HOMEOWNER RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Current Homeowners: Last month, we reported that we had requested an additional $500,000 from the City of Portland’s fall budget to provide home repairs to another 50 homeowners throughout North and Northeast Portland. While this request did not get funded in this budget cycle, we still have funding available for homeowners living inside the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area who need home repairs. Contact Bev Keagbine at 503-823-3336 to learn more. (Actual Portland Housing Bureau home repair program participant pictured above). You can start preparing your home for winter now and get help with small repairs at the next Fix-It Fair, on Saturday, November 21 at Parkrose High School from 9:30am – 3pm. Experts will be available all day to talk about water and energy savings, home and personal health, food and nutrition, community resources, yard care and more. This is a free event. Childcare and lunch provided.
We’d also like to give a special thank you to our valued community partners at SEI, who invited members of our staff to their offices earlier month so their housing case managers could learn more about our home repair programs and how they can help the families and households SEI serves. We are excited to have the opportunity to go back to SEI in December and present these programs to the rest of the staff.
Future Homeowners: The N/NE Neighborhood Housing Strategy dedicated $5 million toward creating new affordable homeownership opportunities for approximately 60 households within the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area. At the end of October, we asked developers, contractors, and nonprofit community partners to send us their proposals for how they would use those funds to respond to the needs of the N/NE Portland community and create homeownership opportunities for those that have been displaced from the community and for those at risk of being displaced. We will begin reviewing proposals in partnership with members of the Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF), organizations that serve the N/NE Portland community, the Community Oversight Committee, homeownership industry experts and others later this month. We expect to have a decision by December 18, 2015. Aspiring Homeowners: It’s not too early to register for the Portland Housing Center’s “Getting Your House in Order,” a financial management education series geared toward African Americans. In this class you’ll learn about:
- The historical experience of African Americans with money and financial institutions
- How cultural, family, and personal values and habits affect spending
- How to build a strong credit record
- How to move from living paycheck-to-paycheck to saving for your goals
- Budgeting for now – and for the future
… And more. Past participants have reported coming away from the class with better financial habits, confidence, and lower levels of financial stress. The next series begins in February. To get started, visit Portland Housing Center’s website by clicking here to register for services.
