I’m often asked what I’m seeing from my seat at Meyer since I have somewhat of a bird’s-eye view of the ecosystem of nonprofits working for a healthy environment across the state. So, I thought I would share a few recent observations with an aspiration of helping support further development of the diverse and inclusive movement we need to ensure the long-term health of our communities and the environment.

Top of mind is the current political climate and how it’s affecting organizations working for a healthy environment. I’m also mindful of Meyer’s equity lens, which we apply to all our work, and our responsibility to be transparent about what we are learning and seeing. Together these provide the backdrop for my observations.

1. Many organizations are feeling strained, but they are also resilient and building strength

With basic environmental protections, action on climate change and public lands protection in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and a polluter-friendly U.S. Congress in place, many organizations working for a healthy environment are stepping up their defensive efforts or joining forces with others to protect key environmental protections and recent gains. In some cases, groups have had to shift priorities to do more rapid response work, which has increased stress and also affected funding needs and direction.

Organizations of color and other organizations whose core constituents are “frontline communities” — those that experience oppression and disparities based on one or more identities — and who also work on environmental issues are doubly strained. However, they are also doubling down on resistance. In the face of attacks by the Trump administration and rising hate crimes, they are drawing upon their resiliency and organizing experience to support their communities and advance larger goals for change.

At the same time, many organizations have experienced a post-election surge in individual contributions, which is providing some of the unrestricted resources they need to help navigate the new political environment and shift priorities. In addition, some funders have deployed new flexible resources to help address these needs. We recognize the need for more sustained and flexible support.

Because of Oregon’s current political leadership, we’re hearing from national environmental partners who see the opportunity to bring new capacity to Oregon for positive work, particularly focused on climate and clean energy. This means that Oregon may get a boost in capacity to support current policy efforts and help develop strategies for success that could be replicated elsewhere.

2. Partnerships between mainstream environmental organizations and organizations led by frontline communities are increasing, but most appear to be focused on transactional vs. transformational change.

When I reflect on specific on-the-ground projects that we are learning about through our annual funding opportunity, I’m seeing more mutually beneficial transactional work and some seeds of transformational change. I distinguish “mutually beneficial transactional work” from “transactional work” in that the former is actually positive and beneficial to both partners, versus the latter, which is extractive and has negative impact on the underserved communities and the organization serving them. One-off mutually beneficial transactional work can produce wins for both parties, but these partnerships do not alter the fundamental form or function of the existing power structure, institutions or systems that define how things work. These systems are fundamentally flawed in that they are built on a power structure that consistently privileges certain groups over others.

Mutually beneficial transactional work can be a useful first step in advancing change but must evolve into change efforts that aim for transformation. Transformational change requires a greater investment and will on the part of all partners. It requires a willingness and commitment to altering the fundamental power structures and relationships in society and creating new systems built upon principles of organizational sustainability and equity.  

3. Organizations are beginning to look for ways to deepen and expand their collaborative work.

In response to the tense and rapidly changing political environment, I’ve heard about and participated in a number of convenings of organizational leaders that share the common theme of building relationships to lay groundwork for new and deeper collaboration. Environmental justice and social justice organizations, tribal organizations, other groups serving frontline communities and funders have been most active in these conversations.

A modest number of Oregon’s mainstream environmental organizations have been engaged in these discussions as well. However, many environmental groups have not yet been invited to participate at these tables because their relationships with organizations serving frontline communities are only emerging. I would like to help support the appropriate next steps to broaden the tables that have emerged and foster deeper relationships to move beyond tactical and transactional work toward transformational, movement-scale efforts.

I believe that more strategic convening can help unify and align efforts, strengthen channels of communication between organizations and build alliances for larger social and environmental change in the future.

4. Environmentalists are joining protests against racism and working to develop more inclusive, equitable and diverse organizations.

Although we’ve seen some recent missteps and there is still far to go to build an anti-racist environmental movement in Oregon, we are seeing a growing number of examples of mainstream environmental organizations taking action to protest racism and act as allies to people of color, immigrants and refugees and others being threatened in the current climate. Some environmental groups have joined forces with social justice groups and others to defend Oregon against anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim policies and ballot measures. They have engaged their members at rallies for immigrant rights, spoken up against attempts to link anti-immigrant actions to an environmental protection agenda and collaborated in other advocacy efforts. This is important progress, and we hope to support more action like this.

We are also seeing a growing number of organizations seeking support for efforts to deepen their understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as make strategic changes in how their organizations operate. We are committed to nurturing this external and internal work for the long-term and aim to look for ways to stimulate efforts that can lead to deeper progress.

The four reflections I offer here are among the observations that have continued to surface over the past months. The Healthy Environment team is proud and honored to help support and be a part of the creative, persistent and powerful ways that organizations are working to protect the environment so that all of Oregon’s diverse communities benefit equitably. This work is not easy and it will continue to evolve from where we are today to where we hope to be in the future. Please continue to share with us the challenges you face, the opportunities you see and ideas you have for how we can work together for an equitable and flourishing Oregon.

