Mortgage Payment Assistance Ends Soon

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Assistance Deadline: January 14, 2011

The clock is ticking for distressed homeowners to apply for the State of Oregon’s Mortgage Payment Assistance (MPA) program. Oregon Housing and Community Services have been hard at work at getting the program up and running. The MPA will help unemployed or financially distressed homeowners pay their mortgage payments for up to one year or a maximum of $20,000 in total assistance.

To apply, eligible homeowners must submit an MPA Application online and follow up with all required documents by the January 14, 2011 deadline. After that time, applicants will be drawn randomly from the pool of eligible applicants. The MPA Application and related information are available online at OregonHomeownerHelp.org.

In Multnomah County, staff and volunteers from Hacienda CDC are available to help homeowners from learn about and apply for the program. For more information, call 503-961-6432.

Native Plant Sale Update

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2011 Native Plant Sale Update:

That’s right, it’s almost time for the Native Plant Sale! The 2011 Plant Sale will offer more beautiful bare-root trees, shrubs and perennials that are sure to please. We will send an announcement as soon as we open the Plant Sale online, but in the meantime, we wanted to keep you posted on the schedule:

The Plant Sale will open for online Pre-Orders on Saturday, January 8th. Pre-Orders will end on Sunday, February 6th. Plant Sale Pick-Up is on Saturday, February 19th at the East Mutlnomah Soil & Water Conservation District.

EMSWCD Office
5211 N. Williams Ave., Portland, OR 97217

www.emswcd.org

December Restorative Listening Project

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The Restorative Listening Project strives to address the issues around gentrification in our community based on the principles of Restorative Justice which says that only when those most impacted are heard, acknowledged and efforts have been made to repair the harm can the community be made whole again. Once the following questions are answered – What happened?, Who was harmed?, How were they harmed?, and How can the harm be repaired? – we can identify ways to move forward.

Join us for a potluck celebration of our journey together. All are welcome!
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Support Your Local Comedy

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From your local comedy folks:

Hello Curious Comedy Community!

First off, we are still trying to reach our $10,000 goal before the end of the year and it’s coming up fast. Any little bit helps more than we could ever express, so please help if you can! To donate click here:
https://robot.boxofficetickets.com/800-494-TIXS/WebObjects/BOTx2005.woa/wa/inspectSubprogram?id=881935&passKey=c154bd10a7

For those who don’t know, Curious Comedy is a 501(c)3 non-profit so your donations are tax deductible. In addition to supporting our shows and performers, you are also supporting an affordable venue for community meetings, fundraisers and events plus partner non-profits including Theater Brigade which teaches improv to kids.

We have some great classes starting up in January including Improv, Stand Up, Sketch Writing, and Public Speaking. Register by December 28th for a discounted price!

We have so many exciting shows this weekend! All shows are at 8PM with doors at 7:30PM.
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PPS School Modernization to Be on Ballot

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Typical 1920's PPS Boiler

From Portland Public Schools:

Portland Public Schools voters will decide in May on a $548 million bond measure that would pay for projects for schools and classrooms.
Those projects include:

•Safety updates such as fire and security systems, replacing deteriorated outdoor play areas, replacing unsafe school stage rigging.
•Renovating and updating buildings, classrooms and grounds.
•Rebuilding or comprehensively renovating schools that are not cost-effective to repair piecemeal.
•Retiring debt on school projects.
The work would be funded mainly through a “pay-as-you-go” system, with short-term financing, which saves more than $200 million in interest payments compared to conventional 20-year bond financing.

The bond would cost approximately $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value for six years, reduced to 15 cents per thousand after that, for no more than 20 years in all. The median homeowner would pay approximately $300 a year.

View more about the facilities bond measure, including the ballot measure explanatory statement.

For an outline of the work to be done at Inner NE schools:
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/files/schoolmodernization/CS-Neighorhood_Work-InnerNE.pdf