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| City Council to Affirm Full $11 Million for Affordable Housing Wednesday The City Council will approve the full $11 million allocated for affordable housing in the adjusted 2004-05 Budget this Wednesday, July 28. Though the Council had adopted and approved the ‘04-05 Budget in June, an arbitrated settlement between the Portland Police and the City of Portland required the Council make additional cuts to the budget that could have included some reductions to the $11 million allocated for affordable housing. (Click here for background story). Strong leadership from Commissioner Erik Sten and Mayor Vera Katz as well as the ongoing advocacy by the Affordable Housing NOW! member organizations and individuals preserved the needed funding would remain allocated to meet the needs of the lowest income Portlanders. Although much more than $11 million is needed to address Portland’s housing crisis, Affordable Housing NOW! is very pleased to have secured local funding for affordable housing. The $11 million allocation includes: ° $800,000 available immediately to house very-low-income people, chronically homeless persons and people with disabilities. ° $1 million over two years for the successful Transitions to Housing Program that provides short term assistance to assist low-income Portlanders in finding or keeping permanent affordable housing. ° An annual commitment $750,000 of City general fund money to service up to $9.2 million in debt for affordable housing development, preservation and rehabilitation. In addition to the people who be able to access housing they can afford, the $11 million victory demonstrates that even in a constrained budget environment, the coordinated efforts of committed elected officials and well organized grassroots constituencies can create the political will devote funding to important community concerns. Affordable Housing NOW! would like to thank Commissioner Sten., Mayor Katz and the entire City Council for their commitment to affordable housing. We also would like extend a hearty congratulations to all of the individuals and organizations that worked to secure this crucial funding. NEXT STEPS: * If you would like to attend Wednesday’s City Council hearing to support AHN’s testimony thanking Council, please contact Michael Anderson at mike@cdnportland.org or (503) 335-9884. The exact time of the Council vote on the adjusted budget has yet to be determined. AHN is planning to have one speaker, but hoping to have a contingent of supporters at City Hall to demonstrate broad support. * Contact Commissioner Sten and Mayor Katz and thank them for their leadership. Commissioner Erik Sten’s email is erik@ci.portland.or.us. Mayor Katz’ email is mayorkatz@ci.portland.or.us. * Stay tuned for information about the AHN celebration of the $11 million!!! Thanks to everyone for your help! Affordable Housing NOW! is a movement of affordable housing advocates and tenants whose goals are to secure new resources for affordable housing for the Portland Metro area by building a movement large enough to make funding for affordable housing for low income people a political priority in the Metro area. To learn more about Affordable Housing NOW!, go to: http://www.cdnportland.org/ahn.html Discharge Petition Filed on National Housing Trust Fund Legislation Three Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, cosponsors of legislation to create a National Housing Trust Fund, last night filed a discharge petition in an attempt to move the bill, H.R. 1102, to the floor of the House for debate and an up-or-down vote. Despite 214 bi-partisan cosponsors of H.R. 1102, the House Financial Services Committee, which considers housing legislation, has declined to take up the bill. "This is a very proud day for all those people across the county in need of quality, affordable housing," Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), who introduced the petition with two colleagues, said Thursday. "The Lee-Capuano-Sanders discharge petition will set in motion the long-awaited process of starting a national affordable housing construction program." A National Housing Trust Fund would provide communities with funds to help build, rehabilitate and preserve 1.5 million affordable homes over the next 10 years, and would be modeled on the more than 280 successful state and local housing trust funds. More than 5,000 organizations and local leaders have endorsed a National Housing Trust Fund. "The effort to establish a National Housing Trust Fund is spreading like wildfire all over this country, and for good reason," said Representative Bernard Sanders (I-VT), author of H.R. 1102 and cosponsor of the petition. "Not only would the National Housing Trust Fund provide real solutions to the affordable housing crisis, it would also lead to the creation of hundreds of thousands of decent paying jobs." Nationally, only 43 rental housing units are affordable and available for every 100 extremely low income families. More than 23 million extremely low income people are in households that pay too much of their incomes for housing, live in crowded, substandard conditions, or have no place to live at all. "Two hundred and fourteen of your colleagues have already co-sponsored H.R. 1102; many more have indicated they would vote for it if given the opportunity," Sheila Crowley, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, wrote in a letter to Members of Congress today. "Now is the time for the U.S. House of Representatives to take up this important and popular legislation." A new poll commissioned by the National Low Income Housing Coalition finds overwhelming support for federal investment in affordable housing. Sixty eight percent of likely voters agree "it is time for those who are the most well-off to pay a fair share of taxes so that the government can invest sufficient resources into affordable housing for the lowest income Americans." Complete poll results are available at www.nlihc.org. The most recent example of legislation successfully kick-started by a discharge petition is the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform. The discharge petition for H.R. 1102 is only the 11th to be introduced in this session of Congress. More information, including lists of cosponsors and links to the legislation, is available at http://www.nhtf.org. