Call for Accountability: Portland Tenants United (PTU)
Content Warning : Transphobia, Organizational Harm, Racism
SUMMARY
As part of the Portland housing and tenant rights community, we feel it’s important to openly discuss issues that impact our work as organizers and community members who value abolition and decolonization. The purpose of this statement is to address ongoing issues with Portland Tenants United.
DEPdx was established in July 2020, and as a relatively new organization in the tenant’s rights space of Portland, many of our early members were not aware of the legacy of harm that Portland Tenants United (PTU) and founding member, Margot Black, had caused within the organizing community. DEPdx members only learned of this after attempting to collaborate with PTU. Our members were blindsided by the history and lack of transparency around outstanding issues, and were only met with responses that placed blame on those who made allegations of abuse. PTU members conveyed to DEPdx organizers that they were instead being attacked by the people alleging abuse.
After repeated interactions with PTU members, we recognized that their negative reputation was a hurdle for us in regards to both getting new people involved in tenant organizing as well as building trust with tenants needing assistance. Our members decided to start working independently because it was becoming apparent that many orgs in Portland would not work with PTU, or us if we were affiliated with them.
We feel the need to inform newer organizers of this history, share how our members were harmed, and to give space for accountability measures to take place.
HARM DONE TO DEPdx MEMBERS BY PTU
In the Fall/Winter of 2020, several of our members had been interacting with PTU members in virtual meetings and were interested in working together to build a stronger tenant movement in Portland. This led to some DEPdx members helping with PTU canvassing efforts and activities.
When DEPdx members initially learned from other community organizers of PTU’s harmful history we were alarmed we may be working with a known abuser, racist, and transphobe (Margot Black) and inquired if this person was still active in PTU. To this, PTU members repeatedly told trans-identifying DEPdx members that Margot Black was no longer involved with PTU, which our members trusted and continued to meet and work with PTU based on this information.
Later on in 2021, one of our members found flyers for a tenant association meeting that a PTU member dropped. These were PTU-branded flyers that listed Margot Black as ‘our organizer’ (with a PTU email address). The flyer also had links to video recordings of previous tenant meetings (from March 2021) in which Margot Black herself claimed to be working with PTU and featured the current PTU “lead organizer” alongside Margot at the meeting.
Thus 5 core PTU members knowingly lied to trans-identifying DEPdx members about Margot Black’s involvement in PTU while DEPdx members tried to organize with PTU in 2020. DEPdx members had specifically asked about Margot’s involvement due to the allegations involving her being transphobic. Again, PTU used dishonesty to manipulate DEPDX members into endangering themselves by joining their organization. Despite requests, DEPdx has received neither an apology nor any meaningful efforts of accountability from PTU for these manipulative actions.
Dismissing multiple trans persons’ safety concerns with such little regard has larger implications for a group that claims to be in solidarity with tenants when we know that marginalized groups are at greater risk of housing instability and not having access to needed resources when they experience it. We expect better of people involved in housing justice work.
In addition to the experience detailed above, several DEPdx members who have joined over the years have had unsavory experiences with PTU to a lesser degree - whether feeling that the organization’s structure allowed for the concentration of power and created an exclusionary environment or there was no follow up/transparency around internal conflicts. This adds to the need for accountability.
MARGOT BLACK’S INVOLVEMENT
Many of the issues outlined center on the lack of transparency about PTU founder Margot Black’s ongoing involvement in the group, so we would like to examine the timeline.
In 2018, Margot Black publicly resigned from her leadership position with PTU after accusations of white supremacy. Another community call out was issued in 2019 while she was running for public office that laid out clear demands for accountability. PTU also sent out an email to their membership in 2020 stating that she had stepped down from leadership. It’s unclear what happened between 2018-2020 and how she took up a leadership role again, there is no public info we are able to find on this.
Since the 2020 resignation there have been multiple incidents that point to her continued involvement but conflicting information provided by active PTU members in individual communications (‘she is no longer involved’ or ‘she’s not in leadership, but still organizing’ or ‘she’s just a dues-paying member’) have not given any clarity on the situation. This lack of transparency perpetuates issues of trustworthiness among other organizers.
If Margot indeed stepped down due to callouts of racism and exclusion in 2018, which are in conflict with PTU’s member Code of Conduct, then why has she been allowed to continue being a member?
Furthermore, Margot has recently tried to change the narrative - saying she only resigned due to personal reasons. This purposeful lack of clarity leaves new organizers trying to figure out the situation confused. For people who were actually involved or aware of the situation in the past, it feels like there was no acknowledgement or resolution.
