Portland home builders historically volunteered to help local nonprofits with building projects whenever they were asked. Visionary HBA member Rudy Kadlub decided this giving nature of the industry needed to be elevated at the Metro Portland Home Builders Association.

Kadlub spearheaded the 1997 formation of a charitable arm of the HBA, to be called the Metro Portland Home Builders Industry Foundation. Kadlub, of Costa Pacific Communities, tells us land use battles at the time left the industry with a negative public image. He felt a nonprofit would help promote what he calls “the concerned and generous nature of the HBA and its members, and to demonstrate how we would give back to the communities where we applied our trade through providing shelter.” He also envisioned the Foundation would try to protect the future of affordable housing through education programs.

The new organization needed funding, which led to the organizing of the first fundraising auction in 1998. The inaugural event chair, George Lorance, was immortalized as “Indiana George and the First Crusade,” on the auction catalog for the Indiana Jones-themed event. Attendees raised $40,000, which helped fund a Portland State University Urban Studies policy seminar. By year two, the gala proceeds allowed HBF to give its first grants to housing agencies HOST Development and Christmas in April.

The fledgling Foundation made a turn when Kadlub learned about HomeAid America at a national building conference. HomeAid America grew out of the Building Industry Association of Southern California. HomeAid developed a template for connecting builders and tradesmen with nonprofits needing to build or remodel shelters. A light went off for Kadlub; “I immediately saw the benefits of adopting its fund-raising model and mission, and recommended to the HBFMP Board that we become affiliated with this national organization.” Portland joined 21 other chapters nationwide in 2003.

The first HomeAid-styled project for HBF was Haven House in 2004, led by Builder Captains Jim Chapman of Legend Homes, and Randy Sebastian of Renaissance Homes. Builder Captains provide their expertise and time, and call on fellow members of the building community to provide donated or discounted materials. This model saves shelter providers up to 70% of their project costs. At first, HBF worked on one project a year. By 2008, the Foundation juggled two. By 2022, HBF often has 3-4 projects underway, and several others in the pipeline each year. According to HBF Executive Director Brenda Ketah “Our successful fundraising over the years has allowed us to support our shelter projects with grant funding in addition to donated labor and materials which can often help get a project off the ground quicker,”

Portland Street Response with HBF Care Kits

Along with larger buildings, HBF coordinated smaller, useful projects for shelter providers. In 2006, “Painting for a Better Tomorrow” kicked off, which is an annual volunteer event to paint well-used shelter buildings. HBF also began collection drives for items our nonprofit partners need to help the houseless, then to package them as Hygiene Care Kits. Today, HBF supplies kits to programs helping people living outdoors, such as Portland Street Response, Street Books, and Blanchet House.

Workforce Development:

Constructing Hope Trainees with HBF's Chris McDowell (right)

Educational outreach was also an initial focus for the Foundation. Proceeds from the first HBF auction were donated to a Portland State University Urban Studies policy seminar. HBF also raised money for college scholarships. To date, HBF has given away more than $300,000 through the Gary E. Milgard and Jim Irvine statewide scholarships to encourage students studying construction management, engineering, interior and landscape design.

With funding from HomeAid America, HBF established a partnership with the NE Portland training program Constructing Hope, and has provided stipends for its trainees such as funds for bus passes or tools. Constructing Hope offers a free pre-apprenticeship program for people who are typically low income, BIPOC, and the majority of whom have been formerly incarcerated. HBF has further cemented its relationship with Constructing Hope in 2022. With funding from the new Portland Clean Energy Fund, HBA will work with Earth Advantage to promote sustainable construction jobs. HBF and HBA will provide educational opportunities to train people from Constructing Hope and three other training programs, Oregon Tradeswomen, Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center and Portland Youth Builders during the next three years, and will try to get them hired in the industry.

HBF also rolled out a program to involve local high schools and training programs in our shelter building. Spring of 2022 brought a pilot of a “Picnic Table Project” with a Career Connections Grant from the National Association of Home Builders, Bank of America, and International Wood Products. Two schools and Constructing Hope built sturdy cedar picnic tables with materials from HBF, which were donated to local Safe Rest Villages for people leaving homelessness. The project drew praise from City Councilman Dan Ryan “I want to recognize the fantastic work of the Home Builders Foundation-HomeAid Portland for their support of shelters all around our region…They combine skill-building programs with donations of their final product to shelters.”

Shelter Innovations for the Future:

St John's Village

As the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown in Portland community, HBF strives to be a part of innovative solutions. In late 2018, HBF teamed with Catholic Charities and other local programs on a project for Kenton Women’s Village. HBF helped host the 2019 Building Pod Challenge, where 21 builders from the residential and commercial building industry built sleeping pods over a four-month span.

Since then, HBF has assisted with two additional pod villages, St. Johns Village and Clackamas County’s Veteran’s Village. Shelter operator Daniel Hovanas of Do Good Multnomah praises HBF “At our villages, participants are safely and comfortably sheltered in a beautiful setting that affords them the opportunity to re-discover the dignity and humanity that comes with belonging to a community.” The three villages built in part by HBF were recently lauded by their residents in a study by the Portland State Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative.

HBF also commissioned an innovative three-room modular shelter called the “MOD”, built by supporter Nathan Young of MODS PDX. The shared walls and roofing on the MOD result in lower costs for temporary housing. HBF featured the structure at the 2021 NW Natural Street of Dreams, and the Fall Home and Garden Show, winning praise from the public. The prototype is now in use at the BIPOC Village in NE Portland, where it is used by counseling staff.

Now, HBF is responding the growing needs for services in the suburbs. HBF helped bring builders, suppliers, and volunteers in the past two years to a new drop-in center project for young people at risk of or who are houseless at Beaverton’s HomePlate Youth Services. In the coming year, Project Homeless Connect in Hillsboro, and Harvest House in Newberg will receive help with major remodeling projects thanks to HBF and the building community. HBF Project Manager Chris McDowell explains “Where we make the greatest impact is through generating a groundswell of cash grants, volunteers and in-kind donations to help save our shelters a lot of money. In the past few years we have found that we are particularly effective in helping small and medium-sized shelter operations, many of which are building a shelter for the first time. We are there every step of the way to help navigate them through the process of building out their dream facility. “

HBF is proud of the more than 70 shelter projects developed or enhanced by HBF in our first quarter century. We’ve served some of our most vulnerable neighbors, from children, to families, young women escaping sex trafficking, veterans, and people in recovery. With needs high, we hope you will join HBF in our efforts to provide everyone in our community safe, dignified housing.

25 Years of Building Hope

Breakfast of Champions

Volunteers spruce up a shelter