Community Spotlight: Welcome Home Coalition

We wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do without partnering individuals and organizations. In our ongoing Community Spotlight series, we aim to uplift those in our community moving forward initiatives aligned with our mission. 

I'm hopeful that the Welcome Home Coalition will continue to grow as a systems change organization, and a space for people being served by our member organizations to offer constructive feedback to improve systems at all levels.

Dignity and autonomy are values we hold strongly at Sisters of the Road as well, which is why we are so excited by the programs and campaigns that have taken off during your tenure! Are there any accomplishments you want to highlight from your first year as Executive Director?

I have been so grateful for this opportunity to combine community organizing and policy advocacy- two of my passions.

I am very proud of our Summer 2022 launch of Welcome Home's Voices for Housing Justice advocacy training program for folks with lived experience with homelessness and/or housing instability: Voices for Housing Justice – Welcome Home Coalition. Our Regional Organizer, Jessica Mathis has been phenomenal at creating curriculum that adapts to the particular interests or experiences of different cohorts with shared identities or lived experience. She is co-facilitating our first of these trainings for Spanish only speakers this summer with coalition partner Bienestar, in Washington County.

We are committed to creating pathways to more authentically include people with lived experience informing housing policy solutions in our region.

I am also proud of our coalition's work to push back on the City of Portland's dangerous policy directions toward criminalization of homelessness: spending massive amounts of taxpayers' money on temporary solutions such as mass encampments and camp bans on public property.

We believe taxpayer money is best spent on programs that lead to more permanent solutions, such as, permanent supportive housing, subsidized affordable housing development, tenant protections, short and long term rental assistance and other supportive services to allow folks who have experienced homelessness to improve their well being and stabilize in housing.

Our collective advocacy to Multnomah County leaders with coalition member partners, such as Sisters of the Road, resulted in the county committing to focusing its spending on longer term solutions.

Lastly, I'll mention our excitement about our recent launch of our Community Conversations for Housing Justice.

During these conversations we hope to connect with stably housed community members and offer public education to ground ourselves in the root causes of homelessness, and also remind folks about the successes of the voter passed affordable housing bonds that often get forgotten about.

When we focus only on the visual impacts of homelessness, we collectively forget about the dozens of households being housed everyday by hard working case managers and outreach workers, and the positive life changing moments that are happening for families and individuals when they get house keys and other support.

Our Communications Associate, Emily Ausman has done a fantastic job this year putting together educational material for this programming to break down the complexities of affordable housing and tell the stories of why it's essential. 

What is a campaign you would like our donors to know about and how can they get involved?

Please learn about this mass email effort to demand our government agencies ensure that contracts with Community Based Organizations allow them to pay living wages to our essential front line workers addressing the homelessness crisis on many fronts: Raise Wages for Social Service Workers at Local Nonprofits! (actionnetwork.org). They can read more about the issue on our website: We Need a Thriving Workforce – Welcome Home Coalition.  

Also, reach out to us if they are involved with any business, faith or other community group who may want to host a Community Conversation for Housing Justice with us: Community Conversations for Housing Justice – Welcome Home Coalition. 

Many thanks to Molly Hogan for taking the time to speak about her first year as well as the programs and campaigns put forth by the Welcome Home Coalition. We look forward to seeing what grows under her leadership and working in solidarity with those efforts! 

If you would like to join the Welcome Home Coalition’s email list, click here.