Local implementation strategy - community engagement
Washington County Department of Housing Services is conducting community engagement work for new affordable housing to be built in the next two-three years in Washington County as part of Metro's Affordable Housing Bond Program. The overall goal of this engagement work is to ensure that the Metro Bond funded housing projects in Washington County are informed by and accessible to the County’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
In the fall of 2020 and winter-spring of 2021, the Department of Housing Services held eight Zoom listening sessions with BIPOC community members. Participants shared their thoughts on what types of communal spaces and programs affordable housing should offer. In the spring of 2021, housing surveys were also available on the Washington County website as a way to receive additional feedback from the community. The feedback received from the listening sessions and housing surveys will be used to inform designs for Metro Bond funded affordable housing built in Washington County.
Two data reports are available for the listening sessions and housing surveys.
Local implementation strategy
Washington County is committed to leading with racial equity and community engagement throughout this process. In addition, there is a large commitment to adding units for families (407 units) and extremely low income households (334 units). We will also focus in workforce participation by minorities, women, and disabled veterans. The guiding principles of the LIS are:
- Housing Development plan including criteria and selection process for projects
- Strategy for advancing racial equity throughout implementation
- Engagement reports summarizing how stakeholder input and community outreach shaped development of the strategy (see page 33 of the Local Implementation Strategy)
- Plan for ongoing community engagement
The final version of Washington County's Local Implementation Strategy, approved by the Board of County Commissioners on December 17, 2019, is available below.
Community outreach
Staff have reached out to the community and provided updates on the Metro Bond's implementation throughout the County. Presentations were made to numerous organizations including:
- Westside Economic Alliance Land Use & Housing Committee
- Housing Oregon Portland Policy Council
- Washington County Civic Leaders Group
- Beaverton's Housing Technical Advisory Group
- Community Housing Fund Board of Directors