Drive through the streets of N.E. Portland and you will see the signs: "Prevent Foreclosure." For homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments those words may seem like the answer to their prayers.
But housing nonprofits warn that the promise of an easy solution can be deceptive. Better to get information about how to avoid foreclosure from a neutral party, they say. Better still — take a homebuying class before getting into a mortgage deal that turns into a nightmare.
Cheryl Roberts, executive director of the African American Alliance for Homeownership, said foreclosure can be prevented by getting help as soon as you are unable to make a payment.
"The way you prevent foreclosure is not to wait, but to get help as soon as your loan becomes delinquent," Roberts said. Instead they should call a neutral party such as a HUD-approved counseling agency who has nothing to gain. "We know the options and we can provide them with the information so they can work it out with ....

Just one week after the African American Health Coalition's free exercise program was shut down because of lack of money, funding has been restored. Corliss McKeever, the coalition's director, announced Friday that Providence Health Systems has stepped in with a $35,000 gift to ensure the program's survival until the end of the year.
"The CEO of Providence (Russ Danielson) saw the value of this program," said McKeever about a program that has the involvement of nearly 20 percent of Portland's African American community.
"We were impressed by the deep reach and the positive effect this program has had on the community, and we wanted to help it continue," Danielson said.
The coalition has been looking for sources of additional funding after they lost a $850,000 federal grant - half of its annual budget. Although it may sound like a catastrophic loss, McKeever says it's a routine adjustment that nonprofits learn to deal with.
"Funding comes and goes all the time," she said, adding she expects to face this same predicament the next time a grant runs out....

To settle the confusion surrounding the county's plans to open a new library in North Portland, let's get the first rumor off the table: The current North Portland Library on Killingsworth Street isn't going anywhere.
Voters approved a tax levy in 2006 to provide revenue for two brand new libraries in the county, one in between the current North Portland and St. Johns libraries and one in Troutdale.
Patricia Welch, North Portland Branch manager, says she's excited about a new library opening in North Portland. She brushes aside any fears that a new location will cause a drop in activity on Killingsworth. Rather, she says, a new location usually draws people who live close by ....

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Portland and its surrounding counties are taking part in Topoff 4, a full-scale disaster preparedness exercise, organized and funded by the Department of Homeland Security. The idea is to prepare the city to act quickly and effectively in the event of a disaster—which could be anything from an earthquake, to a flu epidemic or a terrorist attack. For many people simply mentioning disaster preparation brings up Hurricane Katrina and the way African Americans ....

Lacy Steele, Seattle NAACP president emeritus, asks Robert Vaughn, director of advanced learning for Seattle Public Schools a question about a program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Rally and Work Shop for Public Education Oct. 6 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.  The event, which was sponsored by the NAACP, was designed to provide information to parents, teaches and students with access to information that will help to improve the quality of public education.

The rapidly increasing cost of health care is driving the cost of living out of reach for many hard working Washingtonians. With increases in out-of-pocket costs for health insurance of over 60 percent over the last five years, many across the Northwest are struggling to find work that pays enough to afford these increasing costs. 
These are the findings of a new study, "Living in the Red, Northwest Family Budgets Falling Behind: 2007 Northwest Job Gap Study," compiled by the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations. According to the report, between 2002 and 2006, the costs for employer-based health insurance grew by over 60 percent, almost nine times the growth in actual wages in Washington.   
"Since I started this job in 2003, my health care costs have gone from $50 per month to $300 per month, but my wages haven't kept up," said David Miles, a ....

A statewide effort to divert people suffering from mental illnesses and chemical dependency away from jails and emergency rooms and get them into proper treatment moved a step forward today as the Metropolitan King County Council accepted the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan ....

The Nielsen Company has selected Seattle, the nation's 14th largest television market, to introduce Local People Meter (LPM) technology which reports what television shows are being viewed by the general public.
The data collected helps television networks tailor programming to what the viewing public wants to see and will help them market themselves to advertisers who are trying to reach a particular demographic group ...

On the second day that the racist skinhead group, Hammerskins Nation was meeting in the Portland area, the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism and Fascism discovered exactly where this secret gathering was being held. The hate group was celebrating its 20^th anniversary with a three-day festival at the Sherwood Elks Club. Elk Club representatives say the Hammerskins lied about who they were.
The White supremacist Hammerskins, an international neo-Nazi organization that began as a violent Dallas, Texas gang, had succeeded in keeping the location of its festivities very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that organizers for Saturday's anti-racist rally in Lents Park didn't find out until after their protest rally had dispersed ....