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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2012)
Street roots 3 March 16, 2012 Safety net swings in balance of city budget talks City’s housing and homeless services play the competitive waiting game for coveted one-time appropriations The Safety Net Of its total budget request of $91,471,065, the Portland Housing Bureau is asking for $4.8 million in one-time funding, which is at the discretion of the mayor’s office. Here’s what the net is trying to hold on to: Homelessness Prevention and Rapid-Rehousing $1.9 million This is for short-term rent assistance to prevent eviction and keep epople housed during a difficult transition. Usually a few months of assistance, it money that is flexible and rapidly disbursed to keep people from losing their housing and becoming homeless. BY JOANNE ZUHL STAFF WRITER ooking at the housing and homeless landscape these days, Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish paints a pretty grim picture. "It’s a rising tide of need with declining resources. That’s it in a nutshell,” says Fish, who oversees the Portland Housing Bureau. “We’ve got more adults and families facing homelessness, more families being priced out of the housing market. We’ve got historic vacancy rates. Unemployment is still very high. We’re now catching the foreclosure fever. We’re still in a deep recession, and we have fewer resources to meet the need. It’s a perfect storm.” This from a self-proclaimed glass-half-full kind of guy. That internal optimism will be needed as the city slogs forward in its 2012-13 budget “cutting” process, with all bureaus asked by Mayor Sam Adams to submit reduction proposals of 4, 6 and 8 percent. In addition to the bureau packages, the mayor has to decide how the shrunken pool of one-time money - funding allocated in each cycle by the mayor - is divvied up. Last year, that was a pool of about $23 million. This year it’s projected at about $11 million. Of that, Fish’s Portland Housing Bureau is asking for nearly $4.8 million to pay for L -' IBi '*• « T\.': services $1.734 million : : .- .— J.....< ....v.... ............ s... r-round, winter and severe ler. I his money is paired with funding and resources from Multnomah County, to the streets. It also pairs with programs to services and help people connect with housing opportunities,. P H O T O B Y K E N H A W K IN S Commissioner Nick Fish (with Mayor Sam Adam s in the background) at the groundbreaking fo r the B u d Clark Commons. The mayor is expected to come out with his proposed budget, with one-time fu n d in g allocations, in early May. Under consideration is nearly $4.8 million fo r the city’s safety net o f services that include the B u d Clark Commons shelter and housing programs. falling from about $40 million in 2010 to around $17 million starting next year. An 8 . percent reduction would cost another $500,000. One of the few constants in the budget has been local funding. The city, under Mayor Adams, has consistently backed the safety net for people engaged in getting off the streets, staying in housing, and securing long-term stable housing. he Portland Housing Bureau’s $91 Adams was unavailable to comment in million total budget request is a combination of seven sources, including the time for publication, but spokesperson Amy city’s General Fund. All of those sources are Ruiz said the mayor has long backed these funding streams. “In this especially difficult under pressure. The city is losing $3 million budget year, he pledges to do his best to from federal fund sources because of cuts in continue protecting housing and social Washington, D.C. It’s revenue from tax services,” Ruiz said. increment financing has hit the cliff — T 1 H Housing Access Services $456,300 This includes programs that provide information and referral, adovocacy and case management for low-income renters faced with homelessness, eviction, housing discrminiation and unhealthy housing conditions. This often assists hard-to-house individuals, including people with rental screening barriers such as poor credit, evictions and criminal history. th e c ity ’s social safety n e t: sh o rt-te rm r e n t a ssista n c e , s h e lte r an d e m e rg e n c y se rv ic e s, housing access and homeownership programs, and the Bud Clark Commons. It’s not new money, but it is subject to the mayor and council’s approval, each with their own bureau budgets in play. The police bureau alone is asking for $5.4 million in one-time funding. The mayor is expected to come out with his budget in early May. “It’s going to be much more competitive,” Fish says, “The safety net is competing against fire stations, against the mayor’s education agenda, against the Portland Plan. We’re going to have to make some tough choices.” W v? HitsV' I 1 - US s x ® One of the main lines in the safety net is short-term rent assistance, a consolidation of funds leveraged by local money. It is used to pay for a couple of months of rent for qualified families working to stay in housing. JOIN, a nonprofit housing assistance organization, receives about $100,000 in short-term rent assistance from city coffers. It one of the most significant sources of rent assistance JOIN receives from the General Fund. Unlike other funding sources, this money is flexibile enough to fill critical gaps. “We’re very reliant on those funds, especially for some of our highest barrier s folks who have the biggest struggles to See S A F E T Y NET, page 4 Bud Clark Commons This is a reduction from last year’s bi (down from $390,000). The building, houses Transition Projects day and sto services and Home Forward’s housing program, opened this past June as the city’s flagship shelter and service facility. In its first six months, the facility reported serving 4,300 people — an average of 600 daily visitors seeking basic needs and services. The city reports that nearly 300 people have found permanent homes through the Day Center . .. i Homeowne programs. The for minority communities < of the bureaus iphasis on minority homeownership. The provide down payment assistance to households. Meet Your Local Branch Manager: “Com m unities arent ju s t streets a n d build ings. 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