For 31 years, Andy Mangels, 52, and his husband, Don Hood, 61, lived in an apartment in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. In December, the owner of their building changed. Hood, who is a disabled veteran who had been working for 12 years as an onsite manager for the apartments, was laid off. Then their rent was raised 113 percent.
Mangels said the news was more than just shocking. They were now facing displacement from a neighborhood they had called home for more than three decades. As the longest-surviving tenants in the neighborhood, Mangels said, everyone knew them and even deemed Hood “the sheriff” because he watched out for everyone.
“You build community when you live some place for that period of time,” Mangels said. “You’re building a lot more than just a place [where] you live.”
[For more on this story by Yasmeen Wafai, go to https://www.yesmagazine.org/ne...communities-20190322]
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