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The purpose of this Ordinance is to provide continued funding to community partners to implement on-the-ground restoration and education projects within Neighborhood to the River (N2R) program areas. Neighborhood to the River is an approach to service delivery that integrates green infrastructure and community engagement elements with capital investments to facilitate effective and efficient system improvements.  N2R capital projects address sanitary and stormwater system need with solutions that include surface elements like green street facilities and other vegetation investments. Because the legacies of this work are not entirely underground, we work with local communities in advance of and during capital construction to help them understand the need for the work and the ways that they can be involved and influence outcomes. The current N2R geographies include neighborhoods in N and NE Portland along the Columbia Corridor, the Boise and Eliot neighborhoods, neighborhoods in SE Portland within the Alder basin, neighborhoods in NW Portland within the Tanner basin, and neighborhoods in SW Portland within the Stephens Creek Subwatershed. 

N2R grants fund community projects that serve community needs while helping the bureau meet goals for stormwater management and watershed health. N2R grant-funded projects must have public visibility and involve community members in project development and delivery. The N2R grant program began in FY2018-19 through the Community Watershed Stewardship Program annual grant Ordinance (Ordinance #189052). The goal of this pilot was to establish a mechanism for delivering vegetation and education investments that centers community vision and reduces administrative burden. In July 2019, Portland City Council granted approval for up to $100,000 in N2R grants per fiscal year from FY2019-20 through FY2022-23 (Ordinance #189632). It takes time to find potential grantees, build relationships and trust, and support concept development so that projects are ready for implementation. This development work, and the interference caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to in-person activities and resource availability, impacted our ability to invest to the level we had planned.  Nevertheless, we invested $165,000 in community projects and leveraged $425,000 in match (Table 1). With N2R support, our grantees have hosted 77 planting or education events, planted over 3,000 native plants, and engaged over 250 volunteers.  In addition, N2R grantees have the trust and respect of the communities they serve, so they meaningfully extend City services to communities we have difficulty reaching.

Table 1. Partner organizations and projects supported by N2R grant dollars from FY2019-20 through FY2022-23.  Note that totals include estimates for FY2022-23.

We focus our relationship-building efforts towards community-based organizations that serve disenfranchised communities within our N2R geographies so that, as we deliver services that improve local stormwater management and watershed health, we also invest in community health, resiliency, and trust building. Re-authorizing the N2R Grant Program will enable us to support current grantees with ongoing projects and prospective grantees whose projects are in development. We have been in dialogue for one or more years with several organizations to help them develop fundable projects. It takes time for community organizations to pull together resources, and often we are working with volunteers who lack the time and technical skills to develop grant proposals and find partners and fiscal agents. This technical assistance is an important part of the services we offer.

The N2R Grant Program meets Bureau and City goals.

• The N2R Grant Program uses a targeted universalism framework to infuse antiracism and equity City Core Values into our processes and services. All of our work relies on collaboration with public, nonprofit, and community partners, and we prize transparency and communication as we provide radical customer service.  Fiscal responsibility is also a cornerstone of our program: we invest in projects that return multiple benefits, and to date we have leveraged nearly 3:1 in match for our grant dollars
• The activities funded by N2R grants are part of the public involvement and natural systems investments the City is required to make to comply with our MS4 permit.
• N2R grants support Environmental Services’ mission to manage Portland’s wastewater and stormwater infrastructure to protect public health and the environment and vision to preserve and restore the health of Portland’s watersheds. We fund community projects that improve local stormwater management, enhance habitat connectivity, and reduce the volume of stormwater entering our combined sewer system.
• The N2R Grants Program supports the bureau’s Strategic Plan goals for equitable service delivery; radical customer service; workforce development; and a safe, healthy, respectful, innovative, diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture where City, bureau, and community goals are integrated into all aspects of our work.
• The N2R Grants program supports the equity literacy, equitable service delivery, and workforce equity goals of the BES Equity Plan. Our equity approach, grounded in targeted universalism, challenges program staff to continuously improve their equity literacy so that we can deliver our services equitably. We invest N2R grants and other N2R program resources in workforce development to help provide opportunities for members of disenfranchised communities to develop skills and gain experience needed to work in green industries and potentially pursue City employment.
• The projects funded by N2R grants remove volume from the combined sewer system, improve local stormwater management and increase infiltration, and improve local watershed health and habitat connectivity, contributing to the BES Implementation Priorities across three portfolios: Sanitary & Combined Collection, Stormwater Management, and Restoration & Remediation.