Street roots., April 12, 2013, Page 4, Image 4

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Street roots
April 12, 2013
Jesse Beason
and the battle
for Portland’s
safely net
The head o f one o f Portlands
leading housing programs talks
about what hangs in the balance
o f this years budget negotiations
BY JOANNE ZUHL
S T A F F W R IT E R
or the past five years, Jesse Beason
has been a fighter in Portland’s
affordable housing world, standing up
for economic and social equity for low-
income homeowners. As the executive
director of Proud Ground, a Portland-based
nonprofit, he has worked to help families
buy their first home, and -has been a voice
for an entire continuum of services that
takes people out of poverty into stability. •
That advocacy has taken shape in the
campaigns to preserve basic shelter and
housing programs dubbed the Portland
safety net. Last year those programs were in
the crosshairs of one-time funding cuts, and
this year they are yet again on the chopping
block as part of sweeping reductions in all
city budgets. The battle for $2.3 million for
basic services, from shelter beds to health
programs to resource referral programs, will
continue until the city hashes out it’s final
budget this summer. It could be a farewell
bout for Beason: This summer, he will be
leaving Proud Ground to become the
director of public affairs with the Northwest
Health Foundation.
F
J o a n n e Zuhl: Portland has many
programs that help people experiencing poverty
and homelessness, but can you explain how
this comes together as a comprehensive safety
net?
J e s s e B eason: Public and nonprofit
agencies have worked to coordinate funding
streams as much as federal and state
regulations allow. We’ve streamlined rent
assistance, for instance, by pooling funds.
But I’d say that it’s at the service-provider
level that the safety net comes together to
provide efficient services and effective
referral and coordination for the folks we
serve. This means that if a particular agency
doesn’t offer the services someone needs,
we know where they might be able to
receive them, and can hopefully help make
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F JESSE B E A S O N
that connection. It means that someone
calling 211 can be steered in the right
direction. It means that we all know what
each other’s agencies are doing, and excel
at.
If a mental health outreach worker finds
somebody on the streets who is ready to
leave the streets, they need to be able to
call another provider for housing placement
dollars that will help that person get into an
apartment and pay the next few months of
rent. And once they’re in, what do they
sleep on, how do they begin a life indoors
without the tools and resources of someone
like Community Warehouse, and also, can
the mental health outreach worker call
someone on the streets and see if the
resources are available, and that’s what
resources like 211 is providing — there’s a
place to call right away where the resources
are and how to get those. And once that
person is housed and has some basic needs
met, what are the other services and case
worker management and all the other things
that need to come together, how does that
person then get those resources, and all of
that depends on a safety net that’s been
carefully coordinated and stitched together
over the years by incredibly effective
organizations. You take out any one of those
pieces, and our chances of that person
succeeding drops.
J.Z.: For yet another year in a row, the city
is looking at m aking significant cuts into
make-or-break services - those that directly keep
people out o f homelessness or directly get them
into shelter. This, on top o f a regular stream of
cuts from the state and federal level: W hat’s the
status o f these programs after years o f cutting
back?
J.B.: We know that Portland has a
successful system that, when funded
adequately, is effective at moving folks into
housing, preventing homelessness,
providing them services they need, and
even helping families move to
homeownership. But repeated cuts mean
these programs are doing less with less.
It means we can’t adequately provide
much cheaper options than the emergency
room or jail. It means many of the
disparities faced by communities of color in
homeownership are not addressed.
It means we are turning a lot of our most
vulnerable neighbors away.
We have proven time and again that the
way that we help people succeed is far more
cost effective than sending someone to jail
or to the emergency room. But because the
flavors of money follow different paths, it
has meant that instead of looking at a cost
effective solution, we’re looking at these
cuts that aren’t scalpel-like, they’re really
hatchets. And that undermines the entire
system and costs taxpayers more in the end.
J.Z.: How does homeownership fit into the
safety net?
J.B .: Homelessness and vulnerability look
very different across various communities.
In particular around homeownership, one of
the biggest issues is foreclosure. We know
that we have many, many low-income
renters and many, many low-income
homeowners that are one job loss or one
missed payment away from losing their
house. Whether you’re a renter or a
homeowner, losing your house puts you in
the same level of vulnerability as far as
ending up on the streets. And indeed, many
of the folks, in particular families
experiencing homelessness, are previous
homeowners. So we know that housing
stability affects both renters and
homeowners.
J.Z.: Who are the big losers i f this budget
goes through as is?
See BEASON, page 5
The Portland safety net in the budget crosshairs:
The following programs and services have the
potential to either be cut or eliminated:
■ Eliminate winter shelter at the Clark Center, a 90-bed
shelter for men that serves 700 people annually
■ Reduce youth and other shelter support by $100,000
■ Eliminate winter recuperative care, a program that
works with people experiencing homelessness who are
coming out of the hospital
■ Reduce short-term rent assistance by nearly $100,000
■ Reduce mental health outreach, family rent assistance,
and alcohol and drug treatment by $200,000
■ Eliminate programs at 211 info and the Oregon
Community Warehouse, including Housing Connections
-$ 2 1 5 ,0 0 0
■ Reduce support to the Bud Clark Commons drop-in by
$27,000
■ Cut homebuyer education homeownership fairs by
nearly $50,000
■ Reduce homeownership retention program by $80,000
■ Reduce the Rose City Resource funding by $3,000
(The city currently gives Street Roots $30,000 to produce
the guide)
The bureau is requesting that the following programs
included in the add-back package. This package
includes $1.1 million in funding that is at risk:
■ Funding to keep the 90-bed men’s Clark Center Shelter
open
■ Programs that provide winter recuperation care, winter
shelter and the youth shelter
■ Programs that support permanent housing outreach,
placement, services and stabilization for vulnerable
people. Programs include mental health outreach and
housing placement, street outreach, housing placement
and retention, Alcohol and Drug Free Communities, family
rent assistance, Rose City Resource Guide, Rent Well,
youth transitional housing, and Community Engagement
Program.
■ Programs that build the pipeline of potential
homebuyers from communities of color and help
homeowners retain their homes.
The following programs face permanent cuts at the
housing bureau:
■ Prevention: Reduce short-term rent assistance,
$97,890
■ Supportive Housing: Bud Clark Commons permanent
supportive housing, $27,000
■ Supportive Housing: Reduce funding for Bridgeview by
5 percent, $23,860
■ Homeownership education and foreclosure prevention:
Eliminate homebuyer retention program funding for
citywide program expansion, $46,609
■ Homeownership education and foreclosure prevention:
Eliminate homebuyer fairs, $8,000
■ Emergency Services: Reduce shelters by 5 percent,
$108,490
■ Eliminate funding for Oregon Community Warehouse,
$23,500
■ Eliminate funding for shared housing program, $89,000
■ Reduce Rent Well administration funding by 50
percent, $33,273
■ Eliminate support of Housing Connections website,
$30,000