— Jill

Soon after the 2016 presidential election, many of us began wondering how the changed political landscape would impact our work. A number of Meyer grantees, including those in the Building Community portfolio, raised real concerns and questions about how this new reality would affect, among other things, our civil liberties, immigrants’ rights, the rights of LGBTQ people, equity and justice. As a direct result, Meyer added two new tools to our real-time response kit: rapid response grantmaking, and the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative.

In an effort to take stock of how changing realities are impacting the work related to social justice, Meyer recently helped organize and participated in an event called “Strengthening Action for Justice.” The event focused on how the changed political environment is likely to impact our work and identified shared values and ways we can support each other moving forward.

More than 60 participants representing 30 community organizing and advocacy groups and a dozen funders attended the May 25 event in Portland. Extra efforts were also made to support the participation of key representatives from rural communities, and some traveled from as far away as Ontario in eastern Oregon. In some respects, the meeting was experimental. The planning group included both funders and community groups, and though there were some specific recommendations that came out of the conversation, the main objective was to create a space for folks to learn from each other.  

Through the process of designing and carrying out the meeting, participants named and affirmed shared values, identified root causes of challenges, and began thinking about how to leverage the strengths of both philanthropic and community-based organizations. Through discussion on root causes, participants began to think more broadly than their own organization, consider possibilities for alignment and move beyond the symptoms of problems.

Impacts of the changed political environment

A pre-meeting survey as well as discussion revealed that the current environment has raised levels of fear: fear of deportation, hate crimes and harassment and concern about losing health care and other key services that disproportionately impact marginalized communities. Quickly shifting policy changes have also forced many community-based and philanthropic organizations to respond rapidly (e.g., keeping up with potential changes in Medicaid, providing Know Your Rights* education) and in a way that is often reactive rather than proactive. For all, a sense of urgency has created the challenge of balancing existing work while also responding to immediate and, in many cases, unforeseen needs. (*Know Your Rights refers to programs that provide community members with critical information on their legal rights in a number of areas including civil liberties, housing, education, immigration status, etc.)

When asked to identify the root causes to many of the current and anticipated challenges of operating in this political environment, the group noted the prominence of racism and xenophobia. Other, and often related, causes included disenfranchisement of communities of color, concentration of wealth and power, misinformation and lack of cross-community communication.  

Looking forward

The pre-meeting survey and discussion also provided insights on shared beliefs and values.  Some of these included the importance of cross-sector collaboration, dismantling systems of oppression, working toward racial equity, the need for organizational sustainability and the commitment to authentic community engagement.   

Recognizing that community and philanthropic organizations can learn from each other, participants also talked about how these two sectors could work together effectively. Along these lines, a number of suggestions related to increased communication, cross-sector (community and philanthropic) conversation and finding ways to engage in direct action.

Some specific recommendations included:

Focusing together on shared goals — Convenings like Strengthening Action for Justice hold the potential to proactively identify short- and long-term solutions on topics tied to justice and equity.  

Collaboration — Efforts that build understanding, shared language and collective power are crucial in this political climate. This work might involve activities such as collaborations with government and public officials or focus on specific issues such as fair access to housing or public education.  

Investments in capacity — Any efforts to improve organizing capacity would be helpful. This might include helping participants interpret changes in policy (e.g., new IRS rules), providing access to specific forms of technical assistance such as legal expertise, and providing general operating support funding.

Investments in justice organizing — the changed political environment has increased interest in organizing individuals and communities for collective action, many felt it is crucial to direct new energy and in a way that connects it with justice movements that have been deeply engaged in this work over time.  

A focus on rural communities — Recognizing that many communities are feeling anxious about unpredictable federal and state policy shifts, the group felt that rural communities may be particularly vulnerable.  With this in mind, participants in the meeting felt that a specific focus on rural communities was warranted.  

Tracking social services alongside social change — Organizations that provide some form of direct service can be powerful voices for highlighting broader/more systemic issues and root causes. In this climate, both services and organizing are needed to address immediate issues and mobilize people for larger change.  

Though the outcome of this meeting will continue to unfold, the timeliness of this type of dialogue was evident the very next day, when three men sought to disrupt an Islamophobic attack on a MAX train in Portland. Two people were killed and another sustained serious injury, but the incident reminded us that bias actions and injustice must be confronted strongly and directly. For those who have been working on these issues for years, it brought home the importance of continued commitment to the shared values identified in meetings like Strengthening Action for Justice.

 

— Dahnesh

 

(Special thanks to Western States Center, meeting coordinator Katie Sawicki and the Collins Foundation for their work to make this meeting possible.)  

 

Photo credit: Jamie Francis

The 2017 Oregon legislative session started with big promises. The business community, advocates and legislators had hoped to develop a revenue package that would avoid massive cuts to safety net programs.

Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed due to party politics and the lack of political will in Salem to address Oregon’s ongoing housing crisis.

