Follow the Open: Housing Journalism Collaborative this summer
With Pamplin Media Group and KGW, Open: Housing journalists are exploring housing issues and trends that matter to the community.
Open: Housing | May 18, 2017
Today the Open: Housing Journalism Collaborative (OHJC) released the second installment in “Shut Out,” a series investigating causes and impacts of diminishing and racially disparate access to homeownership in the Portland region, and what can be done about it.
“Shut Out” is the first of three OHJC-produced story packages that readers can follow this spring — all addressing critical issues and trends related to Portland’s housing crisis, all taking editorial direction from the community.
The OHJC is journalism team composed of freelance journalists and editorial staff from Open: Housing and collaborating media partners Pamplin Media Group and KGW. Open: Housing assembled the team and is coordinating its efforts in response to discussions and interviews with housing policy makers and advocates, housing providers and residents affected by the housing crisis.
Participants in a cross-sector community advisory council responded to this question: “What stories need to be told, and what questions need to be investigated, to support inclusive, informed public conversations that help drive solutions to Portland’s housing crisis?”
Guided by their responses, members of the OHJC team came together with additional issue-targeted experts to plan three editorial packages. Then came weeks of reporting, still ongoing, funded in part with a grant from the Jackson Foundation.
“Shut Out” will look at how wealth inequality and racial discrimination have driven declining and disparate access to homeownership. This series is inspired and informed by the multi-partner We Call This Home and Oregon Humanities–led This Land conversation projects.
A second series will explore the rise of the homeless village movement, and how it may reflect changing attitudes toward homelessness and home.
A third will address obstacles and opportunities to increase affordability in the rental housing market, investigating competing claims in Oregon’s current debate over the legalization of rent control and asking what it would take for new rental developments to shave costs.
The journalism culminates a year-long effort by Open: Housing to bring together partners and explore strategies to strengthen public conversation about Portland’s housing crisis. Learn more.
Look for these stories on OpenHousing.net, PortlandTribune.com, kgw.com and in the print editions of the Portland Tribune in May and June. And join the discussion in Open: Housing’s Facebook group.
Questions or comments? Contact Camela Raymond, Open: Housing curator, at camela.raymond_at_gmail.com or Andrew DeVigal, Open: Housing project director and University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication chair in journalism innovation and civic engagement, at adevigal_at_uoregon.edu.
