Nowhere to go: How one city built housing for Native Americans

David Erickson

PORTLAND — Linda Monteiro, who grew up on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in north-central Montana, would like to return home soon. She’s fond of Missoula, where she lived for a long time and took classes at the University of Montana. She said it would be a place where she’d be closer to friends and family.

“I miss it,” she said. “Missoula’s where I’m trying to move.”

But Missoula doesn’t have what Portland, Oregon, has to offer her.

Monteiro, Chippewa Cree, is also a military veteran. She currently lives in an affordable housing apartment building for tribal members and other Native families in Portland. Almost all of the residents were formerly homeless or had unstable housing. 

Monteiro was living in a Super 8 motel before she found her current home.

She said she’d jump at the chance to move back if anything like her current housing existed in Missoula or elsewhere in Montana, but no such luck.

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“When I was in Missoula, I was at the Poverello Center,” she said. “I was in the veteran’s section, which I’m glad for because the other part, the dormitory, was pretty

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