Saying that, there was good work to addressing housing issues that we all collectively accomplished this legislative session.

“The Oregon Legislature said addressing our housing crisis was one of their top priorities heading into the 2017 session,” said Alison McIntosh with the Oregon Housing Alliance. “We made progress in some areas, including investments in emergency rent assistance, development, and preservation.”

“However, the Legislature failed to pass legislation that would have provided basic protections for people who rent their homes,” McIntosh goes on to say. “While we are grateful for the leadership and investments, we know the Legislature has more work to do so that all Oregonians have safe, stable, and affordable housing. We know that together, we can solve our housing crisis. People in our communities don’t need to sleep or die on our streets.”

This Session’s victories

The Oregon legislature delivered on some important revenue options to support affordable housing and homeless services.

The following investments were made in Salem.

• $80 million in general obligation bonds to build more affordable housing for the biennium

• $25 million in lottery bonds to preserve existing affordable housing for the biennium

• $40 million in emergency rent assistance and shelter for the biennium

• $25 million a year in tax credits to help build or preserve affordable housing

These investments were absolutely critical to go to support our most vulnerable residents in Oregon.

Other important victories on the housing front include small investments for a land acquisition program for affordable housing, legislation that allows churches to build affordable housing on their land and tools to help local jurisdictions understand what housing is being lost and what housing is needed for future planning.

Giving churches the opportunity to build affordable housing on their own property is huge. With a coordinated faith and affordable housing strategy, Oregon could be looking at some amazing projects on the horizon.

Saying that, in order to begin to address the housing crisis statewide the governor and state legislature are going to have to start prioritize housing in a more intentional way.

This Session’s misses  

Street Roots estimates that Oregon should be investing an additional $250 million annually in affordable housing projects and tens of millions more for emergency homeless services.

Of course, the biggest loss for Oregonians was the lack of action on tenant protections and the ability to move legislation to avoid subsidizing wealthy homeowners through the mortgage interest deduction program.

By not creating any restrictions on landlords for rent increases or no cause evictions the Oregon legislature is more or less helping contribute to homelessness and gentrification.

People on social security, elders, single parents and others will continue to be faced with hard choices, displacement and homelessness.

Let’s not forget that many elders and people with disabilities have monthly incomes of less than $750.

It doesn’t take a mathematician or an economist to understand that that’s not going to pay for a safe place to call home on the private market.

The reality is without government intervention Oregonians will continue to be evicted from their homes without having any housing alternatives.

The legislature also walked away from more than $300 million of ongoing money that could be going to support people in poverty and affordable housing by not reforming the mortgage interest deduction program. Oregonians making more than $200,000 or who own two or three homes in Oregon are currently being subsidized for housing while thousands of Oregonians are sleeping on our streets or in emergency shelters. That’s not even close to be equitable.

We have work to do

The Oregon legislature for too long has gotten away with managing the issue of affordable housing, instead of making it a priority. Housing should be every bit as much of a priority for Oregon Democrats and Republicans as jobs, transportation and schools.

The housing crisis in Oregon is not going away. In fact, given the current political climate in Washington D.C., growth speculation around the state and the loss of living wage jobs — we fully expect the problem to continue to get worse before it gets better.

It’s up to all of us to work together to help create political will to help end people’s homelessness and to invest in affordable housing. We know that without housing, it’s impossible to have a healthy society. Let’s do better together. Let’s find a way to continue to support an affordable housing movement in Oregon.

— This article ran in Street Roots on July 7, 2017, http://news.streetroots.org/2017/07/07/director-s-desk-legislative-session-leaves-little-poor-celebrate

The handle of a doorknob at the Capitol building in Salem reads, "State of Oregon – 1859."

I’m a homeowner.

I was lucky that everything lined up for me to fulfill a dream of owning a home. This was important to me less because homeownership is part of the “American dream,” but because I had experienced the ups and downs of housing stability and access to rentals that came with being a renter.

I have received rent increases with little notice and have felt like I had to choose between food or health care and rent. Once, I delayed going to the doctor for a fractured wrist because I couldn’t afford the health care co-pay and my rent at the same time. I have pleaded with potential landlords to look over my past credit challenges. I have struggled with feelings of unworthiness when I didn’t sound like a rental listing’s ideal renter — sometimes including attributes that were against Fair Housing law. Anytime I moved from one rental to another, I went into debt. It might take me four months to get out of debt or as much as two years, once I factored in the application fees, deposits, moving costs and first and last month’s rent. I spent years chasing ever more affordable rental homes, which helped my immediate financial need but in the long term did not lead to more stability.

Since I became a homeowner six years ago, rents have increased in Portland by 43 percent, while Oregon incomes have only increased by about 6 percent. Rental vacancy rates were around 9 percent when I bought; although the rental market is seeing higher vacancies overall, rental homes that are affordable to lower income tenants have significantly lower vacancies, making it harder to find a home that is affordable to someone with a lower income. Rates for affordable housing now range from 0.5 percent to 4 percent. Today’s rental market of higher rents and low vacancies has been a hard reality especially for low-income renters and often leaves renters vulnerable to poor rental conditions or homelessness.

