Section 8 Voucher Reform Act on House Floor TODAY, Thursday, July 12

The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA), H.R. 1851, will be considered by the full House of Representatives on July 12. While the Moving to Work/Housing Innovation Program provisions adopted in committee on May 24 are too expansive, NLIHC supports the underlying bill.

Please use this toll free number, 877-210-5351, for the Congressional switchboard and ask to be connected to the housing staffer. Calls are needed today!

Please call your Representative today and urge them to:

·        Support H.R. 1851 and oppose any “motion to recommit” the bill back to committee.  This would be a backward step for a long-overdue bill.

·        Oppose the time limit amendment by Representatives Gary Miller (R-CA) and Steve Chabot (R-OH).  The amendment would impose a seven-year time limit on Section 8 voucher and project-based assistance.

·        Oppose the work requirement amendment offered by Representatives Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Steve Chabot (R-OH).  The amendment would require all adults in households that have had voucher or project-based Section 8 assistance for more than seven years to perform 20 hours of “work activities” each week.

·        Oppose the amendment offered by Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH) to eliminate the authorization of funding for 20,000 vouchers each year for the next five years. 

Additional Information:


Support H.R. 1851. The bill: 1) fixes the distribution of voucher renewal funds by establishing annual re-benchmarking of voucher costs that will most closely match actual costs of administering vouchers at the local level; 2) supports the portability of vouchers by requiring receiving housing agencies to absorb ported-in vouchers from other housing agencies and allowing them to be paid back with reallocated HUD funds; 3) simplifies rent calculations for voucher, public housing and project-based Section 8 tenants; 4) requires HUD to issue tenant protection vouchers (including enhanced vouchers) for all public and assisted housing units that are lost; and, 4) authorizes 20,000 new vouchers a year for the next five years.

Oppose Mr. Miller and Mr. Chabot’s amendment that imposes seven -year time limits on voucher and project-based Section 8 assistance. Nationally, the majority of voucher holders (53%) use their housing assistance for less than five years and 45% of voucher holders are elderly and/or disabled and on fixed incomes, who would be exempt from the amendment’s provisions. There is no public policy basis for imposing time limits.

Oppose Mr. Hensarling and Mr. Chabot’s work requirement amendment.  Work requirements aren’t needed, because most housing assistance recipients who can work either already are working, are exempted by the amendment or are subject to the welfare program’s work requirements and time limits.  The amendment would also place substantial administrative burdens on public housing agencies and private owners to ensure compliance.

Oppose Mr. Chabot’s amendment to strike the bill’s funding authorization for the 20,000 vouchers each year for five years agreed to in committee on May 24.  Today, 71% of extremely poor renters and 64% of extremely poor owners pay more than half of their incomes toward housing.  Each of these families is in need of a voucher.  In Mr. Chabot’s own district, 16,286 renter households pay more than half of their incomes toward housing, leaving precious little for life’s other necessities. Access this data for your Representative: http://www.nlihc.org/detail/article.cfm?article_id=3810&id=61

Momentum for National Housing Trust Fund Builds
NY Times Editorial, Endorsement from Nat’l Assn of Realtors Bolster Effort

The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 (HR 2895) is gaining momentum as hearings begin in U.S House of Representatives today, July 12.  Introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and several bipartisan cosponsors in June, the bill got a shot in the arm from the NY Times and the National Association of Realtors.

On July 3, the NY Times ran the following editorial supporting the Housing Trust Fund:

Nearly half of the country's lowest-income families suffer from what Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies describes as a severe housing cost burden that places them at clear risk of homelessness. These struggling families often live doubled up with relatives and spend more than half of their pretax incomes on rent, which means that they keep a roof over their heads only by cutting back on food, clothing and medical care.

The affordable housing crisis was accelerated during the 1980's, when the Reagan administration and Congress backed away from a longstanding federal commitment to affordable housing by cutting construction funds and revising the tax structure in ways that discouraged investment in affordable, multifamily buildings. Congress could reverse those disastrous policies and help the most vulnerable families by passing legislation that would create the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Modeled on successful, state-level programs, the fund would be used to construct, rehabilitate and preserve 1.5 million units of housing over the next 10 years. The money - three-quarters of which would be earmarked for extremely low-income families - would be parceled out to local jurisdictions that would then award grants to entities that build and rehabilitate housing. In exchange for trust fund dollars, a proportionate number of units would be set aside for low-income families. This would encourage healthy, mixed-income developments.

The fund would require no new taxes, but would be financed through new contributions made by the government-backed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and with additional revenue generated by the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages.

To put it another way, the government would direct money made from housing right back into the same area. Hard-line Republicans have opposed similar legislation in the past, arguing that the federal government has no place in the housing business. But the bipartisan support that has materialized for this year's bill suggests that the ideologues have had their day and that the pain and hardship being inflicted by the affordable housing crisis is finally being recognized on both sides of the aisle.

Then week prior, the National Association of Realtors publicly declared their support for the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 in a press release that stated: “Creating an Affordable Housing Trust Fund is an essential component of a housing policy designed to meet the needs of American families seeking to buy or rent a home.”

