2010-2014 Strategic Plan

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Executive Summary

Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East was officially formed on July 1, 2008, out of a merger between Mt. Hood Habitat for Humanity and Portland Habitat for Humanity. This strategic plan is the final activity that completes the merger process and serves as a blueprint toward accomplishing our vision of a community where everyone has a simple, decent, affordable place to live, and where poverty housing is unacceptable.

We joined forces to maximize our impact in serving families in Multnomah and northern Clackamas counties. By combining the resources and staff of two Habitat for Humanity affiliates, we are now poised to more effectively respond to the growing needs in our community. During our planning process this past year we saw a dramatic rise in the number of hardworking families in need of a helping hand to get back on their feet. It is in response to this increasing need that we present this aggressive roadmap for our organizational growth from 2010 to 2014.

We are proud that at least 88 cents of every dollar directly supports Habitat’s homebuilding program and that, since 1981, more than 190 homes have been built in Portland and Gresham for hardworking, low-income families.

It is on this successful foundation that we prepare to take a new step forward toward our future. This five-year plan will guide our efforts to engage the community in our mission in more profound ways, to connect Habitat homebuyers more surely to their neighborhoods, and to form partnerships that bring out the very best in all of us.

For families, this plan will help them make a sucessful transition to homeownership by expanding services. It will broaden and deepen Habitat’s opportunities for volunteer engagement. The plan will also allow us to increase the number of homes we build as well as raise the capital needed to acquire available land before it is lost to market-rate development.

It is in this context that Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East board and staff commit to the vision, values, and goals of this plan.

Programmatic Goals and Strategies

1. Increase the number of new and renovated Habitat homes in the Portland/Metro East service area from 190 to at least 260 by 2014.

A. Acquire an inventory of land sufficient to meet program needs and sufficient for long-term land banking, focusing on neighborhoods with greatest need in Portland and Gresham.
B. Construct new single-family and multi-family sustainably built homes.

2. Habitat partner families make a successful transition to homeownership, equipped to succeed financially and become contributing members of their community.

A. Provide support to families participating in the Habitat program.
B. Support equity development among Habitat homeowners while maintaining affordability to the family.
C. Expand services to families to help them connect to their communities, respond to multi-family homeownership, and preserve the quality of their homes.
D. Provide a comprehensive education program that includes both pre- and post-purchase counseling.

3. The hearts and minds of Habitat’s constituents and the general public are transformed such that poverty housing becomes unacceptable.

A. Broaden and deepen Habitat’s opportunities for volunteer engagement.
B. Increase awareness, understanding and action in support of affordable housing.
C. Build strong presence within the affordable housing community, helping to shape the environment in which Habitat works.

Organizational Goals

1. Habitat has the organizational leadership and capacity to implement the plan.
2. Habitat has adequate revenue from a diversity of sources to meet full breadth of mission activity.
3. The public understands and values the work of Habitat.
4. Habitat has the systems and infrastructure to fully support the work of the organization.