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Street roots
E ducation * Dialogue ♦ Independence-
Number of
housing units
decline for
city's poorest
STAFF REPORTS
embers oi the Oregon
Opportunity Network, or Oregon
ON, say a new report by the
Portland Development Commission
illustrates how affordable housing units for
the poorest are slipping out of grasp for
many residents. We’re still above 2002
levels, when the benchmark of “no net
loss” was created, but nearly 1,500 fewer
than where we were just 4 years ago. r
“Despite the City’s well-intended
policies, the number of affordable units
downtown continues to drop,” said Bobby
Weinstock, Housing Consultant for NW
Pilot Project, “The reality is, people who
need housing can’t get it.”
The report, compiled byPDC to evaluate
the city’s “no net loss” housing policy,
shows the percentage of total rental units
in the 0-30 percent and 31-50 percent
median family income (MFI) categories
decreased by almost 23 percent in the last
three years.
The report inventories housing in the .
“Central City,” defined as Cèntral EastSide,
Downtown, Goose Hollow, Lloyd District',
Lower Albina, River District, South
Waterfront and the University District.
This decrease was mirrored by an 11.8 -
¿percent increase in units affordable to -
households earning at Or above 120
percent MFI, due largely South Waterfront
developmentand-eenveridenofplanned
condo developments to high-end rental ,
units.
,
“To truly address the loss of affordable
units, the City needs to spend urban
renewal affordable housing sét-aside dollars
more effectively,” said Debbie Aiona, a
representative of the League of Women
Voters. “The policy is in place, but has not
yet been used to its full advantage.”
The City of Portland created the
affordable housing set-aside two years àgô
as a way to avoid thé displacement and
gentrification often caused by the creation
of urban renewal districts.
Despite the decrease in affordable
housing in the central city, th é report
concludes that Portland continues to meet
the “no net loss” policy. While numbers of
affordable units continue to plummet, they
have not yet fallen below the policy’s 2002
benchmark of 8,286 units. Currently the
number of units meeting policy
requirements is about 200 above the
benchmark, Bycontrast, in 2005, around
10,000 units met Policy requirements.
The data from the report will be used
for the Portland Plan update, the
discussion the creation of a potential new
downtown Urban Renewal Area, and
updates of central city housing strategies.
M
Source: Oregon O pportunity Network
Feds extend $30 million to staunch Section 8 bleeding
Families on the fringe go month-to-month unsure of housing assistance
BY JOANNE ZUHL
STAFF WRITER
hile hundreds of families in
Northwest Oregon continue to live
month-to-month in hopes of good
news for their housing assistance, relief is
trickling down from Washington D.C.
The federal government recently
announced it will provide $30 million to
people on Section 8 housing assistance,
after authorities across the country
reported massive shortfalls in funding.
The Department of Housing and Urban
Development, or HUD, funds the Section 8
program through local housing authorities.
Among them is the Northwest Oregon
Housing Authority, which in May notified
nearly 300 families in Tillamook, Clatsop'
and Columbia counties that the authority
could no longer afford to provide them
housing assistance (Street Roots, “The
Letter,” June 12). According to news reports
and testimony before Congress, the same
was happening to authorities across the
country, as the economic downturn
overburdened the resources for housing
assistance. (Street Roots, “The Perfect
Storm,” June26)
■
For Jeff Crist and Jennifer Cherry, a
family in Girabaldi Streét Roots has been
following throughout this crisis, life has
been reduced to a stressful, monthly waiting
game. The couple, who have three children,
were among the hundreds of families
dropped from the Section 8 program as of; ■
July. Because of disabilities, neither Jeff nor
Jennifer have been able to work, and NOHA
was covering about 90 percent of their rent.
