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This Wednesday, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will be in Portland, Oregon to award a Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grant to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and speak at the Craft Brewers Conference about the importance of protecting our nation’s water resources. The DERA grant will work towards replacing heavy-duty diesel trucks that operate locally and retrofit cargo handling equipment in North Portland.

When complete this summer, REACH Community Development’s Orchards at Orenco (Phase One) will provide affordable homes for 57 low-income families and individuals in Hillsboro—and will raise the bar, internationally, for energy performance in affordable multifamily housing.

Housing Works, the leading affordable housing provider serving the tri-county Central Oregon region, has secured an additional fifteen (15) federally-funded vouchers to aid homeless veterans obtain quality housing.

Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the Rebuilding American Homeownership Act to help middle class families by providing new refinancing options for homeowners. The bill would allow underwater homeowners who currently have no option to refinance to lock into a lower interest rate and reduce their monthly payments, putting more cash back in their pockets and increasing their chances of staying in their homes

Tom Kemper, an attorney and former real estate developer inPortland, recently was appointed executive director of Housing Works, the housing authority for Central Oregon. Kemper replaces Cyndy Cook, who served in that position for 30 years until her retirement in May.

USDA Rural Development’s Chief of Staff for the Rural Housing Service, Dom McCoy, marked National Homeownership Month by highlighting programs to help rural residents buy, refinance and repair homes in rural Oregon. During a visit to the state this week, McCoy met with partners, staff and program participants to promote USDA’s homeownership assistance.

Oregon Housing and Community Services Department (OHCS) and Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley announced the launch of the Rebuilding American Homeownership Assistance Pilot Program (RAHAPP), which will begin accepting applications online at noon on Wednesday June 12, 201

Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) today announced that the Housing Authority of Washington County is now eligible for 35 HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers in addition to the 25 vouchers they have already been awarded. Bonamici requested the additional vouchers in letters to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. The vouchers will be used to provide housing for homeless veterans in Washington County

January 17, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Home Forward and Vitus Group announced today that Home Forward will sell its St. Johns Woods apartment complex in North Portland to Vitus Group, a Seattle-based affordable housing provider with apartment communities in 14 states. Home Forward, the new name for the Housing Authority of Portland, is Oregon's largest affordable housing provider, with nearly 6,500 units of affordable housing in Multnomah County.

December 14, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- In a good first step toward fairer housing allowances for veterans going to school on the post-9/11 GI bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs is allowing veterans studying at the Oregon Institute of Technology’s Wilsonville satellite campus to receive a housing allowance more in line with their cost of living.

PORTLAND - December 11, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- On a single night in January, 2012, 633,782 people were homeless in the United States, largely unchanged from the year before. In releasing HUD's latest national estimate of homelessness, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan noted that even during a historic housing and economic downturn, local communities are reporting significant declines in the number of homeless veterans and those experiencing long-term chronic homelessness

December 5, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Oregon lawmakers wrote to the Veterans Administration to object to regulations which shortchange Oregon veterans going to college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. In a letter to VA Director of Education Services Robert Worley, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) along with Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) urged the VA to change the regulations governing how the Post 9-11 GI Bill housing allowance is paid to reflect the cost of living where students actually live and attend classes

Salem, OR - November 21, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Low-income homeowners and renters affected by foreclosure now have access to new a statewide service that provides free legal assistance from an attorney to help address urgent foreclosure issues

PORTLAND - September 24, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded a total of $1,845,629 to 14 Oregon housing authorities to help residents of HUD-assisted and public housing obtain education and skills training to compete in the job market. With the funds, the four housing can hire or retain 33 service coordinators to work directly with the residents to connect to the supportive services that meet their individual needs to become gainfully employed.

WASHINGTON, DC - July 26, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today offered a new plan to tackle one of the most persistent challenges to the sputtering economy: the massive number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are now worth. In a white paper containing the proposal, called “The 4% Mortgage: Rebuilding American Homeownership,” Merkley laid out a plan to allow underwater homeowners who are current on their mortgages to refinance to a lower interest rate.