Oregon Journal, Sunday, August 3, 1947
THERE’S ANOTHER VANPORT
By Mona Albertson
PORTLANDERS and Oregonians would rather forget that Vanport exists. But for many out of staters during the last five years, it has been the only place in Portland where a roof has been available and for many ex-army wives and ex-GI’s it has been, and is, home.
The name “Vanport” generally causes well-bred shudders and is mentioned only in whispers by natives who, despite the fact that to them it is synonymous with murder, rape, thievery and slums, do not object to taking the money that some 20,000 Vanporters spend in their state.
AND MAKE no mistake about it-Vanporters spend plenty of money in Portland. A great many of the merchants in Portland want the customers’ business. And most clerks are eager and willing to sell merchandise until they find out the customer is a Vanporter.
One clerk even told one Vanporter that she shouldn’t expect nylon hose, that if she lived in Vanport she should be glad to get rayons.
As for crime. During the war when cities and states were overflowing with war workers, and when Vanport was the largest housing project in the world, it was only natural that a great many calls were made on the sheriff’s office and that the “green hornets” were busy.
At that time Vanport bulged with over 40,000 families, brought from all parts of the United States and from all strata of society.
It might be interesting to summarize the largest day of special reports in the sheriff’s office in 1943, remembering, of course, that 1943 was the first year Vanport was operating as a city.
ON AUGUST 8, 1943, there were 15 reports and they read like this: 2 drunk and disorderly, 1 loss of ration books, 1 fire in hallway,1 drunk, 1 break and enter, 1 fire in apartment, 1 found missing
persons, 1 cards (ration) lost, 1 juvenile delinquency, 1 spare tire stolen, 1 stolen bicycle, 1 theft of bicycle, 1 sick man, 1 theft of candy and peanuts.
Keep in mind that this was in 1943, when the shipyards were in full operation. Also keep in mind that this is an official record compiled by Mrs. Sarah Trogen, clerk in the sheriff’s office, who has been at Vanport since 1942.
In 1944 there were 14 reports on the largest day, in 1945 there were 11 arrests: in 1946, on December 17, there were 16 reports with four arrests. So far in 1947 there has been no compilation.
This is the Vanport that was the second largest city in Oregon, and the same place that poured money into Portland and Oregon. Too, this is the place that newsboys yell about something like this: “Extra! Extra! No crime in Vanport today.”
Capt. J. Earl Stanley, head of the Multnomah county sheriff’s office in Vanport, who has been a peace officer in Portland for the last 20 years, said the last word about the crime situation in the project when he said:
HAVE been stationed at Vanport for only a year, but I am constantly surprised that we have as little major crime as we do considering the conditions under which people are forced to live. The walls between the apartments are certainly far short of being soundproofed. This makes for trouble, particularly when two families have children.”
Capt Stanley went on to say that most of the arrests now are what the police call “repeaters” who are hauled in court and given maybe 180 days with 175 of them suspended.
Sgt. Fred Boyington, who has been with the sheriff’s office in Vanport since there was a Vanport, added that there has always been a surprising lack of juvenile delinquency in the project even when the shipyards were operating at full strength and when all adults in most families were working.
A great deal of the credit for the lack of juvenile delinquency in the project must go to James T. Hamilton, superintendent of the Vanport schools, and his staff of understanding, intelligent teachers. In one year the schools took care of over 6000 children.
NOT ONLY during school hours were the teachers busy, but they planned entertainment care after school. This took more of the teachers’ time and patience; in fact, it took so much that none of the teachers at Vanport had much of a personal life. But during the five years the project has been in operation there has been little teacher turnover.
Hamilton’s slim book “6000 Kids From 46 States,” explains in part the reason. In his dedication he writes: “When we came we knew that Vanport had no future except what we built into the children and into ourselves through the experience here. For most of the staff this has been incentive enough.”
The Housing Authority and its entire personnel at the project, also have consistently tried to do everything possible to make the Vanport resident feel at home. When an apartment is vacated the project maintenance takes over and before the apartment is rerented it is cleaned, mattresses are sterilized and the plumbing and lighting checked.
As Harry D. Jaeger, general manager of Vanport, said: “We feel that most of the Vanport residents would not be living in a housing project if there were any other living quarters available.
“We do not feel a veteran couple should be penalized because they have a family, or because they want to start one. We know too, that as soon is it’s possible for the veteran and his wife to buy or build a home they will do so. Most of the wives improve their own apartments. To them it is home and we feel the least we can do is give them courteous and prompt service.”
THE APARTMENTS in Vanport are as individual as the occupants and reflect the taste of the tenant. The project furnishes the bare essentials and the occupant makes of his home what he likes.
For many GI brides it is the first time they have had a chance to use wedding presents and they are making the most of their opportunity.
Mrs. Louis Forein, another student’s wife and an employee of the Vanport administration said, “To many of us who followed our husbands during the war and tried to make some kind of home for them while they were stationed in the United States, Vanport seemed almost a miracle. There is no sharing the bath or kitchen privileges. And it is certainly reasonable.”
The apartments rent all the way from $30 a month for one room and bath to $49.50 for four rooms. The number of rooms a tenant is allowed is based on the size of the family.
The housing authority furnishes all heat and water and maintains the entire building. If repairs are made necessary by the tenant, the cost is added to the bill, but if not, the housing authority fixes anything that goes wrong.
Most of the male members of the Vanport college faculty are veterans and the faculty wives feel about Vanport as the students’ wives do. That is one of the reasons Dr. Stephen E. Epler, director of the college, had so little trouble in 1946 recruiting the capable men and women who make up the staff of the new college.
MRS. PHIL PUTNAM, wife of the assistant director of the college, said, “When my husband was discharged in June of 1946 he had many good offers of jobs, one as superintendent of schools in an Oregon city. Knowing how hard apartments were to find, from bitter experience, we decided to accept the Vanport offer as housing was assured. Of course, that is not the only reason Mr. Putnam came to the college, but it certainly was a major factor.”
To many Oregonians, Vanport has been undesirable because it is supposed to have a large colored population. Of the some 23,000 inhabitants, only slightly over 4000 are colored residents. True, this is a high percentage per capita compared to other Northwestern cities.
But, as one resident put it, the colored people have to live somewhere, and whether the Northwesterners like it or not, they are here to stay.
One ex-GI dryly remarked that he had supposed he was fighting for the democratic way of life when he was in the Pacific theatre of war. He added that in a foxhole a man didn’t ask his fighting comrad the color of his skin.
There is much about Vanport that could be improved: The row upon row of barracks-like buildings, the dirt, the indifference of Portlanders, and the fact that Vanport is open now only to distressed persons and veterans.
One veteran, who asked that his name not be used for obvious reasons, said, “We were heroes when we came back with our uniforms full of campaign ribbons and battle stars. As soon as we changed to civvies we were immediately classed with ‘distressed persons.’
“MAYBE WE ARE. Most of us can’t afford to pay the outrageous prices the real estate people ask for a home and most of us can’t even pay the outrageous prices the merchants ask for decent civilian clothing.
“Maybe we should have tried to get ourselves a nice, soft job in some war plant, so that we could have saved our money and bought a home. Some people even resent the fact that we are able to go to school and live, even in Vanport.”
No one seems to know just how long the project will continue to operate. There are all sorts of rumors and the Housing Authority gives out no information, if they know any more than the resident.
The consensus of opinion seems to be, however, that as long as over 20,000 people can find no other place to go, Vanport will continue to operate whether Portland likes it or not.
It is almost a physical impossibility to throw 20,000 people out on the street.
