REMEMBER: DIKES ARE SAFE AT PRESENT.

YOU WILL BE WARNED IF NECESSARY.

YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO LEAVE.

DON'T GET EXCITED.

—Housing Authority of Portland (present day Home Forward), May 30, 1948 notice to Vanport residents.

The ground was eroding beneath Portlanders. Yet another rent increase. An eviction notice is on the door. The reasons varied. The outcomes, the same. The stew of bad policy decisions that had been bubbling in the housing market for years were now overflowing. A government and corporate-made monsoon. Homelessness was everywhere.

The crowd of tenants and housing advocates who convened at Peninsula Park was electric. They were about to put the city on notice—the tipping point was here: A Renters’ State of Emergency was declared. The year was 2015.

A simple slate of deman

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