PSU Magazine Winter 2006

A PSU professor looks at the people side of Columbia Villa's destruction and rebirth. heads of household-everyone whose family had been relocated through the HOPE Vl process. Forty-six percent responded. The results were largely positive. "There was a high level of satisfaction with the relocation process and the new neighborhoods ," says Gibson. Nearly 90 percent said HAP's reloca– tion staff had been helpful and knowl– edgeable, and that they were satisfied overall with the services they received. But residents said they missed the sense of community, their social net– works, and the open spaces of Colum– bia Villa. Nearly half said they wanted to return. Only 15 percent said they did not want to return. Others were unsure. "l was surprised," says Gibson , "by the large numbers that wanted to come back. " Nationally, an estimated 11 per– cent of residents return following HOPE Vl renewal projects. ii:IJ ith a second survey a year later, Ill Gibson found that the sense of community remained strong. "Even 10 or 15 months after moving out of Columbia Villa," she said, 47 percent of the respondents wanted to return and only 16 percent did not. The rest were not sure. If, she asks wryly, "it's so much bet– ter to be dispersed economically" as social strategists have argued, "then why would so many want to come back 1 " Gibson says the reason has to Hare in the Gate Productions, a Portland independent film com– pany, contributed photographs and information from its docu– mentary, Imagining Home: Stories of Columbia Villa. See a clip from the film at the Web site ww1v.hareinthegate.com.