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: House Appropriations Bill Restores 2005 Section 8 Funding by Cutting Most HUD Programs The FY05 HUD appropriations bill was marked up in both the VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee and the full House appropriations committee the week of July 19. In both the subcommittee and full committee, all HUD programs with the exception of housing vouchers received substantial cuts from FY04 levels (To read about the impact of the 2004 Section 8 cuts, click here). Further, neither the subcommittee nor the committee took any steps to reverse the effects of the Administration’s April changes to the funding of the voucher program in FY04. Responding to overwhelming grassroots advocacy on the voucher program, the July 20 subcommittee action did provide funding for Section 8 vouchers and project-based housing above what the President asked for in his FY05 budget. While the Administration proposed cutting voucher funds by $1.6 billion, the committee allocated an amount that advocates believe might be sufficient to renew current vouchers in FY05. However, Section 8 funding came at the expense of all other HUD programs, which generally received 4.3% cuts. Outraged housing advocates flooded House offices with calls between the two markups, but funding levels for all HUD programs remained the same in the full Committee on July 22. House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member David Obey (D-WI) spoke about the importance of HUD programs at the onset of the markup, as did Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). Only a handful of public witnesses were allowed into the mark up, however, so advocates were not able to hear Members’ remarks firsthand. Included in the House Appropriations Committee’s cuts are: More than $276 million cut to public housing and HOPE VI. More than $209 million cut to community development programs. More than $79 million cut to HOME. More than $53 million cut to homeless assistance programs. More than $32 million cut to Section 202 Housing for the Elderly. More than $11 million cut to Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities. More than $28 million cut to Native American housing block grants. More than $12 million cut to Housing for Persons with AIDS. More than $1.5 million cut to fair housing activities. More than $850,000 cut to HUD’s rural housing and economic development program. Almost $7 million cut to lead hazard reduction. Advocates took some solace in the fact the full committee rejected two efforts to further cut HUD funds during its mark up. Ignoring the severity of the cuts in the subcommittee, efforts surfaced in the full committee markup 48 hours later to divert HUD funding to other programs. These efforts, by Representatives Virgil Goode (R-VA) and Dave Weldon (R-FL) were voted down and withdrawn, respectively. Mr. Goode’s amendment would have shifted $1.5 million from Section 8, HOPE VI and the Corporation for National Service to veterans’ health care. The amendment failed on voice vote. The amendment offered by Mr. Weldon would have authorized the implementation of the Administration’s Flexible Voucher Proposal and funneled its purported savings to NASA, and was offered as the Committee came under much pressure from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) to increase spending for NASA programs. This amendment was withdrawn. The Committee’s report accompanying the VA-HUD bill explains that the Flexible Voucher Program proposal was not included because "such changes fall outside the Committee’s jurisdiction. However, the Committee strongly urges the authorization committees to take the actions necessary to reform the program." For the Section 8 tenant-based voucher program, the committee’s report "reiterates that the Section 8 voucher program is funded as a discretionary program, not a mandatory program. Consequently, the Department and the public housing authorities must manage the program within a budget." The FY05 voucher program is continued, as it was in FY04, as a budget-based (not unit-based) program. This means that funds are based on the amount appropriated and not the number of units leased by a housing authority. The bill cuts housing authority reserves to just one week (from one month in FY04) and does not fund a separate central reserve. Again, the committee prohibits housing authorities from over-leasing, and directs HUD to provide a report to the committee by November 15, 2004, of all housing authorities that have over-leased and the sanctions HUD has levied against such authorities. The bill cuts funding for Family Self Sufficiency service coordinators by $2 million. For the first time, the bill divides the Section 8 account into two distinct accounts, one for tenant-based (discussed above) and one for project-based. For project-based housing, the bill increases overall project-based spending by a total of $204 million above the FY04 level. Section 8 project-based contracts receive an increase of $321 million while funds for mod/rehab contracts are decreased by $46 million, and Single Room Occupancy contracts are decreased by $3 million compared to FY04. The bill cuts the public housing capital fund by $116 million. Included in this account are the Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency program, which sustained a cut of $1.5 million, and funds for emergency capital repairs, which received a decrease of $2 million. The Committee’s bill does not include language to implement the Administration’s Freedom to House demonstration program, which NLIHC opposed. However, the bill’s report language states that the Committee "strongly encourages the