MDRC Hosts Screening Talk

ChrisWoods

The Advocate

MHCC hosted a screening of the documentary “Priced Out” in the Student Union, Feb. 18, 2026. 

Cornelius Swart’s 2017 documentary explores the history of housing and the African American presence in the Portland area. A sequel to 2001’s NorthEast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream, Priced Out follows up with Nikki Williams, the subject Swart has filmed since the late 1990s, as she searches for solutions to the dangers and lack of opportunity facing her and her daughter in Portland’s Albina neighborhood. 

In the original documentary, she described living near three drug houses, along with abandoned homes, abandoned cars and the genuine danger of gang activity—circumstances that made her hesitant to involve police. Despite the official end of discriminatory home-lending practices, the neighborhood’s decline lingered. On camera, Nikki openly asks for any solution, including gentrification.

Priced Out documents the changes that came as mostly young white families and investors found the lower-cost housing increasingly attractive and area businesses shifted to reflect new residents’ tastes. As longtime friends sold their homes or had already moved away due to previous redevelopment efforts, Nikki began considering Black-majority communities in states such as Arizona and Texas to regain a familiar neighborhood feel. 

After the screening, Dr. Rashida Willard, interim associate vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, led a group discussion on community and the effects of gentrification. An African American millennial in the front row shared that her mother had lost their home in Northeast Portland just months before she was born, and that moving frequently afterward meant she never experienced a stable community. 

A Gen X homeowner from the area recounted being the last remaining member of his original neighborhood community. He said he followed advice from an older relative not to sell his home a couple of decades ago for $60,000—a decision that likely preserved his family’s generational wealth—but he still feels isolated from the culture that moved away. 

A baby boomer also spoke about the diaspora of friends and family from the area, as well as ongoing efforts to gather the old community at annual events. Demographic maps show that many former residents have moved east toward Gresham and Troutdale, while others—similar to the trend depicted in the film—have left Oregon for more affordable states. 

After the three Black speakers shared their experiences, Dr. Abio Ayeliya, director of the Office of Student Life and Civic Engagement, talked about immigrating and navigating life as a Black person in Portland. He emphasized that everyone is searching for community. He also quoted Albert Einstein, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” 

Maurice Nicholson, Multicultural and Diversity Programs coordinator, followed by sharing his experience growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the visible effects of redlining there. 

Priced Out is available for screenings and is also accessible online via YouTube.