Housing Alliance Bills Slated to Move This Week

As the end of the 2007 Legislative Session draws near, the Housing Alliance legislation to secure roughly $70 million in new resources are slated to move through the Transportation and Economic Development Ways & Means subcommittee and the full Ways & Means Committee this week.  The Housing Alliance is very optimistic that the strong bi-partisan support from legislators across Oregon will provide unprecedented relief for working families, seniors and others priced out of Oregon’s hot housing markets.

If you have not yet contacted you Representative and Senator to ask for their support of HB 3551, which would establish a permanent funding source for housing need, please do so today.  Click here to connect with you Rep and Senator.

If you have made contact yourself, but have yet to take the Three Friends Challenge, please do so today.  Click here for a download explaining the Three Friends Challenge.

The Housing Alliance brings together advocates, local governments, housing authorities, community development corporations, environmentalists, service providers, business interests and all others dedicated to increasing the resources available to meet our housing needs to support a common statewide legislative and policy agenda. To find out more about the Housing Alliance, go to: http://www.oregonhousingalliance.org/

Fed Update: Frank to Introduce Trust Fund, House Marks Up HUD Spending Bill

(From National Low Income Housing Coalition)

Introduction of National Housing Trust Fund Bill Expected Soon

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, plans to introduce a bill to establish a National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) sometime before Congress breaks for its 4th of July recess on June 29.

The bill will include two sources of funding that will begin to underwrite the NHTF. One source includes approximately $600 million from the Affordable Housing Fund established in H.R. 1427, the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) reform bill, which passed the House on May 22. The other source comes from the Federal Housing Administration modernization legislation, H.R. 1852. This bill, which was reported out of the Financial Services Committee on May 3, is expected to generate approximately $300 million through an expansion of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, which provides reverse annuity mortgages to seniors.

The strategy is to identify sufficient funding sources as the NHTF legislation moves forward to reach the NHTF Campaign’s goal of $5 billion a year in dedicated, off-budget revenue to build, rehabilitate and preserve 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years, primarily for extremely low income people.

The bill is expected to reflect most of the provisions in the NHTF campaign proposal for legislation. The NHTF Campaign is working to gain bipartisan original co-sponsors for the bill prior to introduction.

More information about the NHTF Campaign’s can be found here: www.nhtf.org.

House Subcommittee Marks Up HUD Spending Bill; Schedule Unclear

Some HUD programs would receive increases in FY08 and some would be level funded, according to details that have emerged after the June 11 mark up of the FY08 spending bill in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD). Not all program funding levels are known and the bill’s language has been kept tightly under wraps as appropriators decided to postpone full committee mark up of the bill, originally tentatively scheduled for June 18.

The delay is due to a decision to include members’ earmarks or special projects (also known as “pork”) in the bill. Committee staff must now weed through all earmark requests in order to include earmarks that pass muster. The FY06 HUD spending bill had 1,126 earmarks at a cost of $310 million just within the HUD account. There were no earmarks in the FY07 bill.

In its June 11 mark up, the subcommittee provided increases for housing choice voucher renewals, project-based Section 8 renewals, public housing operating funds, HOPE VI, Community Development Block Grants, and homeless assistance programs. The subcommittee also provided funding for 4,000 new, incremental vouchers, 3,000 of which would be for non-elderly, disabled individuals and 1,000 of which would be for homeless veterans. NLIHC has learned that several programs received level funding with FY07 in the subcommittee’s mark up. These are the public housing capital fund, HOME, Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, and Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities.

NLIHC will keep its budget chart updated with information as it becomes available. The budget chart can be found here: www.nlihc.org/doc/FY08_BudgetChart.pdf.

On June 14, the Senate Committee on Appropriations announced its FY08 funding allocation levels to its 12 subcommittees. The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee received $51.063 billion, $325 million more than the House committee’s allocation to this subcommittee and $3.1 million more than the president’s FY08 request for programs within this subcommittee’s jurisdiction. The Senate THUD appropriations subcommittee is expected to mark up its FY08 bill on July 9.

Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman announced on June 14 that the House Republican Study Committee has collected the 147 signatures on a letter to sustain a presidential veto of appropriations bills above the president’s budget levels.

Advocates recently circulated a counter letter signed by national groups, including NLIHC, urging Members not to sign a letter that signals their willingness to cut badly-needed funding increases in many human needs such as housing

Mr. Portman said, “The House Republicans’ letter demonstrates a strong force on Capitol Hill working with the President to protect taxpayer dollars.” The letter can be found here: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/pubpress/2007/061407_rsc_ltr.pdf.

