Goals & Initiatives

Summary of Healthy Homes (HH)-Related Planning Goals and Objectives
Based on Planning Documents from 2007 - 2010

Mission 
The Healthy Homes Coalition of Multnomah County empowers its constituents to maintain and provide healthy, stable homes by supporting policies and programs that improve the health and quality of housing in Multnomah County, Oregon.

Goals
  • To share information on the connections between health and housing and foster
    a community-level dialog (May 2007 HH Summit)
  • To create a coordinated, collaborative system of healthy, housing and social
    service providers designed to improve the health and quality of housing in
    Multnomah County (Oct 2008 HH Partnership, 2010 HH Partnership)
  • Safe and healthy housing for renters in the City of Portland with the recognition
    that landlords and tenants are responsible for the problems and the solutions (Sept 2008 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)

Objectives and Strategies
Statements of objectives and strategies have been abbreviated.
A. Policy  
  • Establish a policy platform and supporting budget cycle and messaging / Review the status of health and rental housing policies and implementation and develop policy messages and recommendations for change (Oct 2008 HH Partnership, 2010 HH Partnership) 
  • Create a strategic plan to advance agreed-upon policy messages/change (2010 HH Partnership)
 B. Education, Outreach, and Communication
  • Raise awareness in the broader stakeholder community (May 2007 HH Summit)
  • Develop multiple ways for tenants and property owners to learn about standards, remediation, prevention, rights and responsibilities (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
  • Develop informational materials and conduct tours and workshops (Oct 2008 HH Partnership)
  • Plan to /raise funds to coordinate workshops among Coalition partners and
    distribute the workshops to give access to all target clients (2010 HH Partnership)
  • Create a website with healthy homes information and links to resources (Oct 2008 HH Partnership, 2010 HH Partnership) 
C. Networking and Coalition Building 
  • Forge coalitions within the public health and housing community-of-interest (May 2007 HH Summit)
  • Engage market forces for change, e.g. lending and insurance industries,
    landlords, developers and create market-based solutions
    (May 2007 HH Summit)
  • Establish a listserv for Partnership members (Oct 2008 HH Partnership, 2010 HH Partnership)
  • Ensure transparency and stakeholder involvement and oversight (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
D. Data Collection/Analysis
  • Collect data from participating organizations and identify critical data points,
    gaps and evaluation tools that support planning, policy change and grant
    applications (May 2007 HH Summit, Sept 2008 Quality Rental Housing Work Group**, Oct 2008 HH Partnership, 2010 HH Partnership)
  • Collect data from Gresham and Portland inspection programs on violation
    types/ frequency (Oct 2008 HH Partnership, 2010 HH Partnership) 
E. Enforcement, Regulations, and Dispute Resolution
  • Develop Enforcement and Regulation (May 2007 HH Summit)
  • Update the City’s Housing Code (Title 29) to (among other recommendations) reflect best practices re lead, mold, pests and sanitation, and require remediation (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
  • Create a new inspection model to replace the complaint-driven system that
    will increase the likelihood problems are addressed while minimizing risk of
    retaliation and intrusion
    (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
  • Restructure fines and strengthen collections, aligning penalties and
    incentives to encourage code compliance and healthy rental housing
    (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
  • Provide balanced and stable funding to sustain enforcement efforts (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
  • Have and fund opportunities for landlords and tenants to resolve disputes
    outside of the court system
    (Sept 08 Quality Rental Housing Work Group)
 ** In the case of the Quality Rental Housing Workgroup the data collection was specifically targeted at studying the incidence of retaliation in the aftermath of an inspection request.