Last month, NOHA elected to draw on its
other funds to pay rent for families to stay
in their homes on an immediate basis. Crist
says they’re secure for the month of August
■
P H O T O B Y K EN H A W K IN S W W W .K E N H A W K IN S .C O M
Jennifer Cherry a n d J e ff Crist are am ong hundreds o f fam ilies in Northwest Oregon who are
on the edge o f losing housing following federal fu n d in g Section 8 voucher.funding. -
that are on the verge of terminating
families. The additional $30 million will go
to agencies that are eligible to receive
extraordinary administrative fees for
technical assistance to prevent the
termination of families. These funds cart
also be used to fund vouchers, according to
HUD. The nation’s 2,400 housing
authorities were notified at the start of
August that the funds would be available.
These agencies now have until Aug. 14 to
notify HUD that they need this money to
preventexisting voucher terminations.
-problem of wholesale voucher terminations,
the complete scope of which is still not '
known.
v
“There’s no doubt that some of the policy
changes that are contained in the SEVRA
bill would help make it less likely that this
year’s type of situation would recur in future
years, so we strongly support that bill, it will
give HUD and housing authorities more
flexibility in dealing with problems in the
future,” says Jeremy Rosen, executive
director of the National Policy and Advocacy
Council on Homelessness in Washington
N QHA. savs th a t t h e y im m ed iately ap p lied M
HUP
D .C . “T h a t s a id , n o a m o u n t o f f le x ib ilit y c a n
w ith NOHA’s a s sista n c e , b u t h e says th e y
probably won’t know about Septembef until
late in the month.
“They’re playing the day-to-day-basis thing
on us,” Crist says. “Hopefully one of these
letters will say we’re going to help you like
we were. But from day-today, you don’t
know if you’re going to be packing of
leaving.”
In the meantime, Crist says he continues
to look for work wherever he might find it,
but, he says, “it’s not looking really góod
right now. There are no job openings. But
there’s a lot of work starting up. I’m
keeping my eyes out for any little thing at
thé employment office.”
Cherry is recovering from surgery on a
herniated disc in her neck. She is restricted
to lifting no more,than 10 pounds right now,
which limits her work options. But she and
Crist are hopeful that as she recovers that
restriction will be lifted, and that as the
economy strengthens, Crist can find work.
HUD has already spent $89 million of the
$100 million set aside fund pfovided
annually by Congress to support housing '
authorities facing increased demand o r j
“unforeseen circumstances,” HUD says th e '
f remaining $11 million will go to agencies
has made available. If they receive all of „
that, Snell says, NOHA expects to bring
everyone who was terminated from the
program back on to vouchers. The housing
authority has already spent its reserves for
housing, and at this time has no money to
support those terminated past August, Snell
said.
“We’re carrying people for as long as we
can, but the housing authority does not have
any other pots of money that we can go to
to pay rents for September,” Snell said.
According to HUD, the funding shortfalls
— revealed“ in May when HUD notified
agencies of their 2009 allocations — have
impacted about 15 percent of all public
housing authorities. HUD says that if it
determines that additional funding is
needed, it trill work with Congress on
legislative changes to adjust allocations.
The Section 8 funding system is the
subject of a bill now working it’s way
through Congress. SEVRA — the Section 8
Voucher Reform Act, includes provisions
that would create more flexibility and
stability in funding formulas for housing .
assistance. Advocates say it’s a good move
forward, but not enough to correct the
get around the situation w heretftereisn’t
e n o u g h m oneY.fQr th e pro g ra m . ... T h e
policy changes and SEVRA just by
themselves won’t change this problem or fix
future problems.”
Rosen was among a group of advocates of
affordable housing, including the Center on .
Budget and Policy Priorities, National
Housing Law Project, and the National Low
Income Housing Coalition, that met with
HUD to talk about solutions to the current
Section 8 crisis, Rosen and others say they
will be sending a letter to HUD urging it to
ask Congress for additional funds to correct
the funding shortage. However, Rosen said
that such a request from HUD would be
politically unpopular.
“The counter argument, of course, is that
you have 285 people in Oregon, not to
mention the people hi all too many other
places around the country wher-e the
housing authorities have notified them that
they may lose vouchers and could eventually
become homeless,” Rosen says. “HUD is
sincerely looking at ways to make sure nq
one actually gets terminated, but it remains
to be seen" if they can actually accomplish
it.”