The cornerstones of Oregon's 1973 Senate Bill 100 are the preservation of farm, forest, and other resource lands and the containment of urban development within urban growth boundaries (UCB). The UCB is a boundary around each incorporated city containing enough land to meet projected needs until the year 2000. The Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), charged with adopting and implementing state planning policy, sought to keep UGBs small enough to contain urban sprawl. To avoid the potential effects of land price inflation, LCDC allowed UGBs to include more land supply than the forecasted demand. The Portland-Metropolitan region was allowed to have a 15.3-percent surplus. Policy makers are unsure what effect UGBs have on housing costs. The common belief is that by restricting the amount of land available for residential construction the market drives prices up. Contrasting opinions suggest that by substituting low-density with high-density development, per-unit construction costs are lower, thus reducing the costs of owning a home. Efforts to dispel some of the mystery about the relationship between UGBs and housing prices are needed. The objective of this research is to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between the Portland-Metropolitan area's UGB and housing prices. The study uses a hedonic model to conduct a time-series analysis for the years 1978 to 1990 for Washington County. This study found no relationship between housing price and the imposition of the UGB. In fact, the rate of increase in price for single-family housing after UGB implementation was found to be much less than before. Proximity as measured by distance of sale to the UGB was the only variable that was associated with a higher rate of increase in housing prices. All of these results, with the exception of those related to proximity, were unexpected but may be explained by several factors: imposition of the Metropolitan Housing Rule in 1981, a severe recession during the 1980s, and excess land supply. These influences do not support a conclusion that UGBs lead to an increase in housing prices, at least prior to 1990, when the UGB did not constrain the supply of land.

Changes in the patterns of income and residential segregation were examined in the Portland Metropolitan Area. The 1970 and 1980 Census of Population and Housing were used in calculating the indexes of dissimilarity between black and white populations. The data indicated a significant decrease in the residential segregation of blacks in suburban areas between 1970 and 1980. The central city area still remained highly segregated with a segregation index of 69.5. Taeuber's index of dissimilarity was used in calculating the unevenness in the distribution of income between blacks and whites. Suburbia showed a significant decrease in income segregation compared to the central city area. Overall, both residential and income segregation were dropping at a much faster rate in the suburban areas than the central city areas. To examine the effects of socio-economic status on residential segregation, a sample of 138 blacks was drawn from the population of higher status blacks in the city of Portland. Residential choices of the influential blacks were examined to determine whether or not their influential status was accompanied by a tendency toward greater integration as opposed to greater segregation. The 1980 Census Tract Street Index was used in this analysis. The data show that despite the improvement in socio-economic status, a majority of these blacks still lived in the "ghetto" area (59%) and only 14% lived in suburbia. Therefore, the data show no significant relationship between the gains in the status and the tendency toward more integration. This tendency bears directly upon the issue of voluntary segregation. The data shows strong support for hypothesis two holding that change in income inequality results in change in residential segregation. That is, if we reduce the income differentials between black and white populations, racial residential segregation will be minimized.

With homelessness continuing to rise over the past two decades, disenfranchised unhoused people have sparked a national movement to build for themselves democratically governed communities of affordable housing. Dignity Village, in Portland Oregon, is one of the longest running and most organized self-help housing communities in the nation. This paper presents a theoretical systems-based model of a developmental pathway out of homelessness in the U.S. that has as one of its key steps membership and participation in humane and dignified "self-help micro-housing"; communities such as Dignity Village. This research involved working collaboratively with Dignity Village on a participatory action research (PAR) project aimed at understanding and facilitating processes for mobilizing community and socio-political engagement. The research process involved a team of up to 24 co-researchers (nine attended meetings regularly) working once weekly over 15 months, with consultation from the broader Village community throughout. The research followed a systems approach to creating five action tools as multiple points of leverage to create long-term positive change within the community. One point of leverage utilized participatory video methodology to co-create a video action tool as an orientation video for newcomers, intended to build cooperative relationships and facilitate empowerment within the community. The impact of the research process was documented on multiple levels in the community using multiple data sources. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach to identify key themes and processes that influenced participation and empowerment in the community. The predominant themes suggested three paradoxical tensions that were creating barriers to change in the community. This PAR process attempted to create movement beyond these barriers. Findings suggested that four main changes occurred in the community during and after the research: a) an increase in collaborative participation, b) enhanced engagement and sense of community, c) an emergence of critical consciousness, and d) changes in the organizational leadership/power structure. These findings are critically examined and discussed with respect to the effectiveness of utilizing this PAR process to facilitate community empowerment. A portion of this dissertation (Results section) was created in video format to enhance report accessibility for community partners and other non-academic audiences.

