By Janet Byrd
Happy New Year! 2019 holds a lot of promise for creating opportunity and stability for Oregonians. There’s a lot of work ahead for us in the Legislature, working with our partners on program management, and planning for the 6th Annual RE:Conference in October. We’re excited to be almost fully staffed up, looking to the year ahead, and digging in to the work together.
Reading through this newsletter you’ll see more information about our asset building and housing legislative agendas. Between January 14th and June 30th, the Oregon Legislature will be in session and we will be working hard to increase funding for the Oregon IDA Initiative, to protect people who rent their homes from housing instability, to increase resources for homeownership and rental housing, and much more.
We can’t succeed without you!
Please plan to join us for our lobby days, in meeting with legislators, in spreading the word about our proposals, in gathering organizational and individual endorsements. You’ll see details about what we’ve planned and how you can engage in the articles that follow.
Equity, and our role in creating a more equitable Oregon, will also continue to be a top priority. Neighborhood Partnerships’ roles and relationships give us many opportunities to be visible and impactful in this work, and we are excited to embrace those opportunities. As manager of the Oregon IDA Initiative, we’ll be working with Oregon Housing and Community Services and all of our partners to increase the reach and impact of the IDA Initiative in communities of color. As advocates, we’ll work to support, help mobilize, and elevate an ever-broader range of voices and perspectives so that policy making benefits our communities and moves the needle to improve outcomes for people of color. And as conveners and hosts of events, we’ll make sure that our speakers and topics challenge us to do better, and move us forward in this work.
Here we come, 2019!