Senate, House to Hold HOPE VI Hearings

On June 20, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development will hold a hearing on S. 829, the HOPE VI Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2007. The HOPE VI program will expire on September 30, 2007, without reauthorization.  The bill was introduced by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on March 8.  

Charles Elsesser, Jr., of Florida Legal Services and a member of NLIHC’s board of directors will testify on behalf of NLIHC at the hearing. Other hearing witnesses are Senator Mikulski; HUD Public and Indian Housing Assistant Secretary Orlando Cabrera; Dave Wood from the Government Accountability Office; Richard Baron of McCormack, Baron and Salazar; and Sue Popkin from the Urban Institute.

NLIHC has raised a number of concerns about S. 829 and its failure to correct the HOPE VI program’s key flaws, including no requirement for a one-for-one replacement of public housing units lost through the HOPE VI process, no universal right of return for existing public housing residents, and the need for a more stringent definition of “severely distressed” within the application process for receiving a HOPE VI grant.

The Senate hearing will be at 2:00 p.m. on June 20 in room 538 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

On June 21, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity will hold a hearing on HOPE VI reauthorization. Legislation is expected to be introduced in the House in the near future to reauthorize HOPE VI. The House legislation is expected to address many of the concerns NLIHC and others have raised about the HOPE VI program. While hearing witnesses have not been announced, NLIHC has suggested that NLIHC Board Chair George Moses be invited to speak. George is employed by the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and has been a tenant organizer in Pittsburgh for many years, including working with residents in Pittsburgh displaced by HOPE VI.

The House hearing will be at 2:00 p.m. on June 21 in room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Senate Hearing on Homeless Programs

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing on the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act on June 21. The hearing will focus on S. 1518, a bill that would reauthorize HUD’s homeless assistance programs, which was introduced on May 24 by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Wayne Allard (R-CO).  Hearing witnesses have not been announced. The hearing will be at 10:00 a.m. in room 538 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Disney Spells Mickey N-I-M-B-Y: Vacation Hotspot Opposes Housing for Employees

As summer vacation season 2007 kicks off, families who support working people and housing opportunity should think twice before visiting the Magic Kingdom.  Walt Disney, the home of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and a host of other fantastical kid culture icons, has been waging a high cost battle with the City of Anaheim to prevent the development of housing affordable to Disneyland employees.

Disney has sued the city to block a mixed-income housing development, and it is leading efforts to get two measures on the ballot that would determine the future development of sites near its Disneyland resort.

According to Scott Darrell, Executive Director of the affordable housing organization Kennedy Commission, Anahein's squabble about resort-adjacent affordable housing highlights one of the region's worst problems: the lack of affordable housing. Since 2000, 6,000 low-wage jobs (with wages averaging less than $15 an hour) were added in Anaheim’s resort district, but no new homes affordable to those workers were developed. The rental vacancy rate is less than 4%, and a worker must earn about $29 an hour to afford the typical two-bedroom apartment. Many workers must double and triple up in overcrowded homes, and about 850 homes near the resort are categorized as "extremely substandard" and lack basic plumbing and kitchen facilities. As a result, Anaheim ranks fifth in the nation among cities with the most overcrowded housing conditions.

No exactly the stuff of childhood fantasy.  Especially when many of the employees of Disneyland themselves are trying to raise families in this housing-unfriendly environment. More than 35,000 OrangeCounty residents are homeless, according to the latest figures, and more than half of them are members of working families with children. For many of its resort-area workers, Anaheim is clearly not the happiest place on Earth to live.

If your family or a family you know is considering vacationing at Disneyland, maybe reconsider your plans.

To find out more about Disney’s opposition to housing for working families, click on the links below.

"Affordable Housing Debate Grows for Disney Employees" The Orange County Register 

“Caught Between Disney and a Developer"  Los Angeles Times 

“Callous in Wonderland” The Daily Show

NW Pilot Project Releases Downtown Portland Affordable Housing Inventory

NW Pilot Project’s 2007 Downtown Portland Affordable Housing Inventory is now available for purchase. This 70-page spiral-bound Inventory contains a detailed profile and photograph of each of the 49 residential buildings in downtown Portland with housing units renting for less than $425 per month. The Inventory is an essential resource for housing placement specialists, housing planners, and housing advocates.

