Public Statement: LGBTQIA2S+ Housing Collaborative Calls for Material Investment to Match City Protection

Feb 20

The following statement was issued by the LGBTQIA2S+ Housing Collaborative, of which CAP is proud to be a member.

The LGBTQIA2S+ Housing Collaborative strongly supports the City of Portland’s LGBTQIA2S+ Policy Protections Package and the reaffirmation of transgender and queer residents’ rights.

In a political moment marked by escalating anti-LGBTQIA2S+ legislation nationwide, local governments must be clear about where they stand. We appreciate the City’s continued verbal commitment to LGBTQIA2S+ equity and safety.

At the same time, we believe this moment presents an opportunity to expand commitment from proclamation and policy to tangible investment that will make a difference.

Protections matter. But protections alone do not keep people housed, medically supported, or safe from crisis. Policy commitments must be paired with material investment in the community-based infrastructure that sustains LGBTQIA2S+ Portlanders every day.

LGBTQIA2S+ organizations are not symbolic entities. We are civic infrastructure.

We provide housing stabilization, eviction prevention, peer support, healthcare navigation, harm reduction services, and culturally specific community spaces. We operate the systems that turn policy language into lived safety.

For years, LGBTQIA2S+ organizations have carried extraordinary responsibility, often stretching limited resources to meet growing community need. We appreciate the investments the City has made and, at the same time, believe this is a critical moment to build on that foundation with sustained and expanded support.

We stand ready to partner with the City Council to strengthen LGBTQIA2S+ infrastructure in Portland. Equity requires infrastructure. Infrastructure requires investment.

We hope that the City will take advantage of the extraordinary amount of unspent housing funds to meaningfully affirm its commitment to LGBTQIA2S+ people and the organizations that serve them. Moreover, we hope it will commit to thorough implementation of its own LGBTQIA2S+ Strategic Plan, which includes material support missing from the Protections Package.

This is an opportunity for Portland not only to reaffirm its values, but to materially support the systems that make those values real.

The LGBTQIA2S+ Housing Collaborative
The LGBTQIA2S+ Housing Collaborative is a cross-sector coalition of advocacy organizations, culturally specific service providers, recovery programs, and community health leaders working together to address housing instability disproportionately impacting transgender and queer Portlanders. Together, Collaborative partners coordinate housing stabilization, eviction prevention, and policy advocacy efforts that strengthen LGBTQIA2S+ community infrastructure across Portland.

LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

Basic Rights Oregon

Beyond These Walls

Black & Beyond the Binary Collective

Cascade AIDS Project

Friendly House Elder Pride Services

Garden of Peace, Inc.

Gather:Make:Shelter

The Marie Equi Center

New Avenues for Youth

Pride Northwest

Quest Center for Integrative Health