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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2013)
5 Street roots April 26, 2013 HUD, from page 4 Oregon’s social service sequester from HUD behind on meeting families’ needs, overburdening fewer staff to meet the myriad HUD requirements with landlords. Landlords unhappy with inspection schedules and agency services are more inclined to disallow Section 8 repters altogether. There is also the expected shift in caseloads to other social services as people fall through the cracks into homelessness. It is especially difficult in the rural communities of Northwest Oregon, where people rely on seasonal, self-employment and low-income service jobs to get by, Johnston says. “The safety net just isn’t here,” Johnston says of his region. “If this goes on for the long term, the effects are just going to be compounded. If this becomes a trend, or a long-term proposition, people are going to have to start looking at other options.” ' Those options are bleak — including people living out of cars or outside, Johnston said. In the Clackamas County Housing Authority, interim director Dan Potter says they will have to cut back in staff, but they hope to absorb most of the loss in voucher payments with financial reserves. In addition to public housing, the county serves more than 1,600 recipients on vouchers for the elderly, disabled and families with children. Total: $13 million Section 8: $11 million Tenant-based rental assistance for qualifying low- or no-income rental assistance. Voucher holders often pay a portion of their income, about 30 percent, toward rent. HOME funds: $641,000 The nation's largest block g ra n t? designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low-income households Homeless assistance: $1.2 million Emergency shelter, case management services and related assistance to end homelessness. Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA): $73,000 Rental assistance, foreclosure • prevention, health care, mental health i services, dependency treatment and other services including aging and disability programs, domestic violence services, and mental health hile the state-directed funding is and addiction treatment, are anticipating a distributed to various smaller municipalities and agencies across Oregon, $4.3 million hit. This includes funding for the Portland Housing Bureau receives its own direct services for homeless families, the disabled and the elderly through a variety of pool of HUD funds. This year, PHB is organizations. (Multnomah County’s HUD anticipating a 10 percent reduction to its funds are recieved through federal, state and programs due to HUD’s sequestration, local streams.) including a projected loss of $770,178 in • For Mary Li, the director of the Community Development Block Grants and Community Services division of the $292,039 in HOME funds, respectively. The Department of Multnomah County Humeri PHB also projects a $78,216 reduction to its Emergency Solutions Grant, which is used for Services, the cuts leave her sad and frustrated with lawmakers in Washington D.C. homelessness-relief programs. Additionally, “In many ways, it’s a very cynical the PHB projects a $109,072 reduction to calculation that in no way takes into account Housing Opportunities for People with HIV/ the real harm that is going to befall AIDS. communities as a result of this As a result of these cuts, the PHB anticipates that 65 households will not receive gamesmanship,” Li said. “I expect better. “I have great faith and belief that we in the short-term rent assistance, 14 households county can figure how to best help ourselves,” with HIV/AIDS will not receive rent Li says. “We can’t do that without the assistance and 130 households from resources, and the federal government must communities of color will not receive come to the table.... The citizens of homeownership education and counseling. Multnomah County will save the citizens of “Short-term rental assistance and Multnomah County before the government affordable rental housing, both of which does, but the federal government needs to utilize federal funds, are two effective tools in send the resources to us.” keeping people off the streets and in homes,” Oregon Opportunity Network represents said Portland Housing Bureau Director Traci nonprofit and low-income housing developers Manning in a statement to Street Roots. that house more than 72,000 families across “We’re still operating on the assumption of ' the state. The financial blow from the HUD our budget forecast, which would mean a cuts are among many they have been dealt $1,249,505 reduction in federal funds, from local, state and federal sources. because we have not received allocations or “Our members are working hard bn the new information from HUD.” front lines to help struggling Oregonians, and Multnomah County’s, safety net services, these cuts are on top of previous cuts and W S is te rs Of The Road c r e a t in g c o m m u n it y , c r e a t in g c h a n g e , t o g e t h e r SISTERS OF THE ROAD M eet Your Local Branch Manager: We are— } } } } “Com m unities aren't ju s t streets a n d b uild ings. C om m unities are thriving places where cultures, commerce a n d souls grow stronger together. ” Hospitality & friendship Community change through the Dorothy Day Community School Working together for nonviolence & justice And don’t forget: fun! A ll are w elcom e ~ M onday-Friday, 10am - 2J0pm continued disinvestment at the federal level,” says Ruth Adkins, policy director for Oregon ON. “They’re working in an extremely complex and challenging regulatory environment, as well as facing an overwhelming human need.” Adkins says it’s still too soon to see how this will play out among families, but that the wholesale nature of the sequester leaves few services untouched. “We’re all interconnected,” Adkins said, referring to not only housing cuts but also cuts to education, infrastructure and other programs that help vulnerable and middle-class populations. “It’s really discouraging. To succeed you need a place to call home.” Tony Bernal, development director at Transition Projects, said that at this point it’s unclear how the cuts will play out. Transition Projects gets part of its funding from multiple federal sources, some of which pass through local governments, making it difficult to anticipate exactly how his organization will be impacted. “HUD is a particularly complicated story,” he says. However, he does say that the cuts to Home Forward will have ripple effects because organizations like his direct clients to it as a housing resource. “For all the mainstream providers, that’s going to be a real problem because that’s a major source of low- income housing,” he says of the cuts to Home Forward. “It’s really ripping holes into the social safety net.” He says that the one bit of good news in the budget is that Transition Projects will see an increase in a HUD rent-assistance grant for the upcoming fiscal year. Jean DeMaster is the executive director of Human Solutions, which like Transition Projects^ gets its funding from a variety of government sources. The details of the direct impact aren’t yet known, she says. However, she is preparing for at least a 10 percent cut, which will mean fewer services for fewer people, said DeMaster. “I can’t say that one thing is going to hurt the most,” said DeMaster. But she added that the cuts to HUD’s Community Development Block Grants and federal heating assistance programs will be significant -M a ry 133 NW 6th Ave. in Portland 503-222-5694 w w w .s is te r s o fth e r o a d .o r g Mary Edmeades Social I mpact Banking 503.445.2155 rnedmeades@alhinebank.com f=> c i m z * M em ber eoiiAiHoms LENDER T I ^ I W . At Albina Community Bank the most ordinary financial transaction can have an extraordinary impact on our local community. You’re going to bank somewhere, w hy not let your banking make a difference in the places where you live and work?