DEPdx members who attempted to organize with or within PTU early on experienced a lack of transparency around both internal organization and decision making. The DEPdx members also found a concentration of power in the hands of very few members. Margot Black's continued involvement in PTU is unsurprising when considering these flawed structural dynamics.
Had DEPdx members known about Margot’s involvement early on and had they decided to speak up about it internally, it did not seem like there was any real measure of accountability to stop PTU members from removing them for doing so. The PTU bylaws state that:
“any Organizing Committee member can be made inactive or can be removed from the OC, for any reason by a 2⁄3 vote of the entire Organizing Committee…”
…but when over ⅔ of the entire Organizing Committee are friends and collaborators with Margot Black, speaking up becomes problematic to say the least.
WHY WE ARE SPEAKING OUT
We’ve had several new members join DEPdx after trying to get involved in tenant organizing with PTU but finding out from other sources about these issues. Considering the massive uprising for Black lives in 2020 and mutual aid work resulting from covid conditions, there are many newer organizers who are unfamiliar with PTU’s ongoing interpersonal issues manifesting as trans-misogyny, anti-Blackness, and a toxic hierarchy.
We want to acknowledge that PTU has played an important role in the Portland tenants movement. However, doing ‘good work’ does not outweigh, nor excuse the causing of harm, especially if it is continually dismissed and unaddressed.
The inability of PTU to adequately resolve or address accusations of harm within our community is of great concern. PTU has harmed and exhausted many organizers and stunted the growth of Portland’s tenant movement while the larger movement has steadily grown in other cities.
Consequently, Portland’s tenant movement was too small to respond to the newly accelerated housing crisis exacerbated by the pandemic. A tenant movement is a collective movement, it cannot be achieved by untouchable rockstar organizers who effectively answer to no one. Good organizers teach others to do what they do in order to grow the movement. This is the context in which Don’t Evict PDX arose, partially in opposition to the hierarchical leadership style of PTU. Our members have made it a priority to build and foster a collectively led organization that reflects the autonomous nature of tenant organizing. Skill-sharing and group work are core values for DEPdx.
OUR GOAL
Our aim is not to destroy or “cancel” PTU, but to ultimately build a stronger tenant movement in Portland. This is about accountability within a growing community, which has been difficult given the lack of transparency and responsibility of PTU. Imagine how much more good work PTU could do if they operated in a way that doesn’t harm and alienate its own organizers and potential collaborators.
For all the reasons outlined above, DEPdx members made an internal decision not to engage with PTU directly or enter coalitions with them until work is done to address past harm. This is not ideal for building a strong tenant rights movement across Portland, but it’s important based on our values. We believe that taking a principled stance against trans-misogyny, anti-Blackness, and class collaboration is essential for building a strong tenant movement and therefore will not work with any groups perpetuating or tolerating these behaviors. We also believe a better future is possible for the tenant organizing community in Portland and we are hopeful that, if these concerns are addressed and actions toward accountability are taken in a transparent manner, we will be able to build this future with PTU.
PROPOSED OUTCOMES
We’ve released this statement in the hopes that it will be an opportunity for transformative work to take place within the local organizing community and move us towards collective accountability. It is possible to acknowledge that PTU has done positive work to help tenants while simultaneously wanting to hold them accountable for harms caused. Even if there are questions around the legitimacy of accusations of harm or if individuals who made accusations don’t want to directly engage with PTU - the responsible thing for the organization to do is acknowledge the accusation/issues and transparently share actions that have or will be taken to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.
Public acknowledgement of harm - a general admission of direct harm caused by individuals and organizational structures, along with the acknowledgment of continued harm perpetuated by denying allegations and dismissing community concerns.
Clear and transparent communication on Margot Black’s involvement with the group since her first resignation through today, including a breakdown of what collaborative projects she’s been involved with during that time, and whether she will be permitted to be an active member in the future.
Share with the community the actions to be taken to create a safe environment for ALL organizers and tenants; specifically outlining those actions for Black, POC, and trans/gender non-conforming folks. The work done towards transformative justice in our organizing spaces is valuable to our community at large in moving forward in an abolitionist society, and we’d like to see PTU take a positive step forward in that work.
At the end of the day, PTU, we don’t want to cancel you. We want to work collectively to build tenant power; because together we are stronger. We do feel an obligation to our community for transparency and that’s why we’ve written this statement to you and our city. We look forward to seeing what you do with this opportunity to move forward. We encourage you to utilize this Conflict Engagement Process that we have adopted from LATU’s NE local.
