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A fire-breathing dragon illuminates Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, near the World Trade Center, during the Portland Winter Light Festival. Experience this free, citywide event through this Saturday, February 15. Each night, discover interactive light-based art, immersive sculptures, street performances, and participatory events across Portland. Don’t forget to look up! Rooftop and top-floor displays offer surprising sights to brighten your night.
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Helping people stay in their homes
Meet Marvin Dean, housing construction coordinator for the Portland Housing Bureau. His team helps first-time homeowners buy houses and helps people stay in their family homes.
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Every homeowner knows the feeling. Something has gone wrong with the house, but you don’t have the money to fix it. Sooner or later, most folks figure out a way to make repairs. But what if you’re on a fixed income? What if you’re already struggling with medical bills and mortgage payments? That’s where Marvin Dean comes in. As a member of the Portland Housing Bureau’s Neighborhood Housing Preservation team, he helps low-income and older folks find ways to make home repairs and stay in their homes – at no cost to them.
What is housing preservation, exactly? We help folks stay in their homes. Sometimes people lose their jobs or they’re on a fixed income and they can’t maintain a house. They have a tarp on the roof and buckets to catch the rainwater. Or broken windows taped up with cardboard. Or space heaters with extension cords because they don’t have a working furnace. We try to help them with that.
How? We operate a program which is based on forgivable loans. We identify critical repairs. We help the homeowner find a contractor. We extend a forgivable loan to pay for it. There’s no down payment and no interest as long as they live in the home for 15 years. If they sell their house before then, they pay back a percentage of the loan.
What’s your role in that? I’m an advocate for the homeowner. I go to the house and find out what they need: roof repair, water heaters, electrical panels, porch collapse, things of that nature. I’ve seen situations where they have rats coming out of the sewer line because the sewer line collapsed. And we can help them fix that. I write up a scope of work, and make sure the work is getting done properly. We want to make sure people can keep living in their home.
How did you get into this line of work? I started out as a landscaper. Didn’t know anything about construction. I worked my way up and went to community college and took courses and learned how to do construction. I worked as a maintenance manager at a nonprofit that provides low-income and affordable housing in North and Northeast Portland. Then I got my contractor’s license and became a general contractor. So I have that construction background that is very helpful in this job.
Why does your job matter to Portlanders? The population for the home repair program is mostly older folks. We’re trying to help them age in place. So sometimes we’re doing walk-in showers or wheelchair access. They want to keep their health and live in their house til they die and pass it on to their family. Or sometimes it’s someone who’s taken over the house from someone in the family that’s passed on and they want to keep the house in the family and build generational wealth.
What’s your favorite part about your job? A lot of times, people have their guard up because they’re going through difficult times. But we build a relationship and after a while I get to see their joy and relief from getting things taken care of that they may have deferred for a decade or longer, that they thought they could never get done. So giving people hope and empowering them.
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Resources and engagement opportunities |
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Portland Safe Routes to School is recruiting for the BIKETOWN Youth Ambassador program. This is a new opportunity for Parkrose, Roosevelt, and McDaniel high school students to get paid ($16/hour) to develop leadership skills, promote healthy lifestyles, and fulfill their Career-Related Learning Experience requirement while teaching their peers how to use Portland's BIKETOWN bike-share system.
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Qualified community-based organizations with proven experience are welcome to submit proposals for operating and managing temporary shelters for adults or others experiencing homelessness. An optional pre-proposal information session will be held at The Portland Building and online February 11.
Bids due by February 24 at 4 p.m.
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Looking to save water outdoors? Try planting more native plants, which require less water that most non-native plants. Not sure where to start? Don't panic! Get a head start with this guide to native plant sale season from the Portland Water Bureau.
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Nearly 16,000 people participated in the ranked-choice voting portion of the contest from Jan. 13 - 22. The results have been tallied to reveal the five winning snowplow names!
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Meetings and Ongoing Opportunities
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A great example of middle housing – multiple, smaller homes on individual lots at lower price points in Portland’s single-dwelling zones. Read more below about how the Residential Infill Project is working.
Portland joined a coalition of local governments who are suing the presidential administration for executive orders and actions that harm cities and states with sanctuary policies.
The Residential Infill Project was developed as a tool to help address housing affordability in Portland by allowing for middle housing – multiple, smaller homes on individual lots at lower price points in Portland’s single-dwelling zones. Two years after, the tool is working exactly as intended.
Portland City Council has announced the policy committee meeting schedule. Find more information about each committee and its membership.
The City of Portland is excited to welcome its first-ever Chief Engagement Officer, Amanda Garcia-Snell. She will oversee Civic Life and lead efforts to design citywide engagement practices and procedures, convene and lead a Citywide engagement team, develop and implement the City’s equitable engagement strategy, build relationships with community engagement leaders, and more.
Following more than 30 hours of mediation over two days, the City of Portland and the District Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract, just 12 hours ahead of a strike deadline.
Portland City Council voted February 5 to approve the nomination of two public servants to vital roles in city government: Michael Jordan as city administrator and Robert L. Taylor as city attorney. Jordan and Taylor both currently serve in this capacity and were nominated by Mayor Keith Wilson.
The City has taken steps to address the inequitable impacts of property maintenance enforcement, but the complaint-based system continues to harm vulnerable homeowners.
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Join us for the East County Learn. Share. Do. Fair! on January 22. Bring the whole family and enjoy fun hands-on activities, plus grab some free giveaways while supplies last! Explore exhibitor tables and discover practical tips on topics like:
- Repair
- Clothing swap
- Cooking demos
- Waste collection: sharps, batteries and bulbs
- Hands on art, activities and technology for kids (and the young at heart)
- Community resources on:
- Preparing for extreme heat and emergencies
- Saving energy and lowering utility bills
- Caring for trees, plants, and gardens
- Making safe, non-toxic cleaners
- Exploring transportation options
- And much more!
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Request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for any City of Portland program, service, event, or activity. To ensure the best response, please make your request at least five business days before the program or event, if possible. |
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Volunteer events
Admission pricing
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Your Portland moment
Caption: Our oldest active pipe was installed before we had even begun building the first pipes from the Bull Run Watershed to the city in the 1890s (pictured here).
This year’s Super Bowl has come and gone, but your high-quality water supply is something you can depend on every day! Here’s some fun Water Bureau trivia to share at your next party: did you know our oldest pipe is older than professional football? According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1892 was the first year someone was paid to play football. That makes professional football 133 years old.
Sure, that sounds impressive, but we’ve got something even older and cooler: a 144-year-old cast-iron pipe, installed in 1881, that still serves water to a small area of Northwest Portland.
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Traducción e Interpretación | Biên Dịch và Thông Dịch | अनुवादन तथा व्याख्या
口笔译服务 | Устный и письменный перевод | Turjumaad iyo Fasiraad
Письмовий і усний переклад | Traducere și interpretariat | Chiaku me
Awewen Kapas
Translation and Interpretation: 3-1-1
The City of Portland ensures meaningful access and reasonably provides: translation, interpretation, modifications, accommodations, alternative formats, auxiliary aids and services. To request these services, call 311 for Relay Service or TTY: 711.
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