Sounds of birdsong and rustling corn greet you as you step out of Ken’s back door. As the plants in his garden send their roots into the earth, they help Ken feel rooted in turn.
“When I put the garden in and started growing things… it started to feel like home,” he says.
Ken’s undeniable knack for gardening is nothing new. At just 11 years old, his green thumb was already taking him places. He grew his first garden in a community plot that was part of the Green Fingers Project, Portland civic leader Viviane Barnett’s initiative that created a network of community gardens to support Portland’s Black community in the face of ongoing systemic racism.
Ken’s family lived in the Albina neighborhood, just blocks from the garden, where his father had relocated after being displaced from Vanport. Ken’s time and passion paid off, and he won a prize for his plot. It earned him recognition at a time when many eyes were on the Green Fingers Project — not least of all first lady Pat Nixon’s during her 1968 visit — and got him a scholarship to the prestigious Catlin Gabel school.
After finishing high school, Ken left Portland, spending several years in the Army and National Guard. He spent the 1980s and 90s living and working across the U.S., from Chicago to Los Angeles. No matter how far he traveled from home, Ken always put family first.
He returned to Portland for good in 2004 to support his mother after his father passed away. He got a job at Freightliner to help his mother with housing costs on the Concordia home she and his father purchased in the 1970s. While his job paid well, there was nothing left over after paying both of their bills.
Shortly after returning to Portland, Ken met his wife, Donna. As they built their lives together, they weathered many storms. Ken worked to support their family while Donna provided constant care for their son, who had health challenges from a brain condition and required her ongoing support.
Meanwhile, Ken’s brother Dwayne passed away, leaving Ken and his mother to foster his two young sons. Ken and Donna rented an apartment, because homeownership was simply out of the question in their financial position.
“I just made enough money to maintain the rent,” he says, “and that was getting ridiculous because it was going up and up every year. And I was just trying to figure out what my next move would be.”
They supported one another through those difficult years, but when Ken’s back gave out in 2009 and prevented him from working, stable housing became even harder to maintain. Finally, in 2014, he was able to get support through Social Security Disability and move into subsidized rental housing.
While it helped relieve their financial pressure, it wasn’t the life either of them wanted. Not yet married at the time, Ken and Donna wanted to mark their ongoing commitment to one another. But they wanted permanent housing first.
What was lost will be replaced
They searched for options to no avail until Donna happened upon a flyer for Habitat for Humanity in 2022. They were thrilled but unsure how to make it work: Ken was still out of work and recovering from his injury. Just in time, he started setting up a job with the Census Bureau, and they were able to apply.
That same year, Ken’s mother passed and he lost not only her, but their family home of 46 years. Ken was heartbroken to lose what had been “a place to bear your pain or celebrate your joy, a place to feel and have true family love.”
“To see the sale happen… made me feel a loss I thought would never be replaced,” he says. When they needed it most, Ken and Donna found out they had been approved to buy their home.
“I learned through faith that ‘what was lost will and can be replaced,’” he says. “This townhome is a blessing that I didn’t see or think about coming.”
With their dream of homeownership settled, Ken and Donna finally felt like they could get married. They moved into their home in March of 2024 and got married in June.
“We opted for a home over a honeymoon, creating a new family household bond,” he says.
Finally rooted
Moving in felt surreal after decades of renting, but planting his garden and welcoming family into his home has made Ken feel settled. Bringing family together has been especially meaningful, and Ken has found comfort in providing a new place to gather.
With the certainty of stable housing secured, Ken feels free to enjoy himself more. These days, he loves sitting and relaxing in the garden, listening to music. He is always busy improving it — he’s currently fashioning hammocks for his watermelons to keep them from molding. As his garden grows, so does his sense of place.
“My garden has grounded me in the warm feeling that I have a family home in every way.”
