Mayor Tom Potter and Commissioner Erik Sten, with support from the City of Portland's Bureau of Housing and Community Development and the Portland Development Commission, have been working in partnership with the broad community to make the "American Dream" of home ownership available to every person who wants to buy a home. 

This task is not simple, however, because the home ownership gap between communities of color and the general population is significant, and will continue to grow unless we do something about it!  

In 2005, these partners combined efforts to create Operation H.O.M.E. – Home Ownership and Minority Equity, a community planning process that will create the blue prints for both agencies and the broader community through 2015.

This campaign will:

1. Raise community awareness of the barriers that maintain the gap and prevent home ownership by engaging the community in research and planning.
2. Make recommendations to help community, business, and government leaders lower those barriers so 14,000 new minority home owners will call Portland “home.”

Look to this site for information on the campaign, helpful resources that make home ownership more understandable, and information on products and programs that will help you buy a home of your own!

Please visit our Content Committee page for information about the four committees charged with creating strategies and priorities to close the homeownership gap.

Visit the Steering Committee page, a group of people charged with developing a plan to close the gap.

For information on homeownership and to find out more about buying a home of your own, please visit our resources page!

If you have questions, or would like more information on the Operation H.O.M.E. initiative, please contact Art Hendricks, a Marketing & Outreach Coordinator for Housing at the Portland Development Commission.  Art can be reached via email at hendricksa@pdc.us or at (503) 823-4623.