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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2014)
Housing Programs continued from page 5 counseling to any struggling Oregonian homeowners. The impact a foreclosure has on a family and on the surrounding commu- nity cannot be overstated. We have counseled and helped thousands of Orego- nians who never imagined they would end up on the brink of losing everything they had earned and saved. More recently, we have assisted hundreds of homeowners in Multnomah with either counseling or education, and we are on track to more than double our numbers from last year. For more information go to www.hacien- dacdc.org. NAYA Offers Wide Range of Hous- ing Help Native Americans in Portland pay a larger share of their income for renting and own- ing, experience higher levels of homelessness, and are less likely to own a home than White Portlanders. They are denied applications for home loans for sim- ilar homes at a rate much higher than whites and access supportive services to help alle- viate this problem and prevent homelessness at lower rates than Whites. The report of the Coalition of Communi- ties of Color examining the Native American community is dire. “We are in the midst of a housing crisis, one that is borne of poverty, high housing costs, and barriers to accessing homeless supports,” the report says. “Native Ameri- cans face many housing barriers including low incomes, weak credit histories, lack of a deposit and down payment, and the lack of affordable housing. Such barriers are coupled with pervasive patterns of discrim- ination, and inequities in accessing housing support programs. As a result, we face many challenges in getting housing and staying housed; housing vulnerability is a dominant feature for this community. “We seek for housing to become recog- nized as a human right and for all levels of government to promote access, equity, and adequacy in providing permanent shelter for our communities.” NAYA provides programs including: Emergency Rent and Utility Assistance Homeownership Classes – once-per- month orientation on how it all works Annual Housing to Homeownership Fair connecting people to resources, lenders, realtors and the like who are a part of and trusted by the community, and offering sin- gle-session classes on different focus areas IDA matched-savings accounts for down- payment on a home Rent-well classes and financial manage- ment / preparedness We own affordable housing in several locations and are working to develop more More on their work at www.naya.org. PCRI – Affordable Rentals and More with a Culturally Competent Focus Years of redlining by financial institutions left families in the inner north and northeast neighborhoods of Portland unable to secure conventional mortgages. As a result, hun- dreds of properties became vacant and neglected. Property values plummeted, and in stepped an unscrupulous mortgage firm who scammed hundreds of unsuspecting families. Action was finally taken when, in the fall of 1990, The Oregonian newspaper exposed these practices and the tragedies resulting from them. The brokerage firm was con- victed of racketeering and fraud, but hundreds of families were still in the midst of their homes. Neighborhood and govern- ment leaders, and the families themselves, worked to create a solution. They decided to form a non-profit that would acquire the endangered homes, help families secure conventional mortgages to buy them back, and retain the other proper- ties as long-term affordable rentals. They formed Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives. The goal of PCRI’s Programs and Resi- dent Services Department is to provide culturally competent services that encour- age and promote self-sufficiency and leadership for children, parents and fami- lies. These services are free of charge and open primarily to PCRI residents, although some programs are made available to the greater community. PCRI’s Programs and Resident Services Include: Homeownership Program Homeownership Retention Program (for homeowners 55 and older) Financial Wellness Program Individual Development Accounts (Matched Savings Program) Healthy Foods Access Initiative Youth Programs Resident Services and Community Cen- ters For more information about any of these services, call 503-288-2923. Proud Ground Land Trust Preserves Affordable Home Buying Market It was 1998 and Portland home prices were climbing. Fast. Meanwhile, incomes were stagnating and even falling. Working families were being left behind, priced out of a soaring market. In particular, whole neighborhoods were pricing families out in droves resulting in the displacement of many long-term residents in close-in neighborhoods. Many were forced to leave the neighborhood that they wanted to live in, or, in some cases, where their families had lived for generations, because they could no longer afford to live there. Community members and government officials, working together, felt that a Com- munity Land Trust could help residents who have been priced out of the housing market to achieve the stability and investment opportunity of homeownership. The way it works is this: The Land Trust, a nonprofit corporation, purchases proper- ties and then rolls them into a contractual agreement – a “trust” – that prohibits buyers and sellers of that property from raising the Page 6 The Portland and Seattle Skanner April 23, 2014 cost of the land for 100 years. The idea is to keep prices stable so that wage-earners on the low end of the spectrum can afford to buy homes. About $130,000 is the average cost of a Proud Ground home. There are no adjustable-rate mortgages with balloon pay- ments. Our homeowners buy homes they can afford, with monthly payments close to (and often less than) what they were paying in rent. We provide lots of help and support before and after homeowners buy. Sabin Community Development Corpora- tion was the first organization to use the CLT model in the City of Portland, specifi- cally in inner N/NE Portland. The Sabin pilot project successfully sold ten homes using the land trust model. In part because of their success, in 1999, the City of Port- land and local housing advocates established Proud Ground to provide per- manently affordable homes citywide. Proud Ground was officially incorporated in December of 1999 and expanded its pro- gram to serve homebuyers in Gresham and Washington County in 2009. Proud Ground has served more than 160 first-time home- buyers making it the largest organization of its kind in the Northwest. More on their work at www.proud- ground.org. REACH Tackles Housing, Educa- tion, Community Livability Since 1982, REACH has pioneered affordable housing and supportive pro- grams that address complex challenges facing communities across the greater Port- land metropolitan region. REACH has gained local, state and national acclaim for innovation and respon- siveness to difficult urban issues. Their work began with revitalization efforts in the neighborhoods of inner Southeast Portland, where we bought and renovated single fam- ily homes. Today, REACH owns and manages a portfolio of 1,852 units of affordable hous- ing across the metropolitan region, including properties of Affordable Commu- nity Environments (ACE), located in Vancouver, Wash. REACH’s portfolio includes new and ren- ovated plexes, apartment buildings and mixed-use developments. REACH does not provide rental assistance but rather is a nonprofit property management company that owns and manages affordable and low- income housing. In addition to building and maintaining affordable housing, REACH offers several programs to help residents stay in their housing, raise their standard of living, and connect to local resources and opportuni- ties. If you’re interested in renting housing from REACH, please visit http://reachcdc.org and click on “Search Homes.” You’ll find photos, locations, eli- gibility criteria and “Frequently Asked Questions.” Call 503-231-0682 with any questions.