The importance of naturally occurring affordable housing

There has been a shortage of subsidized rental housing for a long time, but in recent years, there has also been a shortage of affordable private market rental homes. This is important because, in general, the private market has been housing low-income renters in naturally occurring affordable housing, housing that is offered by the market that is more affordable than the general market without subsidies. Since vacancies are extremely low in naturally occurring affordable private market housing, low-income households are experiencing higher housing uncertainty and becoming rent burdened, while the organizations working to help low-income renters find homes are needing to shift to fast-paced market conditions.

As a program officer working on Meyer’s Housing Opportunities portfolio, almost every community and nonprofit I talk to shares heartbreaking stories of families with children living in tents or cars; seniors and people with disabilities on fixed incomes severely rent-burdened; hard-working people not able to find homes in the same town or county where they work; and families doubled up in rental homes to avoid living on the streets.

This is not just a Portland problem. Hood River, Ashland, Roseburg, Salem, Springfield, Vernonia, Bend and more all share similar stories and need. The challenges of securing a rental home and finding a landlord willing to overlook low income has become infinitely harder for renters escaping domestic abuse, with poor credit histories, coming out of homelessness, who are immigrants, who have criminal histories, with past evictions, and from protected classes.

Meyer’s focus on private market rentals

Meyer’s Private Market Units strategy was developed in response to the rapidly changing housing market and nonprofit community partners’ call for Meyer to identify effective and replicable strategies to expand low-income renters’ access to safe, decent, affordable housing through existing private market units in urban, suburban and rural markets.

In past three years, Meyer has funded 14 demonstration projects, focused on trying a variety of approaches ranging from security deposit loans to landlord outreach and education, renter ready-to-rent classes, and placement and retention support. The demonstration projects tested assumptions about private market landlords’ engagement and risk mitigation, low-income renters’ needs and barriers, and traditional placement strategies. Demonstration projects that have generally been most successful engaged landlords early in the development of projects and made changes to their approach based on landlord feedback. Demonstration projects that were less successful often reached out to landlords late in the process after the project was developed and launched. Also, some grantees struggled working in communities that had extremely low vacancy rates with limited housing stocks. This was true for urban, suburban and rural communities.

Lessons learned with private landlords

Demonstration projects that responded to real-time challenges in the market and engaged private market landlords early in the project planning process were the most successful because they could ground-truth their assumptions and adjust their projects early in development. The Housing Authority of Jackson County (HAJC) launched a demonstration project offering security deposit loans to its Section 8 voucher renters (Housing Choice voucher) while its market had less than a 1 percent vacancy rate and skyrocketing rents. HAJC tested their assumption that many of their Section 8 voucher holders were struggling to secure rental homes not because they had a voucher but because they lacked the funds to move in once approved. Section 8 voucher holders who received a 0 percent interest security deposit loan with a 12-month repayment schedule could find and secure a rental home faster with less stress about having to return their voucher or where they would pull together the needed funds for their deposit. Landlords also responded positively to the loan recipients knowing that they could repay a loan. HAJC has since replicated its model in two other communities in coordination with the local public housing authorities.

Northwest Pilot Project (NWPP) partnered with Home Forward and Urban League of Portland to respond to immediate challenges low-income seniors were experiencing with displacement. They tested the assumption that private market landlords wouldn’t be willing to participate and that low-income seniors would not be able to stay in high-priced rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Many of the seniors had been living in their rental homes for years and were barely keeping up with rising rents on their fixed incomes. This collaborative developed a demonstration project matching these seniors with Section 8 vouchers. The collaborative partners were able to educate the landlords early in the program about the Section 8 program and the benefits of keeping the renters. As they learned from each landlord experience they adjusted their approach for the next landlord as appropriate. Ultimately, all of the landlords approached through the demonstration project were willing to participate in the project and one-third of the landlords had never participated in the Section 8 program before. On average, seniors had a rent reduction of $663 by participating in this program.

Northwest Housing Alternatives (NHA) partnered with Legal Aid Services of Oregon and Portland Defender to test multiple strategies to increase housing access for low-income renters with barriers including low-level criminal histories. This collaborative tested  assumptions about what barriers private market landlords would be willing to overlook and which ones they viewed as high risk and non-negotiable. Their tenant participants are not only low-income but often also have criminal histories, past landlord debts, past eviction rental histories and poor credit histories and lacked an identification card or a driver’s licence, etc. A number of tenants struggle with multiple housing barriers, making it difficult to identify which barrier is most challenging for a landlord. This collaborative worked to overcome several rental barriers through a variety of strategies, including expunging eligible criminal histories, paying past landlord debts, paying for participants to secure identification cards or a driver’s license, offering a landlord guarantee with participation and having eligible past evictions removed from tenants’ records.

