Street Roots •
Feb. 10-16, 2017
News
Page 11
ST. FRANCIS, from page 10
A
person. Catholic Charities is prioritizing
giving those units to homeless women.
Deborah found out about the building
through her case worker.
“She’s pretty Up front and honest with
me,” Deborah said. “She said, This one,
you’re really going to love it.’”
The other 91 units will be rented to
people earning less than 60 percent of the
median family income - $29,160 annually for
a single person, or $41,640 for a family of
four.
' T 'o apply to live in the S t Francis
1 Apartments, potential applicants must
fill out a rental application, bring a
photocopy of their I.D./a $42 screening fee,
eight weeks of pay stubs from a current
employer, a signed copy of their 2015
federal taxes with copies of the W-2s, copies
of letters for rental assistance, utility
assistance, food stamps and other forms of
public assistance from the last 90 days, and
copies of six months’ worth of documents
from their most recent checking, saving and
investment accounts.
It’s enough to cross the eyes of a
logistically-minded and financially literate
person. Deborah said she didn’t have a
problem getting the paperwork together.
She is on Social Security, so some of the
requirements did not apply to her.
“All I had to do is go to my bank and (get) 1
six months of my checking and savings,” she
said. *1 came pretty weft' prepared.’*
For others, getting that paperwork
together took leg work.
fichóle Shepherd is a case manager with
the Salvation Army Family and Veterans
Center, and she was in the line outside of
Catholic Charities on behalf of five of her
clients, all of whom are homeless veterans.
She guessed she spent around 30 hours
preparing their applications and finding the
right financial documentation,
“That was definitely a challenge,”
Shepherd said.
“Not everyone has income statements for
the last 30 or 90 days. And if you’re getting
federal benefits, like (Social Security), or
(Social Security Disability) or veteran’s
benefits, you get the benefit letter once a
year.”
After working with Cascade Management.
- the leasing office Catholic Charities is
using to rent the St. Francis Apartments -
Shepherd said, “we’ve got the crucial
t 6:55 a.m., a woman with a crutch
walked down the slope to the back of
the line in front of Catholic Charities, which
ran not down the sidewalk, but down the
street along a line of parked cars.
One woman lost her grip on her walker,
and it rolled a few feet down the street and
bumped into the curb. A person behind her
grabbed it, and a couple people formed a
small human chain to get the walker back to
Hie woman.
There was some grousing about the early
hour. “I just don’t think it’s right,” one
woman said.
“What are we supposed to do?” another
woman asked.
Just then, Marilyn Fowler, a stout Wbnian
with a quick grin, walked down the street
using a walker. “Good morning, everyone!”
she bellowed. “How’re doing? Best of luck to
you!”
Fowler is 67 and lives on the eighth floor
of a project-based Section 8 building. Over
the last few years, it has become more
difficult for her to walk, so she is applying to
the St. Francis Apartments so she can live
on a lower floor. The only way for her to
move to a lower floor in her current
building, she said, is if someone moves,
which rarely happens, or if someone dies.
“It practically takes an act of God,” she
said.
As she spoke, staff with Catholic
Charities opened the door,; and everyone
walked inside.
The social service agency pulled out all
rnuiu
dy
JLOtrn ULUUt
M arilyn Fowler, 67, applied to live at the St. Francis Apartments because, she said, it would be
easier on her disabilities than the apartment she lives in currently.
people, from being physically present during
a lease-up event like the one Catholic
Charities had two weeks ago.
People who have disabilities or health
conditions that prevent them from standing
for long periods of time, who cannot take
time off work or do not have access to
reliable transportation may prevent them
from being physically present oh a certain
day or time.
‘Tt’s a terrible process,” one source,
people can apply at any point with their case
worker during an appointment, or at home
before work, over coffee and in their
pajamas.
Buonocore said some people still show up
to the office on the first day applications are
open. “They’re anxious and have that
instinct,” he said.
“We assure people that it doesn’t matter
if you signed up the first minute or the last
minute. They’re in the pool, and it’s
randomized.”
The lottery system, he said, is a more
potential renters to stand in line to submit
efficient way of
applications.
handling
“First serve and
thousands of
first
^W fcat I I
h a w a ä I b I b m iä
applications. In
come (is)
wage parM lm e Jofe? The i t a !
