Housing in Goose Hollow

Goose Hollow has a mix of both historic and newer residences, including apartment buildings, condos, townhomes, and a few detached single-family homes (many of these are listed on the National Register of Historic Places).  Some older apartment buildings have been converted into condos; while some newer apartment buildings have been constructed in the last ten years with more large projects on the way.  The west side of the neighborhood has some beautiful historic large homes.  Over 80 percent of the residents reside in apartments and this number is increasing.  Some apartment residents are Portland State University students (just across I-405 from Goose Hollow).  According to the 2020 census, Goose Hollow ranks 3rd among all 94 Portland neighborhoods in population density, but nearly last in poverty rate and food security. (compare versus 2010 census) 

Goose Hollow is host to several distinct, but related, residential communities. These consist of:

• The Hollow: the lower elevations that were once bisected by Tanner Creek Gulch are just next door to downtown with mixed commercial and residential activities that, over 100 years ago, was family farms and one of Portland's first suburbs before the automobile.  The northern part of this area was intermittently known as the Lownsdale District (1910s-1970s) though this was never historically significant;

• King's Hill Historic District: an area that once hosted the residences of Portland's turn of the century wealthier merchants, now partly infilled with higher density apartments and offices.  The Historic District is bounded by W. Burnside Street, SW Canyon Road, SW 21st Street and Washington Park.  Within its 430 acres, the Historic District includes 105 buildings, many of which are homes from the Late Victorian, late 19th and early 20th Century American Movements, and late 19th and 20th Century Revivals;

• Gander Ridge:  Historically, the entire bowl of the upper elevations was called Gander Ridge.  The Goose Hollow heights were so named by the young toughs, the largely Irish and German immigrant kids, who ran around in the Goose Hollow Gang.  Perhaps as a way to subjugate the heights, perhaps out of resentment for the Goose Hollow name that some considered demeaning, they nicknamed the heights Gander Ridge.  Around the 1890s, after Amos King had been selling plots of land on the hillside and the ridge became known as King's Hill, the Gander Ridge name shifted to the southern part of the bowl.

• Vista Ridge:  Until the 1950s, the area now called Vista Ridge was considered part of Gander Ridge.  The Vista Ridge name only began to be used when plans were being drawn up to connect the "Stadium Freeway" (I-405) to the "Sunset Highway" (Highway 26, which, in the Tanner Creek Canyon, runs over the top of the old Canyon Road).  As Oregon Department of Transportation and Portland city employees discussed boring tunnels through the hill to connect the two highways, this ridge began to be referred to as Vista Ridge.

The neighborhood is one of the most densely populated parts of the City and is among the top 4 densest neighborhoods in all of Oregon.  Its attractiveness as a place to live has much to do with this association's insistence on maintaining a pedestrian environment and rebuilding a community focus lost in a period of dislocation and changing patterns of urbanization accompanying the development of urban freeways.

• College Housing Northwest is a private non-profit organization that provides housing for students of nearby Portland State University, Portland Community College, and their families.  Because of its proximity to the University and to downtown Portland, Goose Hollow has long been a favored location for student living.

• The Housing Authority of Portland administers a number of rent assisted housing units available to individuals and families meeting income guidelines in Goose Hollow.