Dear Friends,Like many of you, I am dismayed by the growing housing crisis playing out in Portland and communities across the country. These problems were made much worse by the federal government’s failure to do its part, especially the obligation to the very poor and damaged, most likely to be chronically on our streets. The pandemic has also had a severe impact, and the result we know all too well now are people and families relying on increasingly scarce resources, having to choose between paying rent, bills, or buying food, or frankly left to fend for themselves. There is no single answer to fix all these challenging issues. But there ARE solutions—and they take all of us working together to advance. It starts with getting the federal government back into the housing game and becoming a full partner to our local communities. Over $85 billion in federal funding has been invested in housing since the pandemic, but this just reverses the deficit created by years of budget cuts. We can and must do more.  Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge brings the level of leadership we need to solve the housing crisis. Today I welcomed her to Portland to see innovative housing solutions at work and meet with the metro area’s key housing experts who are pushing for progress. We toured sites including Walsh Commons in Milwaukie, which provides 28 units of new affordable housing and a family shelter, and is accessible to light rail.  Secretary Fudge is a solutions-oriented leader who understands that complex problems require creativity, innovation, and partnership. She shared some new HUD initiatives aimed at helping local communities increase affordable housing stock, stabilize rent prices, and boost nationwide fair housing initiatives and fair lending enforcement to ensure underserved communities have greater access to homeownership opportunities.  Thanks to leaders like Secretary Fudge and our local housing advocates, I am confident we will meet the challenges ahead and help more people and families in our communities access safe, stable housing. I will also continue to work closely with my friends in Congress like Representatives Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to advance the housing legislation outlined in my 2022 blueprint: Locked Out 2.0. Affordable housing is a basic human right, and we won’t stop working for the day that everyone can access it. Together, we can achieve great things, even solving this housing crisis.  Courage, Earl