The Inventory is available for pickup at the office of Northwest Pilot Project, 1430 SW Broadway, Suite 200 (between SW Columbia & Clay).   The office is closed during the noon hour and on Thursday mornings. We apologize that due to postage costs we are unable to mail the Inventory. 

The Inventory costs $10 per copy.  Payment can be made by check (payable to Northwest Pilot Project), or cash.  Pick up copies of the 2007 Downtown Portland Affordable Housing Inventory for your office while supplies last.

Questions?  Contact Bobby Weinstock via email.

Every two years since 1998, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force and the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) have published Priced Out, a report which compares the monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) of people with serious and long-term disabilities to local U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Market Rents for modestly priced one bedroom and studio/efficiency rental units. This year's report includes a forward by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, longtime advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The recently released Priced Out in 2006 revealed that:

* from 2004-2006, people with disabilities who relied on SSI as their source of income descended further into poverty. In 2006, the average annual income of a single individual receiving SSI payments was $7,584 equal to only 18.2 percent of the national median income for a one-person household and almost 25 percent below the federal poverty level;

* the national average rent for a modest one-bedroom unit climbed to $715 per month -- equal to 113.1 percent of monthly SSI payments (which on a national average were $632 per month);

* studio/efficiency rents climbed to $633 per month -- 100.1 percent of monthly SSI income.

These shocking statistics mean that approximately 4 million SSI beneficiaries with disabilities are shut out of the rental market in every city, town and rural area of the country.  For example in the Columbia, Maryland housing market, the federal Fair Market Rent for a modestly priced one-bedroom apartment was 193.2 percent of monthly SSI income the highest level in the nation. In New Orleans, modest studio/efficiency apartments soared to $755 a month a 45 percent increase since Hurricane Katrina. In the rural areas of Nevada, the cost of a one-bedroom unit priced at the HUD Fair Market Rent was $603 consuming the entire monthly income of a single individual receiving SSI in that state leaving a SSI beneficiary totally unable to pay for food, clothing, or out of pocket medical expenses.

As Mrs. Shriver notes, "[H]ow can we possibly expect any individual or family to spend 100-113 percent of their entire monthly income on housing? It is not only mathematically impossible, but morally unconscionable."

Even more shocking is that Priced Out in 2006 found a precipitous and relentless decline in housing affordability for SSI recipients since 1998 when the first edition of Priced Out was developed. During the past eight years, as funding for low income housing programs has been slashed, the cost of a modest one-bedroom rent rose from 69 percent to 113.1 percent of SSI. During that time, SSI income dropped 26 percent compared to the one-person median income.

Priced Out in 2006 strongly recommends that the federal government commit to a multi-year plan to create a minimum of 150,000 new federal rent subsidies for people with disabilities with the lowest incomes. Specifically, the report urges Congress to commit to provide 10,000 new Housing Choice Vouchers and 5,000 new Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities rent subsidies each year for the next ten years.

Every member of Congress, Congressional Committees with jurisdiction over housing programs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other relevant federal agencies are given a copy of Priced Out. DPC staff and other members of the CCD Housing Task Force use the report's compelling data to make a case for retaining and increasing funding and reforming housing programs.

Since the report's data is broken down by local housing markets, state and local chapters and affiliates are strongly encouraged to use the report in their housing advocacy. The report can be accessed at http://www.tacinc.org/Pubs/PricedOut.htm.

SOURCE: The Disability Policy Collaboration of the Arc and UCP

Please join us for CPAH’s Friends and Family Night June 19 at McMenamins John Barleycorns, 14610 SW Sequoia Parkway in Tigard. 50% of all net proceeds go directly to CPAH!

Simply bring your family and friends to John Barleycorns on June 19, from 5 p.m. to closing (1 a.m.), to enjoy a great meal and support a worthy cause — affordable housing! For more information, give CPAH a call at 503-968-2724 or visit our Web site at: www.cpahinc.org.

Directions to John Barleycorns: I-5 South to Exit 291 (Carman Drive), right one block, and right again on Sequoia. (Near Home Depot)

CSH Webcast: Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing June 27

Register now for Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing: What's New in 2007 STATE PLANS?, Wednesday, June 27 from Noon-1:30pm PT

Description:

The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) is pleased to present our next Hot Topics in Supportive Housing audio-conference, which will focus on policies regarding the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) program, a major source of financing for supportive housing development activities across the country.  Last year, the Supportive Housing Investment Partnership, a collaboration between Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) and CSH, released the first-ever comprehensive look at the innovative policies states have adopted to foster and encourage supportive housing development within their Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs) for the Housing Credit program.  A downloadable PDF version of this report, Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing: An Assessment of 2005 State Policies is still available at www.shippartners.org.

