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Dear Friends and Constituents,
I hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving holiday spent with close friends, family, and loved ones. I can’t believe how fast time is going by with December on us!
Earlier this month, I was back in Salem for a second round of Legislative Days. We continued to make progress towards addressing Oregon’s housing and behavioral health crises and ensuring community safety.
There are some big issues that the Legislature will be taking on this upcoming session. We heard about progress made in addressing our housing supply shortages, building up our health care behavioral health infrastructure, our collective response to the fentanyl crisis, and boosting our local economy. Everyone has a friend or a family member that has been impacted, these are all issues that many Oregonians care about.
I believe that the Legislature can work together to find bipartisan collaboration in finding solutions to serve all of our communities. I look forward to our third and last round of Legislative Days in January before we hit the ground running in February for the legislative session.
Rep. Hai Pham on the House floor. Photo Credit: Lynn Howlett
I am excited to be hosting a Veteran Listening Session next week on Thursday, December 7th from 6-7 pm at the Cooper Mountain Nature House. This event was made possible and brought to us by a constituent in the community who wanted to make space for veterans in the Washington County community.
I look forward to hearing from veterans and active-duty members in the district about your needs, experiences, and the issues that you are most tuned into. Pizza and drinks will be provided at the event, so please be sure to register for the event in advance linked here.
If you have any questions about the event or need any accommodations, please email me at Rep.HaiPham@oregonlegislature.gov.
Joint November Town Hall with Washington Commissioner Fai and Hillsboro Councilor Pace
Thank you to everyone who came out to my Joint Town Hall! It was great seeing the Hillsboro community come together and have a good discussion about everything from building affordable housing to bolstering our behavioral health workforce.
Beaverton’s Year-Round Shelter Project Groundbreaking
This month, my staff attended the groundbreaking event for the City of Beaverton’s first year-round shelter project. This is an exciting opportunity to provide a safe place for our neighbors experiencing homelessness to get the support they need. Construction for the shelter project has started with the goal of opening in late summer 2024.
Rendering of the year-round shelter’s exterior. Photo Credit: Ink:Built Architecture
Once open, the shelter is slated to assist community members with on-site services like meals, showers, and clinics in addition to their central location linking people to groceries, social service agencies, and employment opportunities.
Rendering of the year-round shelter’s lobby area. Photo Credit: Ink:Built Architecture
Tour of Beaverton’s Behavioral Health Court
I met with Mayor Lacey Beaty, Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, and the Governor’s mental health advisor to watch the city’s Behavioral Health Court in action. Started in 2021, the Behavioral Health Court works with people who struggle with mental illness in an intensive one-year program. Currently, there is a 0% recidivism rate for participants, showing what a difference we can make in the community, for the community.
Projects like this show that law enforcement, mental health providers, and the community can come together to build up a successful wrap-around program to provide critical services to support our neighbors who are struggling the most.
Trip to Silicon Valley
I had the honor to be part of a delegation of Oregon and Washington legislators for an educational trip down in Silicon Valley. It is an amazing opportunity to hear from technology giants like Google, Apple, and eBay on key issues from responsible artificial intelligence to sustainability.
As we approach the February legislative session, I look forward to bringing back my findings to Oregon, so we can further support and nurture our own Silicon Forest.
Photo of Reps Pham, Sosa, and Bowman at Googleplex
Tour of Cooper Mountain Nature Park
With the fall season ending so soon, my staff had the opportunity to visit Cooper Mountain Nature Park with State Representative Lisa Reynolds and the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (THPRD). They are doing some amazing work ensuring all communities and youth in Washington County have access to Oregon's natural resources and we protect spaces and ecosystems like in Cooper Mountain.
Take a look at the newts they found!
Newt on the Cooper Mountain Park trail
City of Hillsboro: Be Aware of Phone Call Scams
The City of Hillsboro’s Water Department is advising everyone to be aware of a fraudulent phone scam - to both landlines and cell phones - in which individuals posing as City drinking water or utility billing officials attempt to collect or extort money.
While these scam phone calls appear to come from Hillsboro Water's main administrative phone number of 503-615-6702, Hillsboro Water has not initiated these calls. The scammers are using 'phone spoofing' - or when a scammer tricks your phone's caller ID into showing an official phone number like 503-615-6702 to disguise their identity - to call customers.
The City is continuing to investigate how these phone calls are originating and are not aware of any compromised customer information. We have also notified the Hillsboro Police Department as we continue to investigate. Here’s a KOIN article with more information.
Thank you for reading my newsletter! If you want to hear regular updates about the work that I am doing in Salem, please follow me on Facebook or Instagram. And as always, you can reach me by emailing my office at Rep.HaiPham@oregonlegislature.gov.
Best Regards,
 Representative Hai Pham
House District 36
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1436
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-282, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.HaiPham@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/phamh
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