Guild's Lake Courts was built as temporary worker housing for the steel and shipyard industries during World War II. The massive housing development in Northwest Portland consisted of 2,432 units of housing, five community buildings, five childcare centers, a grade school and a fire station. Guild's Lake Courts was the eighth largest housing project built at that time in the United States. The peak population in January 1945 was approximately 10,000 individuals. Archival research, face-to-face oral histories, and resident reunions were used to explore the social, architectural and political history of Guild's Lake Courts. The lens for understanding how the community operated is dominantly for the social history that of a childhood homefront experience. Four wartime themes emerged in this study: 1) that Portland's focus on prejudice dimmed during the war years, 2) that the community was a confluence of humanity, 3) that the design of the site and the housing was shaped by a convergence of New Deal innovations in design construction technologies and electrification and 4) that there was a willingness to sacrifice creature comforts during the war years. Guild's Lake Courts as a residential community under went three rapid evolutions prior to its demolition in 1951, a wartime housing operation 1942-1945, affordable housing 1945-1948, and a haven for Vanport Refugees June 1948-1950. Guild's Lake Courts history has been overlooked but it offers insights into the possible fate of the residents of Vanport City had the community not been flooded in 1948. The story of Guild's Lake Courts is a counterpoint story to Vanport City the largest of the three defense housing projects in Oregon that admitted African-Americans during the war years.

This study will be a look at housing for Portland's Burnside population with special emphasis on the Foster hotel public housing project. Before housing or any other aspect of Burnside can be intelligently discussed, it is important to have a realistic historical and contemporary understanding of the Burnside community. The second chapter of this study is designed to provide that understanding. The third chapter surveys the ways that other American cities have dealt with their skid row communities. Cities roughly the same size as Portland were chosen. Their efforts will be compared to Portland's plans for and actions toward its Burnside area -- the subject of Chapter IV. In this chapter, a critical analysis of the social policy recommendations made by the Human Resources Bureau for the downtown urban renewal area is offered as this is the official public social policy for the area. The next chapter of this study presents a survey done of the roster hotel to determine whether or not it is meeting the needs of the community. When the roster was initially planned, certain promises were made about who would be housed there and how it would serve Burnside. The questionnaire given to the Foster residents was designed to see if those promises were kept and to gauge the overall satisfaction the residents have with the hotel. It is hoped that with the background material provided in the first chapter of this study, a context will be established within which the reader can understand housing as it relates to this community.

With growing urban populations and increasing concerns over the effects of climate change on water supplies, there has recently been a significant amount of interdisciplinary research focused on identifying the drivers of urban water use. Due to unavailability of individual or household level data, these studies are often limited to using spatially aggregated data. There is concern that this aggregation of data may be leading to misrepresentations of the drivers of urban water use, yet there have been few studies that have addressed this concern. As in all spatial quantitative analyses, studies in this area should consider how the spatial scales chosen for analysis are affecting the results. The purpose of this research is to use a case study of single-family residential (SFR) water use in Portland, Oregon to determine the extent to which scale variation significantly affects the patterns of SFR water use, and whether household scale water use is influenced by neighborhood and census tract characteristics. The results of this analysis provide evidence that aggregating household scale water use data can mask meaningful patterns in SFR water use and potentially provide misleading information on what is influencing water use habits. This research also shows that using the chosen exploratory variables, there is a statistically significant, but not substantial, cross-scale influence on household scale water use by neighborhood and census tract characteristics.

This dissertation focuses on the precise and meaningful measurement of change as it pertains to the urban subarea residential housing status. The word "measurement" is qualified as meaningful in the sense that the approach adopted is of relevance to public policy. Specifically, the dissertation is aimed at providing answers to the following research questions: First, how can the changes in residential housing status in the different parts of an urban area be precisely and meaningfully measured? Second, what variables are most appropriate for the measurement? Third, can these variables be useful for differentiating between various parts of the urban area? Fourth, do the resul ts of an urban subarea housing classification system depend on the specific variables used in the classification? Using data drawn mainly from the 1960 and 1970 censuses of housing for Portland, Oregon SMSA, a simple but robust methodology is developed for indexing and monitoring changes in the urban subarea residential housing status. The research borrows appreciably from Fisher and Winnick's, and Toulan' s formulations of the filtering process in the urban housing market. The variables used in the measurement and classification analyses include the changes in the following variables: median home value or contract rent, median household income relative to the average household size, housing quality, percentage of all occupied housing units, and percentage of owner occupied housing units. Principal component analysis is used for construction of composite index of change in urban subarea residential housing status. Furthermore, this composite index is used in a multivariate linear discriminant analysis for the classification of the various subareas (census tracts) in Portland, Oregon SMSA. The findings validate the variables employed in the analyses, and support the hypothesis that the results of an urban subarea classification system depend, to some extent, on the housing market variables used in the classification. The findings from the study show that operationally simple but robust systems can be developed for monitoring the changes in residential housing status in urban neighborhoods, in relation to the general urban area.

