Hillsboro-area residents looking to buy a home gained access in 2025 to a nonprofit lending and counseling program that has helped more than 10,000 Oregonians become homeowners over its three-decade history.

Arrive, formerly the Portland Housing Center, expanded its lending services statewide last year, opening its down-payment assistance and savings-match programs to people in Washington County for the first time.

The expansion matters in a metro area where homeownership lags: the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro region had a 61.1% homeownership rate in 2024, the second lowest among Oregon metros, according to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by USAFacts.

The median home price in Hillsboro was $502,000 for the three months ending May 2026, according to Redfin.

For a one-time $99 fee, any Oregonian can connect with a housing counselor who builds a personalized plan to buy a home, according to Arrive Executive Director Dana Fuller Shepherd.

After paying the fee, clients get unlimited access to finance, homebuying, and homeowner classes covering topics like estate planning and basic plumbing.

Anyone can register for counseling, but income limits apply to certain lending programs, Fuller Shepherd said.

Arrive offers two main paths to reduce upfront costs. Its Oregon Individual Development Account program, established by the state in 1999, matches savings deposits from low-income participants using a statewide tax-credit-funded pool capped at $7.5 million.

The organization also provides down-payment assistance, a separate loan from the main mortgage that can cover up to 20% of a home's cost at a lower interest rate.

"It is definitely a myth that you need 20% down to purchase a home," Fuller Shepherd said. "I have purchased several and have never had 20% down."

Fuller Shepherd used the organization's down-payment assistance in 1998 to buy her first home in Portland at age 22.

Why it matters

The program's expansion comes against a backdrop of deep racial disparities in Oregon homeownership. Statewide, Black households own homes at a 30% rate compared to 67% for white households, according to the Oregon Employment Department.

Fifty-five percent of state down-payment assistance goes to people of color, according to the Oregon Department of Housing Community Services.

Arrive was founded after a 1990 Oregonian/OregonLive series exposed discriminatory lending practices in low-income Portland neighborhoods. The organization offers culturally specific counseling to address systemic barriers that persist decades later.

Who it's reaching

No Washington County clients have been profiled publicly yet, but the program's track record elsewhere in the metro shows how it works in practice.

Ja'Nelle Samuels, a 43-year-old single mother of four sons and nonprofit manager in Northeast Portland, deposited $100 per month into an Oregon IDA for two years, received a state match, and combined those funds with separate savings to close on a three-bedroom home in Portland's Madison South neighborhood in May 2026. Each of her sons has his own room, thanks to a finished basement.

Teo Ramirez, 26, a Gresham resident who grew up in a low-income household and experienced periods of homelessness, used Arrive's down-payment assistance to buy a three-bedroom home in Gresham by Memorial Day weekend 2026. A housing counselor helped him grow his savings from $5,000 to $22,000 in one year.

How to connect

Hillsboro and Washington County residents can register for counseling at arrivehomeownership.org. No specific enrollment deadline has been announced.