Updated: 12:50 pm Thursday

This story has been updated with input from Home Forward.

A veteran with disabilities who faced eviction will stay in his apartment, after intervention from a tenant union and a Portland city councilor. 

Last Friday, Dan McLean, 68, got an eviction notice at his apartment in The Yards at Union Station—an affordable housing complex in Northwest Portland—that instructed him to be out by Tuesday. McLean, who’s battling serious health issues and had severe vision impairment up until a series of recent laser surgeries, says he had no idea he was behind on rent or that he’d been served eviction warnings. 

The retired military vet says he receives assistance from a HUD VASH program, which combines US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental vouchers with clinical services provided by a local Veterans Affairs office. The rental assistance previously covered his entire monthly rent, but at some point, the rental voucher stopped covering the whole amount and McLean was on the hook for a portion of his monthly rent. He says he was never notified. 

A few of his neighbors who help run a tenant union at The Yards apartment complex sprang into action. They contacted the site’s property management company, Pinehurst Management, and reached out to District 4 City Councilor Mitch Green’s office for help. 

“I was blind for two and a half years. This is the first time I’ve seen anything,” McLean told staff in Councilor Green’s office during a video interview. “I had people read for me. My surgeries ain’t done and they wanna throw me out on the streets. Said I owed money.”

“We just started making phone calls and sending emails,” says Melody Frye, a resident at The Yards and an organizer within the tenant union. A letter sent to Pinehurst Management on McLean’s behalf outlines several alleged missteps. 

“Until very recently, Dan has been functionally blind for an extended period due to cataracts. The leasing office staff were made aware of this fact well in advance of filing for eviction, but never took the necessary steps to accommodate him or connect him to a caseworker,” the letter to Pinehurst states. “Dan was crucially unaware that Home Forward stopped paying the full amount of his rent last September, and that he was now responsible for $140 a month, the reason for his eviction.” The letter indicates McLean owes about $1500 in unpaid rent and fees. 

Last weekend, Councilor Green and a member of his staff visited McLean in his apartment. By Tuesday, Green’s office sent a letter to Home Forward, which owns the property. Green urged the affordable housing agency and its contracted property management company to halt the eviction.

“I’m writing with urgency to convey my alarm at the news that Home Forward is set to evict Mr. Daniel McLean, a disabled veteran, on Tuesday, September 2, 2025,” Green wrote, demanding an "immediate halt to his eviction."

"I also demand a correction of the negligence that has led to a situation where Home Forward is set to throw a 68-year-old disabled veteran into the streets over a matter of roughly $1,500, only for the City of Portland to inevitably spend far more money trying to bring him back into housing at a future date, while jeopardizing his health and safety until he is housed again," Green added, citing "serious procedural and governance questions" regarding Pinehurst Management's actions.

Neighbors say McLean couldn’t read his mail, and wasn’t receiving legal notices about the eviction. 

McLean is one of several tenants who was moved to a different apartment at the complex after pipes burst and flooded some of the units during a spell of freezing weather in January 2024. The arrangement was supposed to be temporary, but McLean was never placed back in his original unit, nor was he ever given a mailbox key for the temporary unit, where the court summons letters were sent, his neighbors told Pinehurst Management.

McLean’s neighbors say they intercepted a mail carrier to get access to the mailbox for his temporary unit, where they found court notices.  

“Dan, like many residents, has been displaced for the last 19 months since our building was flooded,” the letter to Pinehurst states. “It has been Pinehurst's practice to continue correspondence with residents through the original, primary mailbox of their main lease. To that end, Pinehurst has never proactively provided keys for the mailboxes associated with temporary leases here at The Yards.”

The advocacy from an elected official and McLean’s neighbors seems to have worked. 

By Wednesday, McLean was informed his eviction case was dismissed, and the property management company would work with the tenant on a payment plan for the back rent still owed.

Staff in Councilor Green’s office say it’s unlikely McLean would’ve gotten his eviction stopped if not for his neighbors in the tenant union intervening on his behalf. The tenant union credits Green’s office for getting the eviction overturned.

Green says what happened to McLean is part of a larger problem that sees local government agencies spend millions to address homelessness, rather than preventing it.

“Dan’s story is not an anomaly. It’s the direct result of a system that neglects properties and neglects people,” Green stated in a news release Wednesday. “We are spending vast sums of public money on an affordable housing system that isn’t really affordable, then exponentially more to deal with the homelessness that results.”

The councilor called the issue “a fiscal and moral failure.”

Frye, the tenant union organizer, is a friend of McLean’s. She says the two bonded over their past military service, but lately, both war vets are bonding over their struggles with affordable housing.

She suspects what happened to McLean is the byproduct of indifference and a lack of oversight on behalf of the management company and the agencies tasked with providing affordable housing. 

“Nobody is watching what’s going on,” she says. For the most part, residents at The Yards have learned to look out for their neighbors. 

“We all help each other out," Frye says.

Home Forward, a local housing authority that serves more than 18,000 families, says it works with tenants to get current on their rent payments, and offers reasonable repayment options. The agency says it regularly connects with tenants informally to discuss overdue rent and make referrals to caseworkers when needed. 

"In the unfortunate case when a resident fails to enter into a repayment agreement and an eviction case is filed, we continue to offer the same reasonable repayment agreement and dismiss the court case as soon as the repayment agreement is signed," Ian Davie, Home Forward's chief operating officer, told the Mercury via email. "The processes that Home Forward uses are dramatically different from what is common in the private rental market. When we were contacted about this specific resident’s situation, we confirmed that we followed these steps to prioritize the resident’s housing stability throughout the past year. Regardless, we did decide to dismiss the case to make additional efforts to assist."

Home Forward declined to discuss the specific circumstances of McLean's case, citing tenant confidentiality, but Davie said the agency does regular re-certifications of rent amounts and income levels, to make sure those with housing vouchers are paying rent that reflects their income. 

"When a household’s income increases, we make sure that residents know that their portion of the rent will increase," Davie stated. "We also take steps to ensure that both the resident and property manager understand the resident’s portion of the rent."

Ahead of a housing-focused press conference and rally scheduled for Thursday Morning at The Yards, Councilor Green used the near-eviction as a clarion call for Portland to rethink its housing model. 

Last month, Green was among the 11 councilors who voted for a social housing policy at the local government level, to create a supply of permanently affordable housing stock.

“We need a model that is financed and governed right here in Portland,” Green stated. “That model is Social Housing—permanently affordable, high-quality housing for all that serves the public good, not private profit.”