Over the Summer, Welcome Home members have worked together to identify policies and programs we want to advance to increase access to safe, stable, and affordable housing for everyone who needs it in the Portland Metro Area.

This week, Welcome Home members from Bienestar, Path Home, JOIN PDX, Home Plate Youth Services, IRCO, SEI, Clackamas Service Center, Groundscore Association, and Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare met with Metro President Lynn Peterson to discuss contracting and recommend new regional standards as a part of the SHS Measure reform. We were honored to hear from our members working daily to connect people to stable housing. Each shared how regional standards would allow providers to disperse essential services more impactfully and efficiently.

In addition to our work to see meaningful reforms in the Supportive Housing Service Measure, we also explored other policy priorities coalition members might want to uplift in the coming new year’s 2025 Regional Policy Priorities Agenda. At our June, July, and August Advocacy Workgroups, Welcome Home members learned more about three possible policy priorities. These include:

For the remainder of the year, members will continue to explore potential local policy focuses and vote on a 2025 Local Policy Priorities Agenda at our all-member meeting in early December. There is excitement among Welcome Home members to expand the toolbox of policies to address our region’s shortage of affordable and available housing.

With a new city structure in the City of Portland and an ongoing need to diversify our tools to increase housing access, our Steering Committee members met to identify our alliance’s guiding values and policy agenda to advance housing justice in the City of Portland. Our Steering Committee partnered with the Portland Visioning Steering Committee to create our guiding principles for how we want the City of Portland to advance housing justice under the new City Structure. The Portland Visioning Steering Committee is made up of folks from Building Power for Communities of Color, AFSCME, and SEIU Local 49 to build alignment and a shared strategy along the principles of racial justice, economic justice, and climate justice for the future of the City of Portland.

 Welcome Home’s City of PDX Homeless Response Recommendations

Lastly, we are happy to report that Welcome Home’s Steering Committee voted ‘Yes’ to endorsing Food for All Oregonians (FFAO). We know that housing and food stability are both essential to thriving communities. FFAO is supporting state legislation in 2025 to create a state-funded program that ensures everyone in Oregon has access to the food they need. This game-changing policy will:

  • Make food assistance available to all Oregonians who are currently excluded due to immigration status
  • Provide families with money for groceries that matches federal SNAP food assistance benefits
  • Ensure everyone is aware of this vital support through community navigation and outreach, improved language access, and more

We are so grateful for all the amazing folks in our region working for social justice and healthy thriving societies everyday in the Portland Metro region!