Early in the project, NHA found that the barriers landlords were most averse to were past debts and fear of future debt. NHA’s most effective strategies to successfully house renters through this project have been to pay past landlord debts, offering landlord guarantees and to build a trusting relationship as an agency with the landlords. Many of the the landlords they worked with in this project were willing to overlook past criminal histories, limited incomes and past evictions as long as they felt that they could recover debt if the placement wasn’t successful. In the long run, NHA recognizes that removing the other barriers such as eligible criminal histories will be helpful for future long-term stability, but for now they found they were able to find several landlords willing to offer housing opportunities as long as their main concerns were mitigated. NHA’s ability to build relationships with landlords early in the process to understand their concerns and risks with renting to tenants with several barriers was crucial to success.

HAJC, Northwest Pilot Projects and NHA were successful because they engaged private market landlords early in the process to help inform the development of their demonstration projects and to ground-truth their assumptions. Some of the most impactful lessons Meyer learned through this funding strategy were how crucial it is to have buy-in and input from private market landlords in the project development, the need for grantees to be flexible and responsive to landlords concerns and open to their engagement, and to understand the needs and challenges of the specific renter population each group is working with.

When strategies no longer work in current market conditions

Some of the funded projects that were less successful taught us that strategies that were once effective when vacancy rates were higher are less effective now either because they no longer offered landlords a meaningful incentive in this market or they don’t meet the interests or needs of renters. For example, strategies such as a housing navigator were largely unsuccessful if the navigator was not able to offer immediate incentives to landlords, such as higher deposits or having an immediate rental start date. Also, renter readiness classes often did not seem to match to the needs of renters or landlords and proved less successful in getting placements. Projects that were a closer match to renters’ barriers and immediate needs had higher participation and project compliance.

Through this funding strategy, we noticed that projects were less impacted by geographical conditions than strategy and early buy-in from the local landlord community. In suburban and rural communities especially, engaging landlords early and and building an agency relationship was crucial to success. Landlords in many communities were open and interested in participating in these demonstration projects but were clear about needing to have their real concerns heard and addressed.

For plenty of folks, getting access to stable and affordable housing in the private market is a good step toward stability. Through Meyer’s Private Market Strategy, we have seen solid success for our partners that engage with and learn from landlords and renters, test assumptions and forge a wide circle of partners. And as funders, we can help renters increase housing access and stability by funding groups to test new strategies and being flexible when our partners need to adapt their projects to emerging landlord and renter needs. We are encouraged that private market strategies can help address Oregon’s housing crisis.

— Elisa

AHI program Officer Elisa Harrigan at home, in front of her "Latin wall," filled with ceramic home models, a nod to tradition in her home country of El Salvador.

More than a decade ago, I began a training regimen in Pilates with certified instructors. It started out with simple moves. After years of training sessions, I eventually added the Russian Split and the Snake and Twist on the reformer, advanced exercises that build on the basics of Pilates and require both patience and practice. With my newly acquired knowledge, I am now capable of carrying out advanced Pilates sessions on my own and helping others in their learning journey.

When we first began exploring equity at Meyer Memorial Trust around 2012, we started by training in racial equity, the most common catalyst for diversity, equity and inclusion work. Understanding DEI and operating within a DEI lens is complex work. Race intersects with all areas of DEI, so it is not uncommon to focus initially on race to help folks unpack the ways in which oppression works.

Our interactive anti-racism equity training has been grounded in the examination of racial and ethnic oppression through a framework that allows us to examine how the three expressions of racism (illustrated in the cardstack on the left) show up. White supremacy is at the root of historic inequity in the United States. It promotes monoculturalism and the disenfranchisement of communities of color.

Meyer’s trainings — I figure we’ve undergone just shy of two work weeks of daylong equity trainings so far — help to sharpen our skills, strategies and ability to address structural racism and to advance racial equity and social change. The thinking: Once people understand how everyone is harmed by those systems, we can work together to create change within them.

Last weekend, to celebrate Meyer’s 35th year as an Oregon foundation, our staff marched at the Portland Pride parade in support of Meyer colleagues, friends, relatives and neighbors along the identity spectrum: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and more. (For a glimpse at the diversity of the “LGBTQAlphabet,” take a look at this video from Equinox and The Center [the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center]) A few days earlier, we completed our second two-day staff and trustee LGBTQ equity training, with expert trainers from Pride Foundation, dRworks, Yee Won Chong Consulting LLC and Neola H. Young Consulting.

I have four young grandkids, two whose assigned sex is female and two male. In an effort to be a better informed grandfather, I walked into the training feeling an urgency to understand more about gender. It was a thoughtful, challenging experience. At times, I felt moments of uncertainty even as I was enlightened about deconstructing the gender binary, deadnaming and why the Oregon Equality Act of 2007 is such an important bulwark for the protection of jobs, housing and access to opportunities for the state’s LGBTQ community.

