SHS Proposal
Improvements to Local Homeless Services Tax
This proposal was created with the expertise of people experiencing the systems every day. These experts are best suited to take what they have learned and improve how they support people with housing. We’ve done our homework and know what improvements are necessary to reduce homelessness.
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Toolkit to Spread the Word
Rampant unaffordability and cuts to the federal social safety net mean more than ever, we need to take care of each other locally. Take action today to make every dollar count!
Click on the shareable resources below to endorse improvements to our regional Supportive Housing Services Measure.
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About the Proposal
Welcome Home Coalition is a multicultural and intersectional alliance of organizations and individuals in the Portland Metropolitan Region, generating a movement for housing justice.
This proposal was created with the expertise of people experiencing the systems every day. These people have insight into what is working locally, and therefore, they are best suited to make recommendations on how we can decrease homelessness in the Portland region.
Summary Recommendations:
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Increases Expertise-based governance
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Streamlines service administration and delivery
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Funds what work - programs that result in housing stability
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Sets clear goals and ensures accountability
Our Coalition
We are a network of organizations, advocates, and neighbors with a shared vision of a future where everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home.
Our History
2014
The Welcome Home Coalition was formed by JOIN, Housing Oregon, Rose CDC, Coalition of Communities of Color, Community Alliance of Tenants, Street Roots, and 211info, to establish champion public investment in affordable housing options.
2015
Welcome Home led advocacy to increase the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for Affordable Housing in the City of Portland. In July 2015, the City of Portland increased the TIF from 30% to 45% - successfully increasing funds for affordable housing development.
Welcome Home began a campaign to pass the Yes for Affordable Homes to allow the City of Portland to invest in affordable housing.
2016
Portland voters passed the Yes for Affordable Homes , measure 26-179 (City of Portland Affordable Housing Bond). The $258 million bond set out to add 1,300 housing units. As of 2025, all the original housing goals have been exceeded by over 500 homes.
2017
Welcome Home led advocacy to pass the Yes for Affordable Housing, measure 26-199 (Portland Metro Regional Affordable Housing Bond) & measure 102 (Statewide constitutional amendment), to create permanently affordable homes across Washington, Clackamas, and Multnomah counties.
2018
Voters passed Yes for Affordable Housing. The $652.8 million bond has the goal to build or preserve more than 5,200 housing units for residents living on low incomes.
2019
Welcome Home Coalition members participated in the creation of the Here Together measure (measure 26-210), an income tax to fund Supportive Housing Services. The measure is expected to generate $2.5 billion over 10 years to provide housing assistance and services for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
Welcome Home hired a Regional Organizer to promote advocacy centered around listening to those who have lived experiences of housing insecurity.
2020
Welcome Home’s Regional Organizer began community advocacy training with a cohort of people with lived experience with homelessness.
Voters passed the Here Together measure.
Welcome Home focused its advocacy priorities on increasing funding for rent assistance and supporting state and local eviction prevention laws in response to the COVID pandemic. These efforts carried into 2021.
2021
Welcome Home engaged with TriMet to advance a more equitable Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) strategy. As part of the Getting There Together Coalition, we advocated that TriMet commit to ensuring affordable housing development along with new transit developments.
The Supportive Housing Services Measure dispersed its first round of funding to social service organizations. Along with other successes, these new public funds have allowed for over 1,000 supportive housing units to be created from July through December 2021.
2022
Welcome Home Coalition spent the year building out our network of advocates with lived experiences of homelessness and kicked off our Community Conversations for Housing Justice Community Education Program in order to increase public support for long term solution to our affordable housing shortage.
2023
Welcome Home built on previous efforts to support new advocates with lived experiences by forming our Community Advisory Committee to inform a future housing policies.
Welcome Home also launched weekly workgroups to encourage the counties to increase contract wages at Community-Based Organizations.
Members and Staff engaged with local elected officials to encourage the continuation of the affordable housing pipeline as regional funding begins to wind down.
2024
Welcome Home sat at Metro Regional Government’s policy tables to ensure regional funding for housing and services. In the spring members gather for a first annual housing summit to hear from experts about Social Housing and Housing First principles. Today, both organizational members and members with lived experience are invited to our monthly advocacy workgroup to identify innovative solutions to our region’s housing shortage.
