Moving the Poor into Rockwood

Guest blogger Dina Dinucci writes this post about poverty entering Rockwood.  She is the owner of Park Place Cafe, and has been a Rockwood activist for many years.  Please go to her blog: View from a Rockwood Cafe and see the insightful series of blogs on the recent history of Rockwood and how the neighborhood is in the place it is in.

What happens to a neighborhood when people aren't paying attention?  Who imagined that all of the talk of the "New Columbia Villa" would create another substantial impact on Rockwood? 

In 2003, Columbia Villa in North Portland was fraught with issues, and it was announced that a new Columbia Villa would be created.  This required relocation of the tenants to other housing options elsewhere.   But people in Rockwood weren't paying a lot of attention - then.

In 2003 a new population entered Rockwood that seemed out of the ordinary.  On 182nd and SE Stark black prostitutes appeared.  It wasn't long until the police started dealing with new gang issues they didn't see coming as black gangs started interacting with the other gangs that were already here.  It was also not uncommon to see the positive sides of the new ethnicities entering Rockwood with many black families and children in our neighborhood.  What did NOT follow this new population into Rockwood was the support services for these new families nor the resources needed when a whole new population is added ALL AT ONCE.

Please don't take this as a racist observation, as it is NOT at all.  But it is once again about another population that was taken for granted as it entered Rockwood.  In 2003, when I was volunteering at the Back To School fair, where we provide free school supplies to the local children  I was approached by the middle school vice principal of Reynolds Middle School.  He was puzzled by a huge new population in the school that was never expected....mainly black children...who arrived on the first day of school unprepared with little to no supplies.  Mr. Biggs explained that this event was helpful but couldn't meet the need.

I had researched the relocation plan from the Housing Authority of Portland and it had detailed that schools would be informed of the relocation and resources would be put in place to support the children at their new schools.  Upon further discussion, I learned the school was not even informed.

The document here is not the document I read in 2003, but as close as I could find....HAP Policy 

page 25 ... "HAP is working with the local schools, as well as with Multnomah County’s school-based support service program to provide the specific services and counseling that may be necessary to ease the move for children, regardless of whether or not they change schools. "

This new population entered Rockwood without considering the needs of the population nor its effect on Rockwood.  Rockwood is a neighborhood rich in cultures, but cultures who grow here naturally develop the services over time as the population grows.

The black population that was relocated in Rockwood did not have access to the services they had in North Portland.  Their places of worship were not available in East County.  Those things that mean community to them did not exist in East County.  The services available to low income residents who left a low income apartment community did not come with them.  Now, in 2012, we do have an African American church meeting at Harold Oliver School.  It's finally a start!

Without the appropriate services for this new population both the new residents and the community were left struggling to adapt.