State-Of-Black-Oregon-2015

CASE STUDY 21PROTESTER TO PARALEGAL:FIGHTING FOR HOUSING JUSTICEIn 2009, Fredi Jackson wanted to move closerto her sister in inner Northeast Portland. Shefound a home right next to her. The house,built in 1936, with two bedrooms—each the sizeof a closet—and one bathroom, was going for$325,000. Fredi changed her mind and movedto Gresham. Her new home there, which washalf the Northeast price, has four bedrooms, twobathrooms and much more space than her firstchoice. Many Black Portlanders, hoping to buyin their old neighborhood, are going throughthe same situation. Fredi says, “They (the City ofPortland) make it hard (for us) to buy in the innercity. It’s easier for them (newcomers).”According to a 2013 report in the PortlandTribune, homeowners in North, Northeast andSoutheast Portland are paying property taxesbased on less than 60 percent of their homes’true values. East of 82nd Avenue, residents arepaying taxes based on 80, 90 and even 100percent of the true value. “Their taxes are lessthan mine and their house costs twice as much,”Fredi says. “The tax is unfair and unequal.” 2Fredi’s frustration has led her to becomea housing activist. She speaks with localpoliticians like Senator Jeff Merkley, who held apress conference in front of her home in 2012.Fredi also works with local community activists.In the past, she worked with We Are Oregon, agroup that, among other things, advocated forolder Black folks trying to keep their homes.Many were the victims of housing scams andsub-prime mortgages. Fredi, who’s 74, is nostranger to the situation. She’s been battlingwith Bank of America for the last few years,trying to refinance her home.Fredi had to slow down her activism becauseof illness. However, she’s had time to work onthe next phase of her justice work—becoming aparalegal. She’s studying at Portland CommunityCollege’s Cascade Campus—the only PCCcampus with a law program. Her goal is tobecome a reputable lawyer with a backgroundof winning cases against what she calls “big,greedy banks and scam artists.”Whenever she can, Fredi urges other people ofcolor to pursue the law. “I think I can work throughthe law to make differences that I can’t make as aregular person,” she says. “The kind of case I’d beinterested in, the legal clinics wouldn’t take.”Upon completion of her course, she has a jobwaiting for her in the PCC law department.It doesn’t matter that she’s one of the oldeststudents in the program. She’s on a mission tomake changes. “You don’t need to have a bunchof people to make a difference. That one voicecrying in the wilderness is all it takes.”166