PDX Housing Solidarity Project

New HOMEOWNERS Alert! Read their story below: My partner and I have had a history of living in community as well as on farms. My partner is a baker and chocolatier and I’m a massage therapist with a side gig repairing and selling electronics. Our jobs brought us into the city and away from our love of open spaces. Neither of us enjoyed renting, and kept ending up either having our homes sold out from under us, or living in slum lord conditions which was just soul crushing. Add that to missing working the land and neither of us was feeling at ease or secure. We never thought home ownership was going to be possible for us, but through some amazing assistance from Lily [a PDX Housing Solidarity Project homebuyer navigator], we found a lender who seriously wanted to help us get into a place. I did try for some Native American grant programs but we make $50 a month too much to qualify. That was a hard hit but thanks to the generosity of some of our family members, and Lily’s lender friend, we were still able to pull it off. I went ham looking for the right place. I was touring 3-5 houses a day up to an hour away from Portland. Our budget was not looking promising for a house in livable condition with enough land for growing food and having community. I did finally get lucky and this adorable house with a huge lot just popped onto the market while I was looking at Redfin. It was meant to be! It’s got everything we needed! We will be a community of five queer people building an urban farm. We are all working hard as a group to finish the basement for one couple (a counselor and a tattoo artist) to move in, and the back yard for the tiny house another person (a hazardous waste tech for metro) will live in. My partner and I are in the upstairs of the main house. We are really watching it come together and shaping our dreams into reality with so much love and gratitude. It’s been an absolute dream come true knowing we all have a place we can feel secure in, where we can all provide food for ourselves with egg laying hens and all the veggies. And we are close enough in town that everyone will be able to keep their jobs. Truly magical.

Hey PDX HSP Community, During this month of the colonial holiday of Thanksgiving, we are thinking about how the work of PDX HSP interrelates with calls for repair from the Indigenous Land Back movement. So for our next community event we are grateful to be hosting Jillene Joseph, enrolled member of the Gros Ventre or Aaniiih people, and board member of the Future Generations Collaborative (FGC). We are very excited that Jillene will be hosting us at and sharing about Barbie’s Village, a land back transfer of the former Laurelhurst Presbyterian Church building and the property it sits on. FGC uses the building as a community hub and is developing a tiny home village on the property for houseless Native parents with small children. Where: Barbie’s Village, 935 NE 33rd Ave When: Tuesday, Nov. 26, 7:00–8:30 pm If you plan to attend, please click the link in our bio to RSVP . Light snacks and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided. Feel free to bring outside food. This will be a masks optional event. We ask that you stay home if you are experiencing any abnormal symptoms. For more info about PDX HSP, check out our website in the link in our bio. #pdxhousingsolidarityproject #pdx #portland #oregon #black #indigenous #community #allies #reparations #homebuying #firsttimehomebuyer #housing #pdxhsp #events #resources #blackcommunity #indigenouscommunity #nativeamerican #africanamerican #families

We will be gathering Monday, September 30th to learn about the most pressing questions for redistributors at this stage of life and enjoy a little community building while we’re at it. Come with your questions, experiences, and suggestions! We look forward to seeing you!

Our next quarterly community building event is going to be a cookout! We figure it’s about time to throw a celebration of everything this community has made happen just in our first few years! Since our founding in 2021, 48 households have redistributed or leveraged $1,480,014 and supported 14 Black and Indigenous first-time homebuyers. Our email list has grown to 210 readers, and we have 96 Black and Indigenous aspiring homebuyers on our waitlist. Join us for a cookout where we will be chilling out, making connections, and enjoying each other’s company. Meanwhile, we will also have an eye towards building collective energy to continue and escalate wealth redistribution for housing justice in Portland. In line with that spirit, we ask that you consider if there is anyone in your life who could be called into this work and who you might invite to attend along with you. This will be a strong and supportive moment for new folks interested in redistribution to meet the community face-to-face. Let’s grow our cadre and normalize wealth redistribution in our city! Food will be provided. Non-alcoholic drinks will be provided. Alcoholic beverages are allowed, but BYOB. Feel free to send any thoughts or questions to [email protected] When? Wednesday, July 31, 2024 6:30 - 8:30 pm PST Where? Columbia Park Picnic Area E Near the restrooms and the intersection of Lombard and N Russet Access and Covid Info We will be at picnic tables under a covered area on concrete with grass nearby. This area is accessible by paved pathways and no stairs need to be navigated. Bathrooms are located immediately adjacent. This will be a masks optional event. Click the link below to RSVP. https://lnkd.in/gWNWp5gZ

We're thrilled to join the Free Yard Trees program by Portland Parks & Recreation aiming to enhance canopy coverage and combat climate change. Taking Ownership PDX received a grant to support this initiative, focusing on neighborhoods where our community resides. Read more about the program on our website here: bit.ly/3LgGv3o, and sign up to receive free trees here: bit.ly/3W0XRWH.