I learned much, and the trainers did what they do best: challenge firmly held beliefs. When the training wrapped up, I felt more emboldened and empowered to work against the discrimination of people who identify as transgender, gender-nonconforming, gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Our training has broadened to include LGBTQ issues for a few reasons. A key reason is to assure Meyer staff who identify as LGBTQ that our foundation believes this is important work. Its framework and construct echo the racial equity training Meyer staff and trustees have undergone, to help us understand the broad concepts, oppressions and discriminations that can shape the experiences of LGBTQ people.

When Meyer started equity training, I remember saying to a staff member, “Well, I don’t expect us to become a social justice organization.” Somehow, that felt a step too far for this organization. But with training, I’ve come to realize I didn’t even know what a “social justice organization” really was or why they have had to exist. Marginalized human beings encounter multilayered experiences of personal and structural and cultural -isms every day, at the bank, enrolling their kids in school, buying real estate. Before we began, those truths weren’t anything I, a cisgender white guy who benefits from white privilege, knew innately.

That’s the thing: Without training and education, I wouldn’t have a counter-narrative to the sanitized history that makes it appear that there is no reality beyond one through a binary gender lens or the myth that this country was not built on the bodies and blood of people of color. Time and again, those deeper dives into equity through a racial framework make clear that white people must educate ourselves about the history of racism in the U.S. and how it  manifests at the individual, institutional and cultural levels.

Without training, even well-intentioned people don’t have the ability to identify cultural, structural and institutionalized racism. Or to shift their perspective so they can focus their efforts on dismantling oppression. Being progressive isn’t enough: If we care about making systems change, we must use our position, power and privilege to eliminate racism. As an institution born of wealth, unfettered opportunity and power, we must keep learning.

Why? Because we make mistakes, and equity training teaches us that when mistakes happen, owning the problem and offering a thoughtful remedy is a key step toward the flourishing and equitable Oregon that is our mission.

A great example of applied learning: last year, we were criticized for our terminology when referring to people with disabilities on our website, mmt.org. Our intent wasn’t to harm, but using the word ability to encompass people with disabilities did cause harm. Apologies without recompense don’t go very far.

For us to understand where we went wrong, we had to understand why our word choice was wrong. So we read books and we talked to experts and to people with disabilities. We haven’t done organization-wide training, that still lies ahead, but we will because training helps us to become smarter allies, more sensitive advocates and, frankly, better-informed accomplices.

—Doug

Meyer staff and trustees during a two-day LGBTQ equity training in June 2017

As a Korean-American, there isn’t really a day when my racial identity is mistaken. My identity as a lesbian can be, though.

When I came out to my parents, my mom even pointed out that I wasn’t one of those lesbians who “cut their hair short and wore clompy shoes.” (My butch partner, Kris, however, looked down at her shoes and said, “I think I’m your mother’s worst nightmare!”) Unlike with my obvious racial status, I get a pass on my sexual orientation and gender identity. In some of my previous workplaces, the assumption that I was straight led to a significant amount of worry that my acceptance and safety hinged on that mistake.

I am fortunate to feel safe being “out” at Meyer. It’s not always so easy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people whose identities and gender expression do not match the binary male/female “norms,” particularly when they work in organizations rife with implicit or explicit homophobia and transphobia. LGBTQ people have shouldered the burden of these phobias: everything from the inability to be out in the workplace and lack of funding for LGBTQ organizations to significant inequities among the population, personal violence and even mass murder.

At two recent events hosted by Funders for LGBTQ Issues and the Pride Foundation, I was reminded that those of us in “mainstream” philanthropy (i.e. foundations that are not LGBTQ-specific) need to do more to increase safety for LGBTQ employees and to advance equity for the LGBTQ communities we serve. In a workshop titled “How Foundations Can Better Support LGBTQ Staff and Movements: Stories from the Field,” Tamir Novotny from Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and Brian Schultz of the Foundation Center presented preliminary data from a survey of LGBTQ staff in foundations around the country and led an informal “data gathering” discussion about participants’ experiences.

The survey’s early findings were not surprising to the group. Remaining closeted and “navigating your workplace as your authentic self” resonated as ongoing challenges with workshop participants. Heads nodded as our discussion turned to the fear of being seen as biased should we bring up LGBTQ issues. Some noted that questions about personal life, family and home aren’t as frequently asked of LGBTQ staff, and both big wins, such as marriage equality, and terrible losses, such as the Pulse Nightclub massacre, can feel isolating when no one else talks about them. The underemployment of transgender employees in the workforce was particularly notable. And finally, the level of funding to address LGBTQ inequities sends a message to LGBTQ employees regarding awareness or willingness to take action.

A recent report from Funders for LGBTQ Issues revealed that, while on the rise nationally, funding for LGBTQ issues and organizations in the Pacific Northwest dropped by nearly half between 2011 and 2015, from a high of $4.9 million to $2.6 million. Much of the drop can be attributed to a decrease in funding after marriage equality wins. But backlash to that decision is ongoing, and in today’s political climate,  LGBTQ civil rights are increasingly at risk for a population that has long faced significant and persistent inequities. (see cardstack)

Here's a lesson for funders focused on providing resources to alleviate poverty, hunger and violence or determined to change systems to improve conditions by tackling issues such as criminal justice, health care and housing: Including LGBTQ populations in those frameworks, lenses and resource-sharing is not added work … it is the work.

