Interested in learning about our five-year goals and strategies? Our plan is posted in the About Us section or you can click here.

Planning for the Future During Challenging Times

By Steve Messinetti, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East

This July, Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East celebrated its first successful year of the merged organization between the Mt. Hood and Portland affiliates. Our recently approved 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.
During our planning process this past year we saw a dramatic rise in the number of hardworking families in need of help. In response to this increasing need, 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 towards 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 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.
Every day in Multnomah and northern Clackamas counties, low-income, hardworking families struggle to find affordable places to live. Rapidly rising rents force these families to live in unsafe, unhealthy and crowded conditions. These families often have to move once or twice a year in search of rents that stay within their reach. Because of this, children transfer from school to school, affecting their learning and their self-esteem.
Now more than ever, our neighbors need our hand to get back on their feet. Thank you for joining us in this work to ensure all families in our community have the opportunity to enjoy the stability, the security and the dignity of a decent, affordable home.