2025
In order to increase the institutional power of our network of advocates with lived experiences with housing instability, Welcome Home began welcoming all participants of our Voices for Housing Justice Program to be 'Individual Members' and expanded our Steering Committee to include 15 new seats for people with lived expertise.
Staff and Members
Staff
Molly Hogan (She/Her)
Executive Director
molly@welcomehomecoalition.org
Mikah Rae (She/They)
Communications & Development Manager mikah@welcomehomecoalition.org
Lauren Armony (She/They)
Membership and Civic Engagement Manager
lauren@welcomehomecoalition.org
Mandee Campos (She/her)
Voices for Housing Justice Manager
mandee@welcomehomecoalition.org
Steering Committee
Jenny Lee
Mercedes Elizalde
Rose Vakkia
Debra Porta
Emmy Ritter
Sam Diaz
Catrece Craig
Bernabe Ruiz
Individual Member
Aimee Thomas
Individual Member
Jessica Bell
Individual Member
Kristle Delihanty
Sahaan McKelvey
Nick Sauvie
Sandra Comstock
Michael Austin
Cameron Foster
Amon Rutherford-Green
Individual Member
Loyalty Hustler
Individual Member
Sokho Eath
Crystal Magaña
Individual Member
Waylett Thomas
Individual Member
Courtney Shannon
Individual Member
Individual Members
Barbara Smith
Danny Rauda
Karen Fleming
Loyalty Hustler
Kate Carroll
Hollie Spriggs
Aimee Thomas
Marietta Louden
Bonnie Mclellan
Caroline Jackson
Jessica Bell
Sara Fischer
Waylett Thomas
Shane Kwiatkowski
Luci Longoria
Otis D. Britton
Kacie Holt
Michael Hunsucker
Steph Perry
Jeremy Ferrier
Carol Latham
Bernabe Ruiz
Belinda Estermyer
Amon Rutherford-Green
Susan Saenz
Michelle Hornbeck
Erin Meechan
Tiffiny Graven
Jennifer Park
Shay Smith
Crystal Magana
Courtney Shannon
Alex Conley
Annetta Beasley
Cartha Durkee
Elaine Hodne
Raeona Amadi
Carol Latham
Corinne Frechette
Claire McKenna
Makayla Tanquary
Organizational Members
Board
Nick Sauvie
President
Blythe Garma
Treasurer
Cree Bort
Director
Tyler Mac Innis
Secretary
Jenny Lee
Director
Jane Moisan
Director
Thank you to our members!
Help us continue to build a movement to ensure everyone has a safe, stable and accessible home.
WHC Home
Building power to ensure everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.
We are a multicultural alliance in the Portland Metropolitan region generating a movement for housing justice.
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Public Investments in Housing Solutions
Regional Investments in Affordable Housing
The Welcome Home Coalition championed two voter-backed housing bonds that are producing more equitable housing options across our region. The 2016 City of Portland Housing Bond and the 2018 Metro Housing Bond are on track to produce 6,500 new units of subsidized affordable housing. As of 2023, both of these public investments are on track to create 1,300 more units than initially promised to voters at an average cost of just $10 a month to homeowners. To learn more about how local tax dollars are harnessed to create a healthy community see our Affordable Housing 101 brochure.
As many as 19,000 people will access affordable housing thanks to two voter-backed affordable housing bonds.
Our region pairs affordable units with supportive services.
The Portland Metro Region pairs affordable units with supportive services such as case management, addiction and recovery support, mental health services, and additional rent assistance. These services are funded largely by the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) Measure passed by voters in 2020. Funding from the SHS Tax Measure and the Affordable Housing Bonds work together to ensure people exiting homelessness are adequately supported in their transition into permanent housing. Learn more about how the SHS measure is leveraged to fund homeless services here.
Together, the Portland and Metro Housing Bonds will create 6,500+ units of affordable housing.
6,500+
New Affordable Units
Our region has successfully leveraged public investments to build new affordable housing options for as many as 19,000 individuals. Affordable housing developments use government subsidies to allow for lower rents.
