Archives 2021

On Saturday, October 9th, at 2 pm at 113th & Durham in Tigard, Oregon, there will be a rally with the Woodspring Tenants Association, who are facing the imminent loss of their complex’s affordable housing status.

In the midst of the housing crisis, apartment complexes across the US that were under affordable housing contracts are going market rate over the course of the next few years, as the thirty-year contracts expire.  Many of the buildings are being bought by investment groups aiming to make a quick buck — or a quick billion — as soon as the contracts expire.  Such is the case with Woodspring Apartments in Tigard, Oregon, which has been bought by the San Francisco-based corporation, Hamilton-Zanze.

Hamilton-Zanze’s own website explains the corporation’s MO succinctly, though in corporate-speak:

Find underperforming properties with attractive capitalization rates in markets with positive economic and demographic trends.

Translating that into plain English:  find apartment complexes that are under affordable housing contracts (therefore “underperforming,” from the perspective of the capitalists), in places where much more money could be made (“attractive capitalization rates”), because a lot of people with money are moving to the area (“positive economic and demographic trends”).

Portland artist David Rovics took some of the corporate-speak on Hamilton-Zanze’s website and turned it into a song in solidarity with the Woodspring tenants.

When Portland Emergency Eviction Response’s Tent Fund was launched with a few posts on (anti-) social media and an email list, we quickly raised over $1,000.  Over the course of the past three months, that little crowdfunding exercise has allowed us to help out a bit with material needs of one particular tent encampment, mainly, in very close association with the PDX Houseless Radicals Collective.

PEER Tent Fund funds have gone towards a large tent, a trailer for transporting stuff to and from the camp, a bunch of 5 gallon water jugs, a big run of stickers to help get the word out about PDXHRC’s efforts to organize the houseless, a guitar, guitar strings, and other musical accessories for houseless musicians, and we’ve also been able to cover some bills for the phone that folks use as a wifi hotspot, and some groceries as well.

But now our coffer is dry.  There will definitely be more solidarity needed in these very trying times, and to the extent that PEER can be involved on the material aid front, how much we can do will depend entirely on how much you can donate.  Thanks for your solidarity.

Note:  all donations made using this button are clearly earmarked for the PEER Tent Fund, not to be confused with any other donations.  (Despite the fact that it will say Liberation Records Tent Fund when you click on the button.  It’s a shoestring operation, we don’t have nonprofit status, but you’ve got the right “donate” button…)