Housing Justice Center is delighted to announce Tram Hoang as its new Director of Policy and Research.
Tram was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and her community development perspectives are heavily shaped by the gentrification and displacement she witnessed growing up in North Portland. After attending Oregon State University, she served on the board of Depave, the Multnomah County Public Health Advisory Board, and the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Institute. During that time, she also worked at the Welcome Home Coalition, a group of organizations who effectively advocated for housing policies such as Portland’s construction excise tax, inclusionary housing, and successfully led Portland’s first-ever $258 million affordable housing bond.
Tram graduated from the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she was a Charles R. Krusell Fellow in Community Development at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. Throughout her time in Minneapolis, she has worked with Hope Community, the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers, the City of Minneapolis’ Community Planning and Economic Development, the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, and most recently, as the Campaign Manager for the Keep St. Paul Home campaign for rent stabilization. She believes that equitable development and community benefit are made possible by strong community organizing and effective narrative framing, and wants to strengthen the ways that research can empower advocacy and organizing. Her participation in research ranges from seeking to understand the overarching financialization of our nation’s housing system to supporting the Urban Institute’s examination of the growing presence of corporate ownership in the Twin Cities.
“From being her mentor through Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers’ Emerging Leaders in Community Development program, to brainstorming together at the Equity in Place coalition table, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tram in a multitude of venues focused on community development and affordable housing advocacy,” said HJC President Margaret Kaplan. “Her incisive perspective on equitable housing policy, experience in relational organizing, and fierce commitment to community-defined, grassroots solutions make Tram an invaluable addition to the team.”
“Over the last year, I was fortunate to work alongside so many incredible people and organizations — including Housing Justice Center — to Keep St. Paul Home for everyone across race, class, and zip code. We joined together to advance housing justice and racial justice in the city of St. Paul, and that work continues,” said Tram. “I’m excited to join an organization leveraging a multitude of strategies to preserve affordable housing statewide, including legal advocacy, education, research, and policy advocacy. In my role as Director of Policy and Research, I look forward to furthering my work promoting policy interventions that chip away at white supremacy, build the power of working-class BIPOC tenants to organize, and strengthen the housing justice movement.”
Read about Tram and the rest of HJC’s team here.