In early May, the Portland Housing Bureau offered people pushed or priced out of North and Northeast Portland

.

City actions displaced African Americans and poor people, housing officials said.

.

More than 1,000 people applied for just 65 spots. This week, some of the top applicants will attend one of two meetings aimed at turning them into inner-city homeowners.

City leaders spent the spring and summer culling the list, awarding applicants up to six points based on how much urban renewal had shaped their old neighborhoods. Residents who were displaced, or are at risk now of being displaced, from neighborhoods between Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Interstate Avenue received three points. Former residents of Northeast Portland neighborhoods such as King earned two points.

The city also awarded points to applicants whose ancestors were displaced. If the city took an applicant's parents' property through eminent domain -- as it did during the construction of the Memorial Coliseum as well as

-- that applicant moves to the top of the list.

The higher the score, the higher a person is on the waiting list.

City officials plan to use urban renewal - the same tool blamed for the displacement - to pay for what it calls a "preference policy." For this first round, the city allocated about $5 million to community groups who help African Americans and poor people buy homes.

Representatives from

and a collaborative led by the

will work with applicants to buy homes in the 3,990-acre Interstate Corridor urban renewal area of North and Northeast Portland.

Those community groups will hold meetings Wednesday and Saturday nights. The meetings are not open to the public or media, said Martha Calhoon, a spokeswoman for the Portland Housing Bureau. Attendance at the sessions is a requirement for the program.

"It's also worth noting that at this stage in the process, we have only verified preference for these applicants," Calhoon wrote in an email. "We won't have determined their program eligibility for another few months and can't guarantee who or how many of the applicants at (the) briefing will go on to achieve homeownership through this process."

-- Casey Parks

503-221-8271

cparks@oregonian.com;