authorization committee of jurisdiction to consider this proposal." The bill cuts the public housing operating fund by $154 million. The Community Development Block Grant program was cut by more than $51 million. Funding was also cut for the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program ($1 million cut), Youthbuild ($3 million cut) and Neighborhood Initiatives ($24 million cut). The HOME program was cut by $79.8 million, including a $2.5 million cut to downpayment assistance, the President’s American Dream Downpayment Act. Homeless assistance grants were cut by $53.5 million. The bill notes that the FY04 funding will cover the renewal of all expiring Shelter Plus Care contracts. Language is continued requiring that not less than 30% of funds (excluding Shelter Plus Care renewal funds) go to permanent housing, plus a 25% match for social service activities. The bill does not provide funding requested by the President for a new Prisoner Reentry initiative, or for his Samaritan Housing Initiative. The bill cuts Section 811 housing for people with disabilities by more than $11 million. The report notes the committee’s frustration with HUD over miscalculating anticipated costs associated with tenant-based assistance contracts and the late notice the committee received for needed but unexpected amendments to prior-year voucher contracts for people with disabilities. Section 202 elderly persons housing is cut by more than $32 million. The committee’s $92.9 billion bill identifies 1,229 specific projects in member districts. Most of these associated with the HUD portion of the bill will be funded by the $135.5 million in economic development grants appropriated for FY05. The Senate has not taken any action on its FY05 HUD spending bill. On July 24, President Bush threatened to veto the VA-HUD appropriations bill if the cuts made to NASA remain in the bill upon enactment. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Releases Report on Impact of HUD Cuts Cascadia BHC Receives Funding for Affordable Housing for Special Needs Tenants Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare was awarded two Portland Development Commission (PDC) fund reservations that will allow the construction of 75 new units of affordable housing for very low income people with mental health and addictions concerns, said Leslie Ford, Cascadia president and CEO. Work will begin this fall on both projects West Gresham Apartments, at 172nd Avenue and Burnside Street will provide a home to 24 one bedroom and 3 two bedroom apartments in a 4-story building with a retail space on the first floor. PDC is providing $130,304 to support the project. That money will be supplemented by the sale of Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits allocated by the State Housing and Community Services Department. Other permanent financing include federal HOME funds from the City of Gresham and Multnomah County, grants from the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank, Oregon Office of Mental Health and Addictions Services, Oregon Housing Trust Fund and Oregon Weatherization Program and a loan from Network For Oregon Affordable Housing. Construction financing will be provided by Bank of America. Prescott Terrace, at 57th and NE Prescott, will be a four-story building with 48 single room occupancy units. All units are targeted toward those who are 30 percent below the area’s target income. Additionally, 45 beds are designated for the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice Always Welcome program, which is designed to help individuals with mental health, addictions, and criminal justice concerns that put them at greatest risk of homelessness. Cascadia will provide site-based case management and skills training, as well as front desk security and facilitated access to Cascadia’s broad range of services, as well as other care providers. Roughly $1.1 million of the anticipated funds will come from PDC, with other funding coming from both the state and Multnomah County. In addition to the Cascadia projects at Prescott Terrace and West Gresham Apartments, the projects eligible for funding from the spring RFP are: Our House located at 2727 SE Alder and developed by Our House of Portland. Project features 14 units and is renovation and expansion of existing housing for people living with AIDS. The amount reserved is $325,000. Bertha Station located at SW Capital Highway and Bertha Blvd. and developed by Community Partners for Affordable Housing. Project features new construction of 51 units and 2,500 sq. ft. of retail space. Project has 50 one-bedroom units and one 2-bedroom unit all affordable to seniors on a former Oregon Department of Transportation site. The amount reserved is $766,732. (See http://www.cdnportland.org/CDN_news_071404.html#CPAH_Gets_Bertha_Funding for full article) Headwaters Senior Housing located at SW 30th and Dolph Court and developed by Northwest Housing Alternatives. Project features new construction of 56 units of one- and two-bedroom senior housing units. The amount reserved is $435,503. The PDC Housing Department received requests for over $6.80 million to fund the construction or renovation of new housing in the city. PDC does not have the resources necessary to fulfill all the requests, but will reserve $1.9 million in housing funds to support Prescott Terrace, West Gresham Apartments, Our House, bertha Station and Headwaters Senior Housing, totaling 195 units of housing. Of the 195 units, 25 will be developed for families (two or more bedrooms) and 170 units will be developed as studios and one-bedroom units. All 195 units will serve households with incomes below 60% of median family income as set by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Portland, this figure is $40,750 annually for a family of four. In selecting the projects eligible to receive funding a selection committee, comprised of members of the community familiar with housing issues, weighed the proposals against city-identified criteria. Funds can