Street Roots • Sept. 21-27, 2018
HL
News
Cesil George sits on a bench in Lownsdale Square in front o f the M ultnomah County Courthouse. As a homeless senior with a mental disability, George is particularly vulnerable, but he still
does not seore high enough on a vulnerability assessment to qualify for permanent supportive housing.
Overburden of proof
A Portland man's inability to qualify for appropriate assistance underscores
how federal rules are stifling local efforts to house chronically homeless people
This requirement is especially challenging
for cities on the West Coast, where many
people sleep outdoors and off the grid, as
espite an attempt to get the most
opposed to cities where most homeless
vulnerable among Portland’s
people sleep in shelters and resident lists
homeless population into housing,
are maintained.
some highly qualified people are being left
“For folks who have been disconnected
out in the cold.
from services or who have been living
The problem lies with the U.S.
unsheltered, finding folks who can verify
Department of Housing and Urban
that is difficult,” said Ian Slingerland,
Development’s lack of investment in - and
director of homeless initiatives at Home
what housing providers say is a nonsensical
Forward, Multnomah County’s housing
requirement for - federally funded
authority.
permanent supportive housing. This is
Additionally, it’s often the people whose
housing that’s available only to people who
whereabouts
are most difficult to prove that
are chronically homeless and who also have
are also the most vulnerable and have the
a mental or physical disability.
greatest need for permanent supportive
Organizations that connect people with
housing, which comes linked with services
this subsidy in Portland, as well as other
cities across the U.S., are struggling to meet such as mental health or addictions
counseling.
HUD’s requirement that they provide proof
HUD requires that service providers
of their clients’ chronic homelessness
compile third-party documentation for at
before moving them off the street and into
least nine of the past 12 months of their
housing.
BY EMILY GREEN
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
R
client’s homelessness to meet its chronic
homelessness criteria.
Slingerland said’this means that for each
of those nine months, providers must find
someone who will attest to seeing the
person experiencing homelessness and
sleeping in a shelter, outdoors or
somewhere else not meant for human
habitation.
Over the past year, Slingerland said,
Home Forward has seen delays in spending
portions of its federal rent-assistance grant
because it’s taking longer for members of
the region’s coordinated housing program
to get this documentation together for each
client.
Several of those members told Street
Roots the process is an unnecessary waste
of valuable staff hours. They also say that in
some cases, it’s keeping vulnerable people
outdoors longer as they wait for verification
See HUD, page 5