4,000+
Homes Completed or in Progress
As of the summer of 2023, there are 4,000 new subsidized affordable housing units open or under construction. With 18 new buildings currently housing residents.
2,600+
Family Sized Units
Both the Portland Housing Bond and the Metro Housing Bond set family unit goals to ensure that new units allow families to access more equitable housing options. As of 2023, both bonds are on track to create more family units than initially promised to voters.
2,400+
Deeply Affordable Units
Area Median Income (AMI), is used as criteria for eligibility for affordable housing. Deeply affordable units are limited to incomes at or below 30% AMI. In 2023, 30% of the area median income in the Portland area is $23,700 for a household of one.
1,000+
Units of Supportive Housing
PSH or Permanent Supportive Housing is designed specifically for households exiting chronic homelessness. PSH housing offers additional support for tenants offering onsite services such as care coordination, mental health support, and addiction support.
Community Education Events
Community Conversations for Housing Justice
Welcome Home launched Community Conversations for Housing Justice to connect with community groups to facilitate conversations about the root causes of homelessness and to discuss solutions that are rooted in dignity and sustainability.
Why Community Events?
Housing is on everybody’s mind and many of us want to do something to fix the crisis but it can feel overwhelming. Let’s come together and break down the issue and learn from each other and hopefully, attendees leave these conversations with new information and action steps, new relationships, and new hope!
How do we facilitate these events?
Following a brief informational presentation by Welcome Home’s director, advocates from our Voices for Housing Justice program, who have lived experience with homelessness/housing instability, take time to share their personal stories. Afterward, the Welcome Home director facilitates an open dialogue with event attendees about concerns and solutions to our housing crisis.
How do I get involved?
Please email us at info@welcomehomecoalition.org if you are interested in hosting an event or have other questions. There is no community group too small. We are excited to connect with new partners to promote a holistic understanding of our housing and homelessness crisis.
“It was wonderful to hear about progress that’s being made towards housing for all, directly from people who are hands on. Also very important to hear the ways in which we could be improving and focusing our energy.” – CCHJ Participant
We Need a Thriving Workforce
Community-based social service workers are essential to addressing our region's housing crisis.
For those most affected by the housing crisis, the repercussions of direct service workers not making living wages are dysfunctional systems that undermine our goals of addressing our housing crisis. Our region needs adequate pay for direct service workers doing the work of housing and keeping our community housed. Sign on to our letter to demand that county and city budgets include increases for higher wages within community-based organization contracts.
Community-based social workers make less than half of the local housing wage.
According to the 2022 “Out of Reach,” report from The National Low Income Housing Coalition a resident in the Portland Metro Area needs a $33/hour wage to afford a fair market two-bedroom apartment in the Portland Metro Area. Currently, there are social service worker positions starting as low as $16/hour at community-based organizations.With so many direct services workers on incomes less than half of the required wages, some community-based workers qualify for the housing subsidies they administer. Housing that is affordable generally refers to a household’s ability to pay for housing and still have money remaining for other expenses and savings. The common threshold for affordability is no more than 30% of a household’s income should be spent on housing costs.
Community-based social workers are the key to connecting our neighbors to stable housing.
When direct social service workers do not make a living wage, negatively impacts the folks they serve. Shuffling direct service workers around impacts their ability to build trusted relationships with the population in one area over time. Trust and expectations are at the heart of agencies’ ability to get households out of homelessness and keep them housed. We need a stable workforce to do this essential work.
Research
Our coalition works to increase community-held knowledge of housing policy through research & community events. See resources below:
We Need More Affordable Housing
A Regional Housing Needs Assessment by OHCS and ECONorthwest released in 2021 concluded that Oregon must create an estimated 554,691 more housing units to fulfill the state’s housing needs between 2020-2040. This resource documents our regional & state housing shortages.
Innovative Solutions to Our Regions Housing Crisis
These talking points were created in the fall of 2022 to increase support for investments in innovative housing solutions that are rooted in dignity and sustainability.
Oregon Housing Policy History
Portland is facing a deep housing affordability crisis marked by residential segregation and a racial gap in homeownership. This research, conducted by Welcome Home’s 2021 Emerson Fellow, reviews federal & local housing policies and their impact on the housing crisis.