June 26, 2019
Page 11
Helping Make Ends Meet
C ontinueD from f ront
also now offers two tiers of dis-
counts for customers who are at
60 percent—and 30 percent—me-
dian family income of Portland,
respectively. One of the changes
the utility recently made was to
use city median family income,
rather than go by state measures to
better reflect local needs.
Though the program has been
around since 1995, effective July
1 of last year, its services were en-
hanced under City Commissioner
Nick Fish. The bureau is currently
under the direction of City Com-
missioner Amanda Fritz.
That was also the time when the
main customer service building
of the utility changed from being
downtown—which often incurred
complaints of having to pay for
parking or lack of accessibility for
public transport from customers—
to their new location at 664 N Til-
lamook St. Now there’s free park-
ing and it’s along the Max Yellow
Line and 35 bus line.
In addition, the agency has
launched a partnership with Home
Forward, Multnomah County’s
housing authority, to provide up to
$500 in rental assistance annually
to income-qualified renters living
in a multi-family dwelling and at
risk of eviction.
“Many people who live in
apartments never get a water bill
or water and sewer bill. So how
do you give a discount to someone
who doesn’t receive a bill? We
figured out a pathway to do that
for people that are in crisis, that
are risk of eviction, by partnering
with Home Forward,” said Port-
land Water Bureau Public Infor-
mation Officer Jaymee Cuti.
SEI, which is one of seven com-
munity partners the Water Bureau
works with, helps their clients get
connected to benefits such as these
for families who are struggling fi-
nancially.
“Really we try and prioritize
making people who are coming
in for energy assistance more of a
one stop shop,” SEI Energy Pro-
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Fabiola Casas (left) and Anna McDonald serve the public as
financial assistance program specialists for the Portland Water
Bureau, positions that have been added to the staff at Portland
Water Bureau as part of an enhancement to its Financial
Assistance Program.
gram Manager Megan McGinnis
said. ”If someone’s coming in,
[we] just have them bring that
water bill with them. And then we
can enroll them in their bill dis-
count as well. Kind of saves them
an extra trip.”
McGinnis added that SEI does
this by completing the verification
of income and other qualification
measures on behalf of the Water
Bureau.
“[W]e try to make sure that our
staff, before providing any form
of energy assistance, are having a
more comprehensive conversation
about what might be creating that
need,” explained SEI Director of
Community and Family Programs
Department Sahaan McKelvey.
“We’ll be as thorough as we can…
trying to get behind some of the
root causes of why a family may
be struggling with being able to
[pay their] utility bills.”
McKelvey said he’s very appre-
ciative of the steps that local agen-
cies like the Portland Water Bureau
are taking to create assistance oppor-
tunities for people, but that there’s
more work that needs to be done
for multi-family units “to make that
system more ideal and accessible as
it needs to be for the families that
are trying to tap into it.”
Portland Water Bureau Finan-
cial Assistance Program Manager
Corbett White, who has worked
at Portland Water Bureau for 27
years, now oversees two other em-
ployees tasked with assisting cus-
C alendar
June 2019
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
17
World Juggler’s Day
Eat Your Vegetables
Day
18
Chris Van Allsburg
born, 1949
International Picnic
Day
24
25
World U.F.O. Day
(also July 2) 1st
modern UFO sight-
ing (by Kenneth
Arnold)
LEON Day - LEON
is NOEL spelled
backwards. It means
six months until
Christmas
19
Garfield Debuted in
1978
tomers with financial assistance
inquiries—additional
positions
that were part of the enhancements
that were enacted last year—when
before only one person did the job.
She recalled a case where a
woman was devastated by becom-
ing involved with the payday loan
system.
“She was a single mom facing
her water being shut off. And she
said it’s not that I don’t make mon-
ey, it’s just that they get the money
before I do. And I was able to turn
it around for her,” White said.
She added that it’s those mo-
ments of positively impacting
customers’ lives that gets her ex-
cited about coming into work each
morning.
“There’s a lot of people out
there that are having a rough time
financially. If they give us a call,
there’s ways for us to help and
that’s the message that we want.”
White said there’s two num-
bers for Portland Water Bureau
customer service inquiries: a gen-
eral line at 503-823-7770 where
payment arrangements, such as
monthly installments, or an expla-
nation of the bill can be provided.
Inquiries requiring more atten-
tion from the financial assistance
specialists’ line can be reached
at 503-865-4357. Customers can
also receive service by visiting a
partnering organization, like SEI,
or visiting the utility in person at
664 N Tillamook St., or online at
portlandoregon.gov/water/.
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
23
20
21
22
American Eagle Day
Ice Cream Soda Day
First Day of Summer
US Department of
Justice Established
in 1870
27
28
29
Juneteenth
Tasmanian Devil
Debuted in 1954
26
Bicycle Patented In
1819
National Chocolate
Pudding Day
Toothbrush Invented
In 1498
Captain Kangaroo
(Bob Keeshan) born
1927
Helen Keller Born in
1880
Paul Bunyan Day
First iPhone re-
leased, 2007
Camera Day
Theodore Taylor
born, 1922
Typewriter Patented
In 1868
30
Meteor Day
National Organi-
zation of Women
Founded In 1966