Albina Vision Trust

Albina Vision Trust (AVT) has taken a major step toward the dream of restoring a historic Portland neighborhood. Calling it a “huge milestone,” the nonprofit announced today they’ve partnered with Edlen & Company to develop an affordable housing and community theater project in the Lower Albina district.

On Jan. 20, just two weeks after a Capitol siege rooted in white supremacy, a young poet helped lead us forward

Cleo Davis and Kayin Talton Davis are artists and activists who have made it their mission to preserve and celebrate African American history in Portland. Talton and Davis have a residency with the city archives to help the city think about reparations. Another project they’re involved with, the Albina Vision Trust, has plans to redevelop parts of the neighborhood that were bulldozed for development. But to truly fix the system, Davis says, the city needs to “make laws so it doesn’t happen again.”

AVT is looking to create a space and a place that is reflective of what we aspire to as a city and as a region in terms of equity and inclusion, but also one that builds upon the history of the Albina community. This is a community that has been devastated over the course of decades, at the expense of transportation policies and other institutional uses that have displaced hundreds of families.

Decades of distrust, displacement, and divestment are the foundations of the relationship between Portland’s Black Community whose roots are anchored in the Northeast Neighborhood of Albina and the numerous state and city offices of Portland. Restoring faith and trust with the Black Community is paramount at this juncture of the RQ Freeway project. On the table is an $800 million dollar project that, if executed with equity at the center, has the potential to make important strides to repairing the deeply damaged relationship.

Portland Public Schools is not planning to sell its headquarters, at least not right now. But should district leaders decide to relocate, the first bid is likely to go to Albina Vision Trust, a nonprofit focused on revitalizing a part of Portland that was once a major hub of the city’s Black community. A resolution the PPS board approved Tuesday night allows the nonprofit the first chance at buying the property, should the district sell it.

Cleo and Kayin Talton Davis explain, “Racist housing policies in the past combined with construction projects that demolished homes led to more pavement and fewer parks, making Lower Albina one of the places that are disproportionately warmer today.” As we build the future, environmental stewardship will continue to be key to the #AlbinaVision. Environmental justice is racial justice.