Our Shared Definition of Housing Justice

Housing Justice is the process and outcome of establishing a housing system in which housing is a human right, reinforced by written law. This right offers self-determination for people to obtain a place to live that meets their needs and feels right for them. Housing should be an affordable, safe, stable, and joyful place for people to access privacy, as well as a broader community and the support they need to respond to emergencies. Affordable housing must ensure that housing costs are no more than 30% of a household’s income and promote mixed-income residents.

A humanistic and inclusive movement toward housing justice must redress structural
inequity. Specifically, acknowledging that people are currently denied access to housing resources based on their intersecting identities of race, ethnicity, class, language, immigrant and/or refugee status, faith, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, specific diagnosis, or identifiable issue or family structure. Importantly, structural racism has resulted in the seizure of housing and caused the rampant displacement of Black people in the Portland Metro Area. We acknowledge that a housing justice movement must redress gentrification practices that have harmed whole communities.