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The Portland City Council on Thursday evening voted unanimously to approve an $8.5 million settlement of a federal lawsuit filed in 2022 by Black families displaced from the Albina neighborhood by the city’s urban renewal practices.
The City Attorney’s Office and Oregon Law Center attorneys representing 26 plaintiffs reached a tentative settlement last week for the city to pay $1 million and Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development agency, to pay another $1 million.
But the City Council on Thursday shot down that amount, increasing it instead to $8.5 million. Councilor Loretta Smith championed the fourfold increase, offering poignant remarks about how the city systemically drove Black residents out of North and Northeast Portland for decades.
The hearing before the vote had been similarly emotional. Members of some of the families offered harrowing accounts of the effects of their families’ displacement.
After testimony by some of the plaintiffs, Smith asked one of the lead plaintiffs, who goes by Byrd: “Do you think this settlement makes you whole?”
Byrd responded: “It does not, Commissioner Smith. I didn’t come this far to not represent what I know is right. No, it does not.”
Smith said to City Attorney Robert Taylor: “It appears to me that there’s some apprehensions about this settlement.” She moved to recess so that the city’s and the plaintiffs’ attorneys could discuss a new amount. Following a 30-minute recess, Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney called an executive session for the council to discuss privately.
The City Council resumed the meeting an hour later. Smith proposed an amendment: strike the $2 million settlement and replace it with $8.5 million.
Smith’s amendment received the unanimous approval of the 12-member council.
“I urge each of us to consider, how can justice be adequately and appropriately quantified, and what measures can we implement to prevent future displacements?” Smith said from the dais. “So, our collective responsibility is clear: to advance efforts toward community recovery and healing and to pursue restorative justice that lays the groundwork for a more equitable Portland for everyone.”
Soon after, the City Council unanimously approved the $8.5 million settlement. A majority of councilors grew emotional while offering their comments in support.
“One million dollars does not buy us absolution,” said Councilor Sameer Kanal. “Moving to $8.5 million total doesn’t buy us absolution, either. But it begins the process of making people whole.”
Councilor Candace Avalos, who seconded Smith’s amendment to increase the settlement, grew emotional on the dais before the council took a vote on the increased amount.
“I’m emotional. I’m angry. I’m so angry. And I didn’t want to cry,” Avalos said. “But you deserve to see my anger and sadness for what you, we were robbed from. This is not enough. I would take every cent from the city if I could and give it to you. I would. But this is a beginning.”
(Smith, in an interview with WW, says she and Avalos shared an emotional moment during the mid-meeting recess. “We sought each other out for comfort,” Smith says. “I needed her to be clear and to be strong out there to let folks know that we were not going to give up on them.”)
The settlement agreement reads, in part: “Portland’s systemic discrimination and displacement harmed Black communities, by excluding them from homeownership and wealth-building opportunities; by denying them access to educational resources, jobs and healthy neighborhoods; and by perpetuating segregation, displacement, and harmful stereotypes through the zoning code, deeds and covenants, lending practices, public housing and urban renewal.”
It wasn’t immediately clear from what portion of city funds the settlement would come. “The City of Portland is self-insured for liabilities of this nature, and the cost will be allocated across all bureaus,” said a spokesman for the mayor’s office in response to an inquiry from WW. “The city’s Budget Office will assess financial options and explore potential pathways forward.”
The lawsuit also named Legacy Emanuel Hospital, which displaced Black families as it expanded in the 1970s. Emanuel settled its portion of the lawsuit in 2023.
“I want to thank all of y’all for hanging in there. Because this is tough stuff. And we’re all here for it,” Councilor Smith said at the end of the meeting, before she took her vote.
As the council clerk announced the 12-0 vote, claps and cheers erupted from the room.