The N/NE Portland Affordable Housing Working Group meets this Thursday. Exciting stuff is on the agenda — invite a neighbor to join us!
Thursday, June 5, 6:30-8:30pm
Discussion of advocacy possibilities w/ Oregon Opportunity Network
@ Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (4815 NE 7th Ave.)
AGENDA ITEMS:
- Oregon ON is a statewide coalition of community development and affordable housing organizations, which is currently developing a campaign to advocate for “new, significant and sustainable resources for affordable housing and anti-poverty services in Multnomah County.” Executive Director John Miller will join us to talk about this new campaign, and how we can get involved.
- We will get updates on the work areas that were identified at our last meeting. Two of these will have important discussions:
Coalition-building: This sub-committee has prepared a draft letter that we can present to our various neighborhood associations and other community-based organizations, asking them to endorse our objective of increasing the stock of affordable housing. We will review and revise this letter, and discuss a plan for presenting it to our organizations.
Identify specific advocacy opportunities/campaigns: There are two immediate opportunities for advocacy that have come up in recent weeks: 1) A proposal by Commissioner Saltzman to dedicate funds from a lodging tax on short-term rentals (e.g. Air BnB) to affordable housing; and 2) The allocation of $20 million for affordable housing in the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area. We will discuss how we want to be involved in these two issues.