This dissertation deals both with the theory and practice of community policing in the United States and elsewhere while focusing on a specific community policing project in Portland, Oregon. It discusses the history of police work in America, as well as that of the Portland Police Bureau. It also explicates the various meanings of "community policing," along with the problems and issues that have surfaced as the community policing movement has evolved. The research reported here was based on a project conducted by the Portland Police Bureau and numerous supporting agencies. The project was inaugurated in May 1990 with the following goals: improve quality of life of the residents, reduce the fear of crime, and reduce the levels of actual crime. Iris Court is a public housing complex owned and operated by the Housing Authority of Portland. It was recommended as a demonstration site for community policing because of past and ongoing problems of crime in and around it. The Portland City Council had mandated that community policing become the policing style in Portland, and the demonstration project was intended to test various community policing strategies. The tenants were surveyed prior to the implementation of the community policing strategies. The Metro-Life Enhancement Team was formed, an action plan was developed, most of the action plan items were implemented, and the tenants were resurveyed one year later. The evaluation of the project was conducted to assess whether community policing had a measurable effect on public safety. The dependent variables were quality of life, fear of crime, and actual crime. Various community policing strategies would be judged to have been successful if reported crime declined, the fear of crime was reduced, and the quality of life improved. The data show that the project was at least moderately successful. Reported crime declined, fear of crime was reduced, and there were indications that the quality of life was improved. The most striking finding was a 55% decrease in reported crime during the study period. This study suggests that community policing strategies of partnership, empowerment, problem solving, accountability, and service orientation can be successful.

Housing embodies much more than just a physical commodity. In addition to being an investment, it is our shelter, right to privacy, connection to community, and access to recreation and necessities. Homeownership has long been hailed by social and housing advocates as an economic stabilizer for low to moderate-income neighborhoods. For low and moderate-income residents (households earning 50-100% of the median income), homeownership is possible in two forms: affordable market-rate housing created by the filtering down of houses until affordable to low and moderate-income households, or through subsidized homeownership programs which develop new housing and offer financial assistance for low and moderate-income households. The purpose of this study was to detem1ine which of these two options, market-rate or subsidized, offer higher quality affordable housing to low and moderate-level income households. Through field observation and GIS analysis, the study compared the structural, block, neighborhood amenity, crime, and proximity to CBD characteristics of affordable market-rate and subsidized houses in Portland's Albina Community. The study samples were approximately 100 houses per sample; market-rate houses consisted of houses that sold during 2000 for $125,000 or less, and subsidized houses were selected from housing created by three local non-profit development agencies. General characteristics of the two samples revealed subsidized houses were larger and more affordable per square foot than the market-rate houses in Albina. Descriptive statistics showed little overall difference between the two samples in structural, block, neighborhood amenity, and crime characteristics. However, distribution of the two samples varied widely, and consequently subsidized houses were 1 to 2 miles closer to the CBD than market-rate houses. While quality between the two types of affordable housing is currently comparable, the study suggests these trends may soon be threatened by future maintenance needs and neighborhood upgrading.

Portland student Services, Inc. (PSS), a non-profit student housing corporation, was created under circumstances that were especially arduous. Although thousands of students attending Portland State University in the late 1960s needed housing, state law prohibited the university from providing residential facilities . Many students lived in dilapidated apartment buildings in downtown Portland and faced dislocation from urban renewal programs initiated by the Portland Development Commission. Activists who set out to establish student-run housing also faced hostility from policymakers who resented student-led initiatives in politics and university governance. However, these dedicated student activists aligned with members of the Portland business community and overcame formidable obstacles in establishing permanent student-run housing. In the process, PSS had to contend with difficult political, socio-cultural, and environmental issues. The present study focuses on four major themes: 1) the character of the student housing problem and related legal issues; 2) creation of Portland Student Services; 3) the early operation of PSS; 4) the struggle over construction of off-campus housing.