The good news is that as mainstream Oregon funders develop more nuanced and evolved approaches to diversity, equity and inclusion — and our grantees have helped us recognize the inequities and intersectionalities experienced by the LGBTQ community — support for LGBTQ employees and community members seem to be increasing. Four mainstream Oregon foundations made the Funders for LGBTQ Issues 2015 honor roll by increasing their LGBTQ grantmaking by 25 percent or more: The Collins Foundation, MRG Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer. And the Pride Foundation, with dedicated staff in Oregon, also provides 23 percent of the LGBTQ-specific funding in the Northwest. All of this suggests more LGBTQ-focused discussions are happening within local philanthropy, and that’s a very good thing.

Supporting staff to go to conferences focused on LGBTQ issues, establishing and sponsoring affinity groups, and creating gender inclusive bathrooms are other relatively easy ways to support LGBTQ staff. We recently installed new signs marking Meyer’s gender inclusive bathroom this spring, a simple move that makes visiting our offices somewhat more pleasant for any visitor. But the signs are on just one of the two bathrooms; we still have a ways to go.

So do Northwest funders when it comes to funding to address LGBTQ inequities. There really isn’t a choice: If we are committed to advancing equity, then increasing inclusive and safe workplaces and funding for LGBTQ issues must follow. That, too, is the work.  

—Carol (with brilliant contributions by my trusted LGBTQ colleagues and our allies)

*Data sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, socialexplorer.com, Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, Williams Institute, National LGBTQ Task Force.

Carol and Kris, partners of 22 years, at their 2003 wedding

In early June, the Oregon Business magazine handed its "Storyteller-in-Chief" microphone to Charles Wilhoite, the chair of Meyer's Board of Trustees.

Charles didn't drop that mic.

Instead, he linked together two incidents of racial violence in Portland, 27 years apart, racist bookends that drive home the central idea that each of us are obligated, always, to stand against intolerance and injustice:

"It should be unacceptable to everyone that two individuals died and another was gravely injured on one of our MAX trains last month because they chose to defend the unalienable civil rights of two teenage minority girls under racist attack.

Similarly, it should be unacceptable to everyone that high school drop-out rates, unemployment rates, and rates of homelessness and health disparity are double-digit percentage points higher for communities of color and the poor.

There is significant, tragic irony in the fact that I moved to Portland in 1990, smack-dab in the middle of the racial ugliness associated with the Tom Metzger trial."

You can, and should, read Charles' full story here.

Charles Wilhoite reflects on several decades of civic leadership and a Portland tenure bookended by racial violence. Here he is, in a personal photo, circa 1990.

As Portland rents relentlessly rise, seniors can face an impossible choice: pay rent or buy groceries? The situation, a familiar one in cities and towns across Oregon, leaves elders at risk of losing their homes when Social Security or disability payments no longer come close to covering the rent.

The Oregonian reported about the rent hikes and evictions that threaten some of the city's lowest income residents:

Over the past 12 years, Social Security payments have lagged significantly behind the rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Portland. They were about equal in 2005. Now, the same apartment is upwards of $1,000 a month while Social Security payments have increased to only about $733 a month, according to federal and county data.

That leaves many seniors finding that they just aren't going to earn enough to bridge the gap between what they make and what they owe until Portland's housing crisis wanes. Even those who live in tax-credit subsidized housing, which means the units rent at 60 percent of median area income, are struggling to stay in their homes.

There also are no shelters in Multnomah County specifically for senior citizens, though they and people with disabilities get priority in some shelters -- and are using them more than ever. In fiscal 2015, 885 seniors were housed in shelters. In the first three quarters of fiscal 2016, the number rose to 948 seniors.

Partly that's because the number of shelter beds across the county increased. Partly it's because more seniors are becoming homeless. Between 2013 and 2015, there was a 23 percent jump, according to the 2015 county survey of homeless people.

The article references a $90,000 two-year advocacy grant awarded by Meyer's Affordable Housing Initiative in 2015 to the Urban League of Portland to improve access to affordable, accessible, culturally-appropriate and safe housing Oregon's African American communities.

You can read the full story by reporter Molly Harbarger here.

Seniors are watching Portland's relentlessly rising rents eat up most of their Social Security or disability payments.

An exhibit about the history of Japanese American internment in Oregon is making its way around the state, 75 years after white Oregonians pleaded with state officials to incarcerate their Asian neighbors. The exhibit, created by Graham Street Productions, includes a moving collection of internment camp blueprints, proclamations by then-Gov. Charles Sprague, and correspondence in favor and against the displacement of Japanese-Americans during the build up to U.S. intervention into World War II.

