Street roots., April 12, 2013, Page 3, Image 3

Street roots
3
April 12, 2013
The Housing Agenda
The Housing Opportunity Lobby Day
was organized by the Housing Alliance
with five key areas of focus in the 2013
Legislature:
Prevent homelessness through
restoring the Emergency Housing
Account and State Homeless
Assistance Program — The
Emergency Housing Account (EHA)
and State Homeless Assistance
Program (SHAP) help keep at risk
families in their homes, and help
homeless families get off the streets
and stabilized. The Housing Alliance is
requesting an additional $3 million to
EHA and $1 million to SHAP in general
fund dollars to return the programs to
the level of the 2007 biennium, plus
inflation.
.
.
P H O T O B Y IS R A E L B A Y E R
Above, Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, addressing the members o f the H ousing Alliance who gathered in Salem April 4 to speak
with their representatives. The event drew more than 150 people with experiences in homelessness and housing problems, who called for more
equity in Section 8, veterans and H IV /A ID S housing programs, and emergency housing assistance. Below, David Henderson o f Portland went
to speak about his own experience with homelessness and now, thanks to several social-service programs, being housed and on his own.
Housing takes center stage in Salem
BY JOANNE ZUHL
S T A F F W R IT E R
hey carpooled and packed into buses,
wearing buttons in solidarity and
some paired in matching T-shirts.
More than 150 of them, of all ages, abilities
T
Housing for Veterans HB 2417 —
To cover the continuum of veterans’
housing needs, including ending their
homelessness, offering short- and
long-term rental assistance, developing
housing with wrap-around services as
well as increasing home-ownership
opportunities.
Foreclosure and housing market
recovery SB 558 — In 2012, Oregon
enacted foreclosure reform with SB
1552, with the Legislature dedicating
some funds from the National
Attorneys’ General Settlement to the
implementation of the law. This bill
provides additional resources to
continue building a system to provide
homeowners with information,
an d b ack g ro u n d s, m ad e th e trip .
counseling, legal support, mediation
They came for Housing Opportunity
Lobby Day, April 4, at the State Capitol,
where lawmakers paused to open their
doors to people’s personal testimony on the
challenges they’ve faced.
They gathered early in Salem before
heading out to talk with lawmakers about
what’s at stake in this legislative session,
including funding for emergency housing
programs, foreclosure prevention, veterans’
housing and access to housing for Section 8
recipients. It was one of the largest
coalitions the Alliance has sent to Salem,
and together they met with more than 65
legislators to talk about housing issues
They included David Henderson, who will
be 60 in June. Henderson is a former
human resources consultant for a large
apparel company. About two years ago, he
lost his job and shortly thereafter become
disabled. He now has difficulty walking and
speaking. He was unable to work, and
without a home. “I was living in places of
last resort,” he said, and that included the
Portland Rescue Mission.
Through the help of Northwest Pilot
Project, Transition Projects and emergency
housing funds, he was able to get out of the
shelter and into his own apartment.
“I want to see how our legislators are
addressing the problem of housing,”
Henderson said. “I want to make sure our
representatives know how important it is to
us.”
Ron Deason, 65, had a long career in
construction work when he had an accident
in 2005. It left him unable to work in the
field. He had saved up a year’s worth of his
salary for tough times and received a
settlement for his injury, but the money ran
out while he waited for his Social Security
Insurance to arrive. In all, he waited three
years.
“I went from hero to zero just from falling
and getting hurt.” he says.
He lost his home, and lived in his car for
seven months. In the woods where he
parked his car, he saw generations of
homelessness — grandfathers, fathers and
sons, he says. He caught pneumonia and
ended up in the hospital for seven days and
services and direct financial relief.
Preserve Existing Affordable
Housing — Across the state,
thousands of people with very low
incomes live in homes with federal rent
subsidies and in manufactured home
parks. Many of these homes are at risk
of conversion to market rate, including
’some housing built and owned by
nonprofit partners statewide. The
alliance is asking for $20 million in
Lottery Backed Bonds to fill financing
gaps and preserve these affordable
homes.
P H O T O B Y IS R A EL B A Y E R
$150,000. He had no insurance and no
money. But with assistance to tide him over,
he’s back on his feet and in housing. He was
in Salem, he says, “because I don’t want
anybody to go through what I went
through.”
Amal Ahmed wanted to tell her
representative about how important basic
services were in keeping her family going
after they emigrated from Somalia in 1996
to escape violence. Her mother came here
with three young children to care for, and
she soon became very ill. She was suffering
from seizures and acute depression
stemming from past trauma, and the
opportunity for new work never arrived.
“If there was no system at that moment,
no program supporting people, no energy
assistance or housing programs or medical
programs, my family wouldn’t be where we
are now,” Ahmed says. Ahmed now works
for Human Solutions, which helps find and
secure stable housing for other families
struggling to get by.
Pat came to support better access to
housing for tenants with Section 8 vouchers.
She learned first hand how difficult it is to
find a landlord to lease to a Section 8
recipient. After 60 days, she was unable to
find an apartment to lease to her, and she
lost the voucher. Pat’s friend, Deborah
Olson, came on the same issue, and handed
to her lawmaker a recent newspaper’s
classified section with the “No Section 8”
ads circled in red.
“Even if the ad didn’t say “No Section 8,”
they told me so when I was there,” Pat said.
There were many others with similar
stories.
John Wood is unable to work because he
has Parkinson’s disease. He is both a
resident and board member with Northwest
Housing Initiatives, without which he says
he would not have a place to live. Like many
others there that day, it was his first time in
the State Capitol building.
“These are our people and we’ve got to
take care of our people,” Wood said, noting
that the experience instills a greater sense
of ownership in the legislative process.
“You realize how important we are. This
is extremely important what we’re doing,”
Wood said.
“Unless you do something yourself,
nothing is going to get done,” Deason said.
“To stand on your feet and have some pride.
When you lose your pride, you’ve lost your
fight.”
Deason had 15 minutes with his
representative, Jules Bailey (D-Portland).
“I’ve never been involved in something
like this before,” he said afterward. “It’s
kind of nice going there and seeing
someone who cares. They look you right in
the eyes.”
Remove barriers tor tenants with
Section 8 vouchers to renting
homes in their preferred
communities HB 2639 -T h e
proposal includes multiple strategies to
ensure tenant success such as
developing statewide strategies to
better support tenants going through
the leasing process, better support of
housing authorities’ efforts to educate
and work with both landlords and
HUD, as well as to amend ORS
659A.421 (1 )(d) and (2)(e) to clarify
that receipt of federal rent subsidies
and other housing assistance - in
particular Section 8 vouchers - is not
grounds for denying tenancy.
I f . We Are
The
Safety
•Net!
wtmms*Fin«T.8*s
Find out more about saving Portland
housing and human services at
www.wearethesafetynet.org