Affordable housing shouldn't be this confusing. The PDX Housing Network exists so tenants know what's happening to the buildings they live in, and have time and company to decide what to do about it.
Free tenant rights education, a member community, and a public watch list of every publicly supported building in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. Built by WERQ TOGETHER, trans community centered, open to every tenant. No one turned away.
Start here, 60 seconds
Two renters on the same street can have completely different rights. It depends on what kind of housing you live in. Answer three quick questions and find out where you stand.
Question 1 of 3
Do you own the home itself, and rent the ground it sits on?
Like a manufactured home, mobile home, floating home, or RV that belongs to you, on a rented space in a park or marina.
Question 2 of 3
Is your home an RV?
Manufactured, mobile, and floating homes are a different answer here, and the law treats them very differently.
Question 2 of 3
Is your building owned by a housing authority?
Around here that's Home Forward, Washington County Housing Services, or the Housing Authority of Clackamas County. Your lease says who your landlord is.
Question 3 of 3
Is your building affordable housing, and whose money built it?
HUD money attached means project-based Section 8, HUD senior or disability buildings, or a converted public housing building. State-funded means Oregon money: OHCS funds, tax credits, a for-profit or nonprofit affordable developer. A voucher you carry with you doesn't count here. Not sure? Join and ask. We keep the list.
Your situation
Federal law gives you a real, written right to organize with your neighbors, protected activities, and meeting space your landlord must make available. Management can't require permission first, and they stay out of your meetings unless invited.
First three moves
Your situation
Residents can elect a resident council the housing authority must recognize, support with free meeting space, and fund. The rules for a council that counts are specific, and we have them ready to hand you.
First three moves
Your situation
For organizing, the law treats you like any Oregon renter: a shield, not a written right. But your building answers to public funders, and that gives you complaint channels most renters don't have, plus long-notice protections if the building's affordability ever ends.
First three moves
Your situation
Oregon gives park and marina residents the strongest state organizing rights there are: the right to meet in common areas, canvass neighbors, and, if the park ever sells, 15 days to form a committee and compete to buy it. The residents who come out ahead are the ones with a committee standing before any notice arrives.
First three moves
Your situation
Honest truth: Oregon gives long-term RV residents fewer rights than any other renter on this page. You still have real protections, and knowing exactly which ones keeps you safe in front of your landlord.
First three moves
Your situation
No law gives you a right to organize here, but a strong law protects you when you do. Oregon names tenant organizing as protected activity, and retaliation for it can cost your landlord real money.
First three moves
General information, not legal advice. Verified against Oregon statute and federal regulation, August 2026.
Free monthly workshop
First Friday of every month, 4:00 to 5:30pm. Thirty minutes of teaching on one tenant rights topic, then forty minutes of problem-solving clinic where you bring your real situation. Free, trans community centered, everyone welcome.
What's inside
The courses
A free course library built from every Know Your Power session, plus a course for each legal situation: HUD buildings, public housing, parks and marinas, state-funded buildings, regular rentals, and RV spaces. Plain language, checked against the actual law, written for someone reading on a phone.
The community
Ask a question, compare notes with tenants in buildings like yours, and hear about it early when something changes at a property. Tenants are the protagonists here. We're the guide.
The watch list
A public map of every publicly supported rental property in the tri-county area, with the dates their affordability protections expire. The law already gives tenants notice. We make sure somebody's reading it. First network meeting January 28, 2027.
How we work
Tenants only. Landlords and property owners are never members of this network. Not ever.
Free means free. No dues, no fees, no paid tier for tenants.
We don't replace anyone. Portland Tenants United and the Community Alliance of Tenants organize buildings, and they're good at it. We teach the law, watch the buildings, and make the introduction.
Education, not legal advice. When you need a lawyer, we hand you the number of a free one.
Trans community centered. Built by and for trans and gender-expansive Oregonians, and open to every tenant. No one turned away.
Your privacy is structural. The watch list tracks buildings, never people. Clinic conversations are never recorded.