Resources & Events
Links to housing assistance, volunteering and action opportunities, community events, newsletters and reports, and other resources.
Housing Assistance
Need help finding affordable housing, paying your rent or preventing foreclosure? Here are links to community resources.
Search 211info.org by ZIP code for a range of housing, health, nutrition and other services.
The Oregon.gov Housing Assistance in Oregon page has links to multiple resources.
Organizations You Can Volunteer With
These organizations can use your help addressing housing and service needs for low-income and houseless people. This is a partial list that we’ll keep adding to.
The following groups do direct service work and advocacy for houseless people.
Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) works to expose and eliminate the root causes of homelessness and poverty, empower communities to demand protection of civil and human rights, and advocate for restoring federal funding for affordable housing. WRAP is based in San Francisco, with campaigns in Oregon.
Right 2 Dream Too operates a rest area for houseless people and does outreach on first and third Tuesdays.
Rose City Backpacks of Hope does street outreach and provisioning throughout the city.
Boots On The Ground PDX does houseless advocacy and street outreach.
FREE HOT SOUP organizes regular, all-volunteer/donation hot-food service at a variety of outdoor locations.
Camions of Care PSU provides menstrual hygiene supplies to houseless individuals.
The Village Coalition supports existing houseless villages and advocates for and building new houseless villages and alternative outdoor shelter communities.
PDX Outreach Nursing does street medical outreach.
Clackamas Service Center provides hot meals and acts as a hub for multiple services.
Events
Thanks to the MLK in Motion blog for pointing us to many of the following housing-related events.
Saturday, March 22, 1:30pm to 3:30pm: A Panel of Ideas Among Houseless Portlanders. Come listen to people who have experienced homelessness address solutions. This event is hosted by the St. Philip Neri Peace and Justice Committee & Right 2 Survive Ambassador Program, a diplomatic outreach effort of Right2Survive to create opportunities for housed Portlanders to meet & learn from houseless neighbors, promoting respect & equality. St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 2408 SE 16th Avenue, Portland.
Thursday, April 6, 6:00pm to 8:00pm: Better Housing By Design: Eastern Portland Focus — Jade District. A project of the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the Better Housing by Design project is working to improve new development of apartments, townhouses, fourplexes, courtyard housing and other types of housing in multi-dwelling zones. Along with community advocates and other Portlanders, city planners are considering ways of improving the design of new multi-family development to better meet the needs of people who live here now and in the future.
This stakeholder meeting focuses on street/pedestrian connectivity and Jade District street plan and development options. Jade/APANO Multicultural Space, 8114 SE Division Street, Portland.
Wednesday, April 19, 6:00pm to 8:00pm: Better Housing By Design: Citywide Topics and Inner Neighborhoods Focus. See listing for Tuesday, April 6. This stakeholder meeting focuses on street frontage design and Inner Neighborhood development options. Northeast Coalition of Neighborhood Office / King School, 4815 NE 7th Avenue, Portland.
Resources
Can’t get enough housing news and information? Sign up for some of our favorite national housing newsletters:
Community Developments, a daily roundup of news affecting housing and communities, from Enterprise, a national organization that works in the areas of affordable housing finance and development, policy and innovation.
How Housing Matters, a weekly digest from the same-named website, curated by the Urban Institute: “a clearinghouse for crosscutting research and a platform for engaging practitioners, policymakers, and researchers across a range of fields.”
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies advances understanding of housing issues and informs policy. Visit its website to sign up for its email newsletter and find reports such as the annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report.