be used for construction of affordable housing and mixed-use developments (for example, street level businesses with housing above.) Each project developer will now receive a "Reservation of Funds" letter which specifies the conditions each project must meet to secure a firm commitment of PDC funds. Conditions include compliance with federal regulations governing the use of the funds and securing the additional resources required before construction can begin. PDC's rental housing section receives its funds through the City of Portland's Housing Investment Fund, as well as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME programs. For more information about the RFP process, contact Komi Kalevor at 823-3213. EPA Releases Report on Protecting Water Resources with Smart Growth Protecting Water Resources with Smart Growth, a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), presents 75 innovative approaches to help protect water resources and achieve smart growth. Growth and development, including the loss of woodlands, meadowlands, and wetlands, can have adverse effects on water resources. The report documents smarter approaches to growth with policies and tools that enhance existing neighborhoods, improve schools, protect drinking water, and provide attractive housing and transportation choices. For more on innovative techniques for smart growth and to download the full report, go to the Environmental Protection Agency website: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/water_resource.htm. MCTV’s "Community Hotline" Features Housing Talk Show Tomorrow, Aug 28 Tune in to Multnomah County Community Television (cable channel 21) tomorrow night, Wednesday July 28 at 7:00 p.m. to watch a live, call in program on the benefits of affordable housing. The talk show, part of MCTV’s "Community Hotline" program will feature host Michael Anderson from the Community Development Network, speaking to Terrie Darling and Steve Weiss about the role affordable housing program have played in their lives. Terrie Darling came to Northwest Housing Alternatives’ Annie Ross House in 1999. Despite working two jobs, after losing a roommate, Terrie lost her housing and was doubling up with family. Terrie was a single mom with a teenage son without a place to call home. Northwest Housing Alternatives (NHA) helped with shelter and transitional housing services and gave her the stability to go from having a job to building a career, and in November 2000 Terrie joined the NHA staff. Terrie continued to set goals for herself and took the ABCs of Homebuying class offered by the Clackamas Community Land Trust. After working on budgeting and credit issues, in 2003 Terrie achieved another triumph and became a first time homeowner. Steve Weiss applied for a Section 8 voucher in 1993 and received a voucher in October of 1995 during the last significant annual increase of federal vouchers. Prior to having a housing voucher, Steve had already secured housing with REACH CDI. But even with REACH’s below market value rent, it was a Section 8 voucher that made Steve’s housing affordable at his income level. Since accessing stable housing he could afford, Steve has become extremely civically engaged. He currently serves as board president for Independent Living Resources and the Mental Health Association of Oregon, is on the board of Community Alliance of Tenants and the Oregon Association of Retired Citizens, and serves as chair to two advisory groups for Multnomah County agencies. In addition to airing live tomorrow evening, the affordable housing segment will be broadcast Thursday August 5 at 5:00 pm on cable channel 11; Friday, August 6 at 5:30 pm on cable channel channel 30; Saturday August 7 at 6:00 pm on cable channel; and finally Monday August 9 at 9:00 pm on cable channel 21. To find out more about MCTV’s Community Hotline, call (503) 491-7636. Get Your Ticket for the "Bring It Home" Portland Beavers Game Aug 16 Tickets are going fast for the Washington Mutual and the Community Development Network "Bring It Home" event at the Portland Beavers game August 16. "Bring It Home" is both a benefit promoting affordable housing opportunities as well as a fun afternoon at the ballpark watching the Portland Beavers take on the Salt Lake Stingers August 16 at 12:05 p.m. at Portland’s PGE Park. WASHINGTON MUTUAL TO GIVE AWAY $5,000 TO CDN VOTING MEMBER ORGANIZATION! In addition to a rooting for the Beavers, attendees at the August 16 game will get to cheer on the CDN Voting Member Organization that wins a $5,000 prize from Washington Mutual. CDN has twenty Voting Member organizations that have as a significant part of their mission the ongoing development and/or management of housing, retail, industry, employment, or other projects aimed at reversing physical, economic and social deterioration. To see a list of CDN Voting Member Organizations, click here. TICKETS ARE FREE TO CDN SUPPORTERS! Thanks to the generous support of Washington Mutual, a section of the ball park will be reserved for CDN member organization staff, board and residents. If you are looking for a group activity for staff or board to thank people their good work, August 16 is the time and PGE Park is the place. So get YOUR team together and reserve your tickets today! To reserve tickets, please contact Karen Walker at karen@cdnportland.org. Bank of America Extends "Neighborhood Builders" Grant Deadline to Aug 25 Does your organization need $200,000 for operating expenses? Bank of America is soliciting applications for its new Neighborhood Builders program. B of A will pick two non profit organizations to receive $100,000 per year for two years for operating expenses. The deadline to apply for the Neighborhood Builders program is Aug.25 (the original deadline was July 31). To find our more about "Neighborhood Builders" and other B of A programs, go to: http://www.bankofamerica.com/foundation/index.cfm?template=fd_howtoapply TECHSOUP STOCK: Microsoft Products Available |
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