, and if neighbors of non-white believe the of their properties has been hurt, and if they act on their beliefs by panic-selling for low bids, the market value of the properties in question is undoubtedly lowered. If on the other hand the neighbors of an otherwise qualified non-white accept him and live as a neighbors in the manner recommended by our religious teachers and our historic American concepts of equality and human dignity, it is difficult for your committee to see wherein values can be harmed.
Your committee feels that time and money could well be spent on a comprehensive study of the attitudes and fears help by Portland’s white majority towards the city’s Negro population. We have not accumulated sufficient evidence to enable us to treat the matter conclusively but we can cite two particular surveys as examples. The Urban League examined the voting records of the 1950 city referendum when the Civil Rights Ordinance was defeated. The heaviest negative response was shown to have come from those in the middle and lower economic classes. The areas populated by the most economically secure, i . e., Council Crest Grant Park, Eastmoreland, and the area surrounding the University of Portland, voted for the ordinance. The heaviest vote against was in the vast area north of Fremont Street. Attitudinal surveys conducted elsewhere have shown that the prevailing attitudes of a city may change from time to time. It is conceivable, therefore, that if Portland were voting today on a more comprehensive public accommodations law, an entirely different attitudinal pattern might result from that revealed by the 1950 election.
A recent study by the Urban League of residential attitudes towards Negroes as neighbors would seem to indicate that some shift in attitudes has occurred within Portland over the last seven years. Trained interviews talked with carefully selected sample of over 450 residents in six different areas. Among those residents living in close proximity to non-whites, more than two-thirds were found to be in favor of integration. Curiously enough, a majority of those opposing integration believed their neighbors would support their position while only a small minority of those favoring integration felt that their neighbors would agree with them. Persons who came in contact with Negroes in their work or their church or community activities, expressed a more favorable attitude toward housing integration than those who had no contracts. Younger persons, likewise, were found to be more favorable to housing integration and less inclined to hold prejudiced views toward the Negro.
Among other causes of discrimination in housing in housing is the fear on the part of builders that if they sell some units of a new development to Negroes, whites will refuse to buy the other houses. As long as the myth of declining property values is current, and as long as race prejudice exist in any sizeable degree, one cannot take issue with builders on this score. Because of high interest rates and construction costs, a builder must sell his homes quickly and liquidate his loan if he is to make a profit and avoid a ruinous loss. It has been suggested to your committee that the state consider the feasibility of insuring against loss any builder who may wish to follow an open occupancy policy while the process of education in inter-group relations proceeds.
Your committee was able to discover little evidence that financing is a bottleneck for non-whites attempting to find dwelling outside segregated areas. Most of the banks and mortgage lending agencies contracted denied practicing racial discrimination in the granting of loans. While your committee has been led to believe that some discrimination does exist it would seem that a qualified Negro applicant can obtain a loan to purchase or build a house.
APARTMENT RENTALS
As was the case in 1945, few apartments are available to Negroes outside of the predominantly Negro sections of the city. The same prejudice is encountered in the renting of apartments as in the renting and buying of homes. Rental agencies seem to share common ground with real estate brokers in these matters. Some Negroes in the Williams Avenue area rent rooms in old houses which have been converted into apartments. But, regardless of type, considering the dilapidated condition of many of the units, the rentals are apt to be high, thereby reflecting the desperate plight of the average Negro apartment seeker. Your committee found it hard to reconcile the known scarcity of apartment space for Negroes with the statement of the Oregon Apartment House Association that some 1000 vacancies existed in Portland on March 1, 1957 many of them in March 1,1957, many of them in older buildings and at the lower rent levels (or well below the average of $70.00 per month.)
PUBLIC HOUSING
The Portland Housing Authority maintained integrated its operation in 1950 and has experienced little or no difficulty as a result. In a few instances, whites complained when Negroes were introduced as neighbors, but the Authority refused applications by the complaints for the transfers on this account and none of the complainants for transfers on this account and none complaints left the Authority’s projects. Actually, several of the complaints later apologized to the Director of the Authority when they discovered they could live happily with non-white neighbors.
As of March 4, 1957, the Authority maintained 423 active temporary dwelling units, in which there resided 181 white families and 137 Negro Families. The average length of stay for the whites was 45 months, while for the Negroes its was sixty months. As of the same date, it maintained 485 permanent low-rent housing units, of which 437 were occupied by whites and 30 by Negroes. These units are located at the Columbia Villa and Dekum Court developments.
According to Mr. Floyd Ratchford, former director of the Authority, the ratio of colored to white families in Portland’s public housing has risen rapidly in recent years because of the unavailability of low cost private housing for Negroes. An opportunity to alleviate the situation exists with respect to the disposition of the University Homes property. The Authority has complete plans for making the area into a planned racially-integrated private housing development. These plans have not been used to date; certainly steps should be taken to see to it that this valuable property is not turned over to builders for unregulated, segregated development.
More opportunities for integrated housing exist in the public housing field. Several Portland areas such as South Auditorium, Broadway-Steel Bridge, and Williams Avenue could qualify for federal aid under the Urban Renewal programs. The Housing Authority could acquire these tracts and [cause] them to be redeveloped along integrated lines.
