Contributed by Dakota Hufford, Rebuilding Together Portland Executive Assistant
The UP Community can support our mission by continuing our ongoing partnerships and coming to us with new project ideas!
Rebuilding Together Portland is a Community Revitalization Partner: ensuring that homeowners can age in place. Our mission is to improve and enhance the quality of life of low-income homeowners by providing needed home repairs to those who are unable to physically or financially complete repairs themselves. Services are targeted towards the elderly, people with disability, families with children, and veterans in the city of Portland. All work is completed skilled and general volunteers and is at no cost to the homeowner.
We are a non-partisan, non-sectarian and non-profit organization in our 28th successful year of operation. We unite community volunteers of all ages and walks of life to assist people who cannot physically or financially complete needed repairs to their homes themselves. The organization’s focus began as an annual “barn-raising” event designed to repair and rehabilitate the homes of low-income, elderly, and individuals with disabilities, as well as selected community non-profit facilities on the last Saturday in April. With continued support of sponsors and volunteers Rebuilding Together-Portland is now able to put together projects throughout the year and help put on community center and green space cleanups. In 2017 we implemented the Safe and Healthy Repair Program that provides small, preventative maintenance repairs for homeowners throughout the year.
Not only does our work benefit homeowners but Rebuilding Together Portland and their volunteers complete work on nonprofit community centers and green spaces throughout town. We help complete work on facilities that serve low-income community members and run on a tight budget. Our goal is to help with repairs on these spaces so organizations can put funds towards helping those in need rather than worrying about completing repairs on their buildings.
Throughout our 2021-2022 program, we will have over 1,700 energetic individuals—including business executives, high school and college students, teachers, doctors, secretaries, attorneys, real estate professionals, politicians, bankers, and many others—all coming together to build a better community. Rebuilding Together-Portland is also fortunate to have the continued help of skilled trades-people who volunteer hundreds of hours of their time and skills each year and are vital to our success.
Rebuilding Together Portland completes repair and rehabilitation services in numerous areas including: electrical, carpentry, plumbing, weatherization, ADA home modifications, safety repairs, prep & painting, drywall, debris removal, yard maintenance, and much more. All work is completed by volunteers and at no cost to the homeowner.
We are the only all-volunteer home repair organization of our kind, bringing volunteers, materials, financial resources, and logistical expertise together in an effort to serve low-income, elderly, disabled, and veteran homeowners. For every $1.00 that our program receives, over $4.00 of market value is put back into our community. We not only make a difference with the value we put back into the community, but we also make a lasting impact on the lives of those involved – homeowners, neighbors, volunteers, sponsors, and donors.
Rebuilding Together Portland receives funding from Corporations, Foundations, Individuals Donations, and In-kind donations. All of this funding contributes to the success of Rebuilding Together Portland and the hundreds of homeowners we help each year. Some of our funders from the 2020-2021 year include:, US Bank, UPS, Swinerton Builders, Lowes, The Jackson Foundation, Windermere Foundation, Rivermark Community Credit Union, Republic Services Foundation, Clark Foundation and more. In-kind contributors include: Miller Paint, and the University of Portland. Grants also come from government agencies such as the Portland Housing Bureau and METRO. Additional funding comes from generous individuals as well as goods and services donated by trades people and Portland area businesses.
Rebuilding Together’s goal is to continue to increase our services to preserve and revitalize more houses, assuring that more low-income homeowners live in a secure, safe, healthy, and independent environment. In addition to expanding the work we accomplish on our workday in April, we now have a year round program to meet the ever-increasing need for our services in our community.
Rebuilding Together-Portland, originally known as Christmas in April, came to Portland in 1990 as a direct response to the specific housing needs of the community. Under the guidance of the national office, numerous volunteers, and the support of the University of Portland, Christmas in April Portland was established as an independently run non-profit organization on January 8, 1991. We have grown steadily every year since that date and continue to bring our services to neighborhoods throughout the City of Portland.
Rebuilding Together-Portland seeks to preserve the existing homes of low-income homeowners so they can continue to live in them safely and with dignity. Many houses in the Greater Portland neighborhoods have fallen into disrepair because the homeowner does not have the skills, physical ability, or money to fix the myriad of problems the upkeep of a house presents. Lack of maintenance on the outside and inside of a single home endangers the safety and pride of an entire neighborhood. Neighboring homes surrender to prevailing conditions, creating a slum-like area, which may invite crime and other problems. By painting the exterior and interior of a home, cleaning, trimming trees and bushes, removing years of debris, rebuilding porches and repairing stairs/railings, Rebuilding Together-Portland starts a chain reaction that motivates neighbors to rehabilitate their own homes and properties. We also have volunteers who by trade, are electricians, plumbers, roofers and carpenters and are able to address deeper problems such as dangerous electrical wiring, non-functioning plumbing, leaking roofs, or unstable handrails and stairs, which can pose serious safety and health risks.
Success story:
A big project that Rebuilding Together Portland Volunteers took on in 2017 was working on the American Legion Hall. American Legion Post 134 serves as a home base for Veterans in the City of Portland. Not only is this a home that inspires Vets to get out into the Portland Community to help others, but is serves as a shelter of comradery, brother and sister-hood, foundation, and belonging. Legions are homes to Vets from all walks of life, young and old. However, Post 134’s patrons are predominantly from the Iraq and Afghanistan era wars. Post 134 has a youthful heartbeat, but the Integrity of its foundation is failing those who make Post 134 what it is. As one Vet said: “This is our Command and Control Hub, but our brick and mortar is failing the ability that these Vets have.” These Veterans dream of a place that they can fulfil their aspirations, but they will not be able to do it if they do not have a foundation that gives them the stability, security, and strength in the community that they all deserve.
Volunteers from Greystar took the lead on this project, but they couldn’t have done it without the help of other companies such as Squire Electric, Sherwin Williams, Anytime Plumbing, JR Johnson, Alliance Flooring, and Interstate Roofing. These teams came together and pulled off an amazing transformation. They painted the entire interior and exterior of the building, tore down walls to remodel an old bathroom into and ADA Accessible restroom, they installed shelving units in their spare closet so Veterans could create a Food Pantry for those in need, they installed a brand new air-conditioning unit, put in new light fixtures to brighten the space up, created a children’s corner, and so much more to make the space accommodating and welcoming for all people. The work done at American Legion Post 134 was remarkable and truly beneficial to Veterans who occupy the space.
To learn more about Rebuilding Together Portland, please visit – https://www.rtpdx.org/