Portland approves $8.5 million settlement to resolve Central Albina displacement claims

Portland City Council on Thursday approved an amended ordinance authorizing a settlement to resolve claims brought by survivors and descendants of families displaced from the Central Albina neighborhood during urban renewal in the 1950s–1970s. Council voted unanimously to amend the proposed ordinance and approve a settlement package that the council amended to total $8,500,000, consisting of $7,500,000 from the city and $1,000,000 from Prosper Portland.

The agreement resolves claims by 26 individual plaintiffs (and related organizational claims) who alleged civil-rights and related harms tied to the Emmanuel Hospital expansion and related urban-renewal acquisitions. City Attorney Robert Taylor described the vote as “an important day,” saying the settlement “is one part of what the city can do to try to right some of the wrongs that have happened in our city.”

The settlement the council approved includes a monetary payment to plaintiffs’ counsel and several nonmonetary terms negotiated by the parties. Those nonmonetary elements include the ability for eligible plaintiffs to acquire up to two vacant properties from Prosper Portland at no cost, use of the MLK Heritage Marker site up to four times a year at no…