2024 CAT Annual Member Meeting Recap!

BACK AND IT FELT SO GOOD! This weekend we hosted our FIRST Annual Member Meeting since the pandemic, and it was one to remember. Thank you to the 100+ renters who joined us from across Oregon, to discuss the victories we’ve secured together, and strategize on what we need to do at this historic moment. Between our online and in-person spaces we had numerous cultures, intersections and languages represented amongst us including ASL, Spanish, Vietnamese, Swahili, Oromifa, Amharic, and Tigrigna. 

THIS is what building coalition looks like. 

Together we have: 

  • Lowered limits on predatory rent hikes

  • Extended eviction timelines

  • Secured hundred of millions of dollars in rent assistance

And together we can do more. Thank you Sen. Kayse Jama, chair of the Senate Housing committee for joining us and speaking to our members about the importance of organizing for social change to make the changes we need to support our most vulnerable communities. 

We honored our longtime member Jackie Magee with our 2024 Tenant Hero Award for her longterm leadership and dedication to building tenant power across our state. Jackie is taking a much deserved step back from organizing, and we honor her legacy of service with CAT.

It is always to see members new and old. Thanks to our partners at HAKI and Ethiopian and Eritrean Cultural & Resource Center for helping to turn out more community members and providing translation services.You never know who you’ll see at our Member Meetings. We even had the honor of being joined by former Portland NAACP president, and CAT Member Sharon Gary-Smith 💫.

A special shoutout to Vitalidad Movement Arts Center for giving us a Salsa lesson that kept us all moving and SMILING. 

And to Zoila Chicas of Cinco Estrellas Pupuseria for providing the incredible pupusas!

Issues remain. Oregon is experiencing the highest level of evictions in our state’s history. Working people cannot afford to live in our city’s centers. And predatory rent hikes continue to price people out. 

TOGETHER though, we can win. 

Donovan Scribes