The Argus Observer reported about the opening of the analogue exhibit:

About 120,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed and imprisoned in America during the months after the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Service bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The move to do so, according to a new exhibit on display through July 27 at Four Rivers Cultural Center’s Harano Gallery, was “built on widespread racism,” along with a “commonly held belief in supremacy of white people, pursuit of profit and exploitation of labor, resentment of Japanese-American success and a desire for political gain.”

The exhibit on display is aptly named Architecture of Internment: The Build Up to Wartime Incarceration.

The Regional Arts & Cultural Center helped fund the traveling exhibit, along with a $75,000 grant from Meyer. The grant was made through a fiscal sponsorship by Western States Center in 2016.

Read the whole story by The Argus Observer here.

Residents from Ontario and surrounding communities peruse an exhibit on Japanese-American internment during its opening night at Four Rivers Cultural Center's Harano Gallery. Photo credit: Hunter Morrow

The crimes that took place on a MAX train Friday afternoon in Portland have consumed me and my Meyer colleagues this Memorial Day weekend.

Friday afternoon, on a crowded MAX train in Portland, a white man screamed racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic slurs at two teen girls, one identified as African-American, the other identified as Muslim and wearing a headscarf. When riders intervened to protect the young women, three Good Samaritans were stabbed in the neck, two of them fatally. When the train stopped at the Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland, the suspect ran, and other passengers followed and pointed him out to police, who arrested him nearby.

Authorities have identified the men who died as 53-year-old Ricky John Best of Happy Valley and 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche of Southeast Portland. The surviving victim, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher of Southeast Portland, remained hospitalized Sunday. The three men are rightly being hailed as heroes. So is the passenger who tried to save the wounded man and the passengers who chased the suspect

The attacker — whose name I won't mention because he does not deserve the attention — has been identified as a white supremacist with a criminal record of robbery and kidnapping. Photos and interviews from a rally in April show the man brandishing an American flag, making Nazi salutes and hurling assorted insults at counterprotesters. He has been charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation and felony possession of a restricted weapon.

The stabbings, which happened on the first night of Ramadan, made international news. But here's what strikes me: Most of the initial attention has focused rightfully on the terrible violence that happened Friday and the heroes who stepped up to protect strangers. But I find myself returning again and again to the words that prompted heroic intervention.

In our time, the cultural and institutional racism that underpins our country and our Oregon — which was founded as a “no-blacks-allowed” state — is more and more often laid bare. Individual acts of racist, white nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Native and anti–LGBTQ hate speech, threats, terror and violence are also rampant. The Southern Poverty Law Center collected more than 1,300 reported bias incidents in the three months following the 2016 election. That’s an astonishing volume of pain. (You can report acts of hate here.)

I'd wager that those two teens targeted Friday have endured such vocalized hate before, young as they are, and in a town idealized as Portlandia. That's something that should trouble us deeply.

Our Muslim-American, African-American, Native American, Asian-American, Latinx, Jewish, LGBTQ and immigrant communities stand on the front lines of hate and bigotry in this country. They pay the ultimate price for just daring to be, contributing to the social fabric of this country.

All of us have it in us to be heroes. We can be brave in the face of bias and bigotry. We can and must make our voices heard to drown out the insidiousness of hate speech.

My heart breaks for the families of the men who stood up to hate and paid a terrible price, and also for the families of the teenagers. Those young women may well feel traumatized for the rest of their lives. I've said it before and it bears repeating again this Memorial Day weekend: The commitment of Meyer's staff and trustees to work with and support nonprofits working for equity in Oregon, and to voice our opposition to the hatred, bigotry and bias that underlies the #PortlandStabbings, is unwavering.

We are not alone in our determination. Groups and individuals have stepped up to care for the survivors and the families of the murdered men. More than 15,000 have donated to show they support heroism over hate.

Meyer grantee Muslim Educational Trust, and Celebrate Mercy, a national organization aimed at teaching about the life of the Prophet Muhammad through programs and social campaigns, launched Muslims Unite for Portland Heroes on Saturday. As of noon Sunday, the campaign had raised more than $250,000 in 24 hours.

A GofundMe page on behalf of the slain men, coordinated by Portland restaurant owner Nick Zukin, had raised more than $300,000 by noon Sunday. And another GoFundMe campaign, earmarked for the hospitalized victim, had raised $95,000 by noon Sunday.

There is deep-seated hatred among us, but we are better than the worst among us. We are also compassionate neighbors. And that’s what keeps me in the fray.

—Doug

 

Editor's note: An additional YouCaring account was set up Sunday to raise money for the families of the 16- and 17-year-old girls who were verbally harassed by the suspect. As of Tuesday afternoon, the fund had raised $33,000 to help the teens and their families with safe transportation, mental health services and more.

Hundreds gathered at a vigil at the Hollywood Transit Center on the evening after the Portland stabbings. Here, one young man comforts another during a moment of silence. Photo credit: Beth Nakamura/Oregonian Publishing Co.