Meet Jendayi, their partner Julia, and their house mates Arty and Avi! Jendayi was one of PDX HSP’s first clients after them and their partner searched the internet for home buying resources that’ll help them achieve their goal of owning a house in Portland. They found PDX HSP and got connect with our amazing home buying navigator Lily Copenagle who facilitated connections to homeownership organizations, including AAAH, PHC, and Hacienda to identify financial and educational home buying resources. We got started on fundraising for their downpayment while they were acquiring all the useful knowledge they needed on their real estate journey, and our wealth redistributers raised $20,635 for them!!! This funding couldn’t have come at a better time because not long before finding HSP Jendayi was laid off and had to survive off of their savings for a few months. Even with the funds raised they had some barriers to overcome because of interest rates and how bad the market was so they decided to reach out to some good friends who were also looking to buy a home. Those friends happened to have money saved for a downpayment as well, so they all decided it would be beneficial to buy a duplex together and use their combined funds to put money down and make any crucial repairs to the place. They are now cohabitating blissfully in their duplex together! They recently posted a reel on TikTok showing all of the benefits of buying a home with your friends, and it went viral! Check it out if you want to dive a little deeper into their beautiful story.

We’ve completed another roof replacement job and full home improvement project! Not only will this assure the elements do not intrude into her home, but this gives her an opportunity to put solar panels on her home if she wishes, a task that Taking Ownership is hoping to help her and others with in the near future as we plan to help Black homeowners access renewable energy resources. Other projects we completed for this homeowner were an interior paint job with Build & Paint Portland and Miller Paint through their “Paint It Forward” campaign. You can see that transformation in our Instagram post on November 30th, 2023. We also collaborated with Portland YouthBuilders to replace her deck and make it safe to walk on again! Happy Juneteenth y’all!r

Meet Anjeanette Brown and her beautiful family! Anjeanette was recently assisted by our collective and purchased her first home! She started her homeownership journey in 2019 but the pandemic derailed her progress due to difficulties finding work in her fields of camp counseling and event planning. She eventually saved enough money in 2022 to start looking for a home but the banks qualified her for a very low loan amount which made it extremely challenging to find a home that would fit her family in the Portland market. She eventually found a trailer she could move into on the Oregon coast and was getting ready to make the move until her camp’s Executive Director introduced her to one of our volunteer team members, this was the ED’s attempt to keep Anjeanette in town because she didn’t want her quitting as the camp’s counselor and life of the party. Our homebuying team was able to connect her with Proud Ground which gave her a large grant toward her downpayment after she completed their program. And then we raised funds for her downpayment through our listserv of allies and helped her increase her loan amount. Which allowed her to purchase a home and keep her family in Portland! She said that the process was beautiful and so team oriented. She couldn’t believe how helpful everyone was for a person they didn’t even know, we met her where she was at and really started working with her situation, and the work started immediately. Congrats to Anjeanette! And thank you to all of the redistributers that made this happen! Photos taken by the talented Nia McFerrin

Hi from the PDX Housing Solidarity Project, We’re a community of over 190 wealth redistributors who — through acts of reparations and mutual aid — have collectively supported 14 Black and/or Indigenous first-time homebuyers to reach their homeownership goals. From direct home sales to raising downpayment funds to creative wealth leveraging, we’re always learning from one another about the many creative paths we can take toward individual reparations, redistribution, and housing justice. The co-organizers of PDX Housing Solidarity Project would like to invite you to a community gathering to learn more about what we do, meet one another, and discuss ways to take action in the pursuit of housing justice in our city. We would love to see you, and you’re welcome to invite anyone else who might be interested! When? Wednesday, April 24, 2024 6:30 - 8 pm PST Where? Community Room at McMenamins Kennedy School 5736 NE 33rd Ave. Portland, OR 97211 Mark your calendars, RSVP at the link in our bio, and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. Cheers, The PDX HSP Team