Registrants for this Hot Topics call are encouraged to review this report prior to the call.  Enterprise and CSH are now working on an update to this report, analyzing 2007 QAP policies - while this updated report will not be ready for publication until July 2007, we are taking this opportunity to preview its findings, and to discuss significant trends and new policies since the 2005 report was completed. Participants will also learn about Washington State's strategies for supporting the development of supportive housing units within their Housing Credit policies.

Presenters on this call include:

*  James Tassos, consultant and author of the Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing reports

*  Steve Walker, Washington State Housing Finance Commission

*  Stockton Williams, Enterprise Community Partners

*  Brigitt Jandreau-Smith, Corporation for Supportive Housing

Materials:

Participants in this Hot Topics audio-conference are encouraged to review Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing: An Assessment of 2005 State Policies, available at www.shippartners.org, and additional materials will be posted at CSH's website at www.csh.org/hottopics prior to the audio-conference.

Please join us to learn more about this important topic! 

Registration:

To register to listen to this call by webcast via the internet, for which there is no charge, please go to: www.csh.org/hottopics .

To register to listen to this audio conference by phone, go to: www.csh.org/hottopics or call 1-800-403-3303 x201 and ask for Wendy Simmer.  The rate to listen to the call by phone is $.29/minute plus a $6.00 registration fee, or approximately $32.00 for the 90-minute call.

Need Customer Support?  Contact 1-800-974-2166

Questions?:  Please contact CSH via email.

Celebrate Homeownership: Referral Partner Business Event June 28

The Portland Housing Center will be joining many organizations across the nation in celebrating June Homeownership month and, as a referral partner, Washington Mutual Home Loans is assisting in extending the event out into the community by helping to further promote awareness and positively support not only the work that the PHC staff does, but WaMu as well. 

You are invited: Referral Partner Business Event June 28^th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, at the Washington Mutual Home Loans, 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd., Suite 120 in Portland.

By attending this event, you will have the opportunity to network with area realtors, lenders, business partners, Portland Housing Center staff and other important contacts that help to make the housing center a success from year to  year.  Complimentary refreshments will be available as well.  For more information, please contact Latoya Berry at 503.280.5600.

Inquiries for Home Depot Affordable Housing Built Responsibly Due July 1

The Home Depot Foundation is seeking letters of inquiry for the 2007 Excellence in Affordable Housing Built Responsibly awards. The Home Depot Foundation is dedicated to creating healthy, livable communities through the integration of affordable housing built responsibly and the preservation and restoration of community trees. The foundation makes grants to 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charities in the United States and to charitable organizations in Canada.

To better support its mission, the foundation awards most of 
its grants by directly soliciting proposals from high-performing nonprofit organizations with the demonstrated ability to create strong partnerships, impact multiple communities, and leverage grant resources. In order to identify potential future nonprofit
partners or respond to unique community revitalization opportunities, a limited amount of funding is set aside to be awarded 
through a competitive process. Preference is given to proposals that include community engagement that result in the production, preservation, or financing 
of housing units for low- to moderate-income families that 
address as many of the following considerations as possible: Resource efficiency in design, construction, and operations; mitigation of the depletion of natural resources, including 
timber and water; inclusion of landscaping features such as trees and shrubs that minimize demand for water and synthetic 
chemicals and reduce the heat-island effect; reduction of maintenance costs using innovative and durable materials; incorporation of more environmentally friendly building materials; site planning with minimal environmental impact; energy-efficiency 
and use of renewable energy; indoor air quality improvement, 
including moisture control and proper ventilation; and smart 
site planning and land use.


Clackamas County Land Trust of Oregon took first place in the 2006 Excellence in Affordable Housing Built Responsibly for Homeownership.  CDN Members REACH CDI, CPAH and HOST were also received awards in 2006.

The foundation awards grants to eligible nonprofits three times 
a year. The next deadline for Letters of Inquiry is July 1, 2007.

Complete program information, an FAQ, and an eligibility test 
are available at the foundation's Web site.
  


RFP Link: 
 http://www.homedepotfoundation.org/support_housing_apply.html

For additional RFPs in Community Improvement/Development, visit:
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_community_development.jhtml