From Our CEO and Board

In 2022, many Oregonians had to adapt to new financial realities: increased inflation, and rising food, housing, transportation, and childcare costs. Without sufficient income gains to offset these increases, thirty-five percent of the state’s residents struggled to pay their typical household expenses. We also celebrated many individual and community successes – groundbreakings, first homes rented or purchased, savings goals met, and businesses opened – that continue to show our collective resilience.

71 Staff

4 Offices:

During 2022, DevNW and CLW focused on improving the responsiveness of our programs by offering increased flexibility when circumstances changed and redirecting available financial resources to support immediate needs. We also deepened our commitment to providing services and programming that acknowledge a range of social identities and particularly those who experience discrimination in housing, homeownership, lending, and business development. In this report, you will see how DevNW and CLW clients utilized our programming to adapt to mounting challenges, build skills, and access resources toward a more stable financial future.

As one example, high school student Carlos Vasquez participated in our Youth Financial Foundations classes, qualified for a matched savings

Individual Development Account (IDA), and went on to purchase his first car. Like Carlos, 143 savers graduated their IDA program last year saving a total of $314,913 and earning a total of $936,011 in matching funds to support their dreams of homeownership, college or reliable transportation!

We grew our programs in response to the State’s ongoing housing and homelessness crisis; we increased our real estate development (receiving new funding to develop 55 units of affordable housing for homeownership in Salem and Eugene, while continuing progress on 52 CLT homes and 29 rental apartments already underway); and expanded our successful Youth Housing Initiative into Lane County, where we will provide housing, trauma-informed case management and wraparound supportive services for 36 youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

Addressing barriers that have historically excluded specific members of our communities is critical. By providing tools and resources that are accessible to everyone, opportunities become available for all members of our communities, and we shift from simply surviving to thriving.