ABOUT PDX HOUSING SOLIDARITY PROJECT
Organizing to redistribute wealth to Black and Indigenous first-time homebuyers
We are a collective of Portland-based activists and organizers working to redistribute wealth and privilege to interrupt racialized disparities in homeownership and inequitable cycles of intergenerational wealth.
Homeownership and intergenerational wealth are closely linked. Consider: Have you benefited from the rising cost of real estate? Did you have access to intergenerational wealth or relatives who supported you to buy a home? Do you benefit annually from the home mortgage interest deduction on your taxes? Have you inherited money based on your family’s racial or economic access to homeownership? If so, we invite you to consider redistribution!
WHAT WE DO
Community Building
We build community to interrupt racialized disparities in homeownership through education and resource sharing. We seek to fill gaps in our collective knowledge about the racialized history of homeownership in Portland and about how intergenerational wealth benefits many white first-time homebuyers. We also build community to share resources and strategies for redistributing wealth, an act that defies status quo financial advice.
Check out our recorded and upcoming events.
REDISTRIBUTION OPPORTUNITIES
We connect people with financial privilege to redistribution opportunities in support of Black and Indigenous homeownership. We know that many people interested in acts of reparations, rematriation, and wealth redistribution aren’t sure where to start. Join our listserv to receive bimonthly emails featuring opportunities such as financially supporting a family’s downpayment funds, relieving an individual’s debt to support their mortgage readiness, and other creative home-buying mutual aid.
Resource Navigation
We serve as resource navigators for Black and Indigenous first-time homebuyers. Our volunteers work with Black and Indigenous first-time homebuyers, at their direction, to develop and implement creative home-buying strategies that meet their needs and goals. We connect homebuyers with redistributors through PDX Housing Solidarity Project – for downpayment funds, debt relief, direct home sales, and more – and also help them navigate other homebuying processes such as federal downpayment grants, mortgage lenders, and realtors. Email us if you’re interested in learning more.
OUR PRINCIPLES
We believe in the need for personal reparations through mutual aid and rematriation.
We believe in individual actions as a step towards systemic change.
We believe decision-making power should lie with Black and Indigenous communities.
SEE IT IN ACTION
OUR FOUNDING STORY: TRANSFERRING A HOME TO BLACK OWNERSHIP
Randal Wyatt, Founder and Executive Director of Taking Ownership PDX, was renting a crummy apartment when he started the organization in July of 2020. But that changed just a few months after the birth of his community- and reparation-based program when Annie Moss reached out to him with inquiries about how to transfer their home in the historically Black neighborhood of Albina (which is now gentrified) to a Black family. Annie explains why they transferred their home to Randal Wyatt and gifted him almost a half a million dollars in equity in this interview.
REDISTRIBUTING PROFITS FROM
AN ALBINA HOME
Hear about one PDX Housing Solidarity Member’s motivation and experience redistributing 50% of the profits from the sale of his home. Tommy and his family sold their home in Albina when they moved to Portugal, and they committed to redistributing profits directly to BIPOC individuals buying homes, in addition to organizations focused on housing and racial justice. Tommy and his family were able to support 3 families and give over $100,000 total.
IN THE NEWS
GRASSROOTS GROUPS ARE DOING SMALL-SCALE REPARATIONS IN THE ABSENCE OF FEDERAL ACTION
Journalist Nayanika Guha interviews a Black first-time homebuyer supported by PDX Housing Solidarity Project, and positions our work alongside other grassroots organizations and cities facilitating reparations.
REPARATION LEADERS: PDX HOUSING SOLIDARITY PROJECT
A Q&A with organizers of the PDX Housing Solidarity Project about the nature of our work and mission. Six questions that many “reparations curious” folks are likely to have about PDX HSP are asked and answered.
WEST COAST SOJOURN
A four-part series in which Donnell Alexander explores the possibilities of housing reparations via the PDX Housing Solidarity Project. Through written content and video interviews, this series offers an opportunity to hear the stories of homebuyers, redistributors, and co-organizers of this work.
PORTLAND GROUP WORKS TO MAKE WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION A REALITY THROUGH REAL ESTATE
Tiffany Camhi of Oregon Public Broadcasting offers a thoughtful profile of the PDX Housing Solidarity Project. The article includes an embedded audio segment that was rebroadcast by a number of NPR affiliates across the country.
IDEAS WE SHOULD STEAL: GRASSROOTS HOUSING REPARATIONS
An in-depth account of Randal Wyatt’s journey from social-justice-oriented rapper to community activist committed to preserving Black wealth in Portland. An excellent account of the relationship between Taking Ownership PDX and the PDX Housing Solidarity Project, and of how Randall Wyatt has authored more than one idea that should be “stolen” and used more widely in the work of justice.
OUR PARTNERS
