Black families displaced from Portland's historically Black neighborhoods into East Multnomah County face some of the worst health outcomes in Oregon, and the county is now funding a community-based program designed to meet them where they live with culturally rooted care.
Multnomah County is partnering with an outside organization to run health programming in East County specifically targeting Black youth and families. The effort will include operating a farmers market, a Juneteenth celebration, and integrated programming that addresses both chronic disease and community violence, two health crises the county views as sharing the same roots.
The case for that integration is visible in East County's demographics. Starting in the 2000s and accelerating through the 2010s, rising housing costs pushed Black families out of inner Northeast Portland's Albina district, the historic center of Black life in Oregon, into the eastern suburbs. That displacement landed them in communities with fewer grocery stores, limited transit, and weaker health infrastructure. Oregon Health Authority data consistently show Black Oregonians face higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and asthma than white residents, disparities rooted in decades of housing segregation, disinvestment, and constrained food access.
The farmers market component addresses that food access gap directly. East County has documented food desert conditions, and culturally specific markets have emerged nationally as a way to combine fresh food access with community building and economic opportunity for Black vendors and farmers. The Juneteenth event grounds the program in Black community identity rather than a clinical setting.
The violence prevention component reflects a shift in how public health agencies think about gun violence and community trauma. Multnomah County has been moving toward treating violence as a public health issue since at least 2020, when the county formally declared racism a public health crisis following Portland's intense protests over the murder of George Floyd. Gun violence spiked dramatically in 2020 through 2022 and fell disproportionately on Black Portlanders.
Focusing on youth is strategic. Oregon's Black youth population is growing even as Portland's overall Black population has been flat or declining from continued outmigration. Reaching young people before chronic conditions develop is both a prevention strategy and a way to build community connection.
As Public Sector Wire has reported previously, the county has struggled to translate its equity commitments into programs that actually reach community-based organizations led by people of color. This initiative is structured as an external partnership rather than a county-run program, a model that could direct resources to organizations already embedded in East County's Black community. The county's Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion division posted the solicitation on April 23.