June 2016, 8,130
disadvantageous
eo»e^ firs t serve (precessi benefits applied to join
to a lot of the
Home Forward’s
the people who are the saw iest,
priority
public housing
» e s i able, mesi Illerate, sues! able
populations,” said
wait list. In total/
le
c
o
m
p
e
te
/"
Bobby Weinstock,
the housing
an affordable
B O B B Y W E IN S T O C K
authority only
housing advocate
N O R T H W E S T P ILO T PROJECT
manages 2,500
with Northwest.
units.
Pilot Project,
Other
which provides
affordable housing projects have used
housing for low-income seniors.
different ways of considering rental
“What if you have a minimum wage part-
applications. When the apartments above
time job? The first come, first serve
the Bud Clark Commons opened in 2011,
(process) benefits the people who are the
Transition Projects, Inc., which manages the
sawiest, most able, most literate, most able
apartments, used a system to rank
to compete,” he said.
applicants based on their medical
For years, Home Forward, the Portland
vulnerability, ensuring that the unhealthiest
metropolitan area’s housing authority,
applicants received housing.
accepted paper applications that were
pieces.”
, .
Weinstock thinks online application
accepted first come, first served.
She left her home in Wilsonville at 5 a.m.
systems using a lottery are the fairest way
to get in line early. Shepherd is applying for
“It would be in your interest to line up,
to allow people to apply for housing. “It
early in the morning or the night before,
her clients, all of whom are living in a
allows people to apply online over a period
Michael Buonocore, Home Forward’s
transitional housing shelter, “because the
of time,” he said, adding that everyone has a
executive director, said. “It was hard on
bus doesn’t run from Beaverton early
,
fair shot of getting their applications in. “It
enough for them to get,here,” she said. It s
people, generally speaking, but more
ensures the broadest possible participation,”
obviously for seniors and people with
a barrier.”
he said.
Some of her clients could not take time
disabilities.”
Trell Anderson, Catholic Charities’
The
line
of
potential
applicants
would
go
off work that morning or they are too
Director of Community Development and
down the street and wrap around the block,
unhealthy - some of her clients have been
Housing, said Catholic Charities had
people waited hours to apply. A few years
recently released from the hospital; one had
considered using a lottery system.
ago
Home
Forward
completely
revamped
a heart attack within the last week.
He emphasized that the Jan. 31 event was
its
application
process
due
to
that
demand.
“Their health really (isn’t) at a place
“just a kick-off” and people can apply
People
now
submit
online
applications
over
where I felt comfortable telling them to get
in-person, via email or by maihng an
a period of a week to 10 days. The
on the bus and ride all the way down and
application through early April. “The
applications
are
randomized,
and
a
lottery-
then stand in line,” Shepherd saidi
(application) process is still open and
There are numerous barriers that prevent system is used to select applicants.
on-going,” he said.
■ s ’ Dhring the period the application is open
people, especially low-WQW °r
th e sto p s to h elp p eo p le tu rn in co m p lete
applications, th u s in creasin g ev ery o n e’s
c h a n c e s th at th e y ’ll b e a c ce p ted .
Over the next few hours, the potential
applicants sat down with multiple people
from Catholic Charities and Cascade
Management who reviewed their
application, answered people’s questions,
and told them which pieces were missing
and scheduled follow-up interviews to turn
in final bits of paperwork.
“They were so organized,” Fowler said.
“They did a wonderful job.”
Fowler’s appointment is during the third
week of February; among other things, she
needs to bring a letter from her doctor
stating that her cat helps reduce her anxiety.
She applied to live in a one-bedroom
apartment, which has a tub and a kitchen
bigger than her current one.
“Dream big,” she said, laughing.
“I’ll be there until I go to a nursing
home,” she jaid . “I’m so excited.”
People were left with a similar sense of
excitement and high hopes.
Shepherd, the Salvation Army case
manager, said there haven’t been many
affordable units available. She thinks the
apartments will be great for her clients
because there is a sense of community, and
it would take a 30-minute bus ride to get to
the veterans’ hospital rather than the hour
and a half-long trip the commute currently
requires.
Aside from no longer being homeless,
Deborah is most excited about living in a
brand new apartment
“It will be my apartment from the
beginning. Nobody’s lived there, there’s no
bad karma,” she said.
“That’s special. And I’ll be out of the
shelter. That’s the biggest prize of all.”