The campaign to establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund needs your attention and advocacy now more than ever. There is a one page summary and press tool kit on our website to help you effectively disseminate information to the press in your local areas.

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

Good News for HAP Section 8 Voucher Holders: Feds Step Up With Funds

(Letter from Housing Authority Executive Director Steve Rudman)

Dear Community Partner:

At our Board meeting on July 17, we will be presenting a set of recommendations that add up to extremely good news for our Section 8 program.  On June 22, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development informed us that we would receive nearly $3 million more for our Section 8 program in 2007 as a result of budget actions Congress took in February.

Our goal is to spend as much of the additional funding as possible, as our budget next year is likely to be based in part on what we spend this year.

To this end, we are recommending to our Board of Commissioners that we:

1.  Return program participants to paying a minimum of 30 percent of their income toward rent, effective September 1, 2007.

2.  Refund program participants the additional 5 percent they paid between January and August 2007.

3.  Change our subsidy (bedroom) standards to provide a head(s) of household one bedroom, and then one bedroom for each two persons thereafter, regardless of age or sex.

4.  Lift the 5% cap on landlord rent increases and base rent reasonableness testing, which we use to validate the amount a landlord can charge, solely on market conditions.

5.  Remove the limitations on voucher portability after a participant has completed an initial 12-month lease in Multnomah County.

These changes effectively reverse the painful program changes we were forced to make in 2004 when we faced a funding shortfall.   Based on early Congressional deliberations around the 2008 budget, industry groups believe that the Section 8 budget will increase next year, which gives us the confidence that the changes we are recommending will be permanent for the foreseeable future.

Should you have questions before the Board meeting, please feel free to contact Jill Riddle, HAP's new director of Rent Assistance.  You can reach Jill at 503-802-8565 or via email.

Thank you for helping us navigate the turbulent Section 8 seas over the past few years.  Your support made the challenging work we had to do much more bearable, and even more importantly, your advocacy for this critical program and our clients made a difference in Washington.

Sincerely,
Steve Rudman
Executive Director
Housing Authority of Portland

Campos de Verde: New Nonprofit Beautifies Landscape, Opens Horizons

Planning the landscaping for a new project?  Restoring a natural habitat?  Verde, a nonprofit and tax-exempt organization started in 2005, creates and restores natural and human made outdoor environments, while providing good jobs and in the field training to low income people. 

Through its Verde Native Plant Nursery project, Verde protects and restores aquatic resources and ecosystems by providing a highly skilled crew for native plant installation projects, including new construction.  Verde can provide services as the lead contractor, as well as through joint ventures with ProLandscape, a full-service landscape design and landscape contracting firm with over 20 years of experience. Currently, the Nursery provides the following services: Commercial Landscape Maintenance, Removal of Native Plant Species, Native Plant Maintenance, and Native Plant Installation.

"Verde has instituted an innovative approach to building economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities while enhancing our natural environment," said Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman. "This approach helps maximize the value of our public investments, and supports the City's commitment to promote social, economic and environmental sustainability.”

The mission of Verde is to improve the economic health of disadvantaged communities by creating environmental job training, employment, and entrepreneurial opportunities, fostering the connection between economic vitality and environmental protection and restoration. Affiliated with Hacienda CDC during its inception, Verde is independent and legally-distinct from Hacienda CDC.

“Verde is a considered response to a clear community need: the exclusion of low-income and people of color from environmental decision-making and benefits, particularly the economic benefits of environmental protection,” said Executive Director Alan Hipólito.  “Our goal is to enhance participation by these disadvantaged communities in the economic benefits of environmental protection, beginning with a distinct Latino community in NE Portland’s Cully Neighborhood: residents of Hacienda CDC’s affordable housing.” 

Verde provides job opportunities to Hacienda CDC residents and other disadvantaged individuals by employing them in the Nursery, an innovative social enterprise which delivers environmental job, training and entrepreneurial opportunities to and promotes future opportunities for disadvantaged communities in Portland’s sustainable development efforts. Verde has registered the Verde Native Plant Nursery as an Assumed Business Name with the State of Oregon.

Verde pays good wages and benefits. Regular employees earn $12/hour to start, move to $14/hour after six months, and share in the Nursery’s revenues when the enterprise meets quarterly benchmarks, benchmarks the employees helped establish and monitor.  Regular employees receive medical, dental and vision coverage after their first full month of employment.  Also, Verde is a training organization, where crew members take part in classroom learning, but also learn by doing.

With their business partnership with ProLandscape, Verde taps into two decades of experience and professional expertise.  Working in tandem with ProLandscape, Verde pursues new installation projects available in the government or private sector, with ProLandscape serving as the project’s landscape contractor.  Verde Native Plant Nursery Crew members work with and under the supervision of ProLandscape Crew members on these Joint Venture projects.  Together, they offer the following services:

-New Construction

-Streamside/Wetland Restoration

-Stormwater Management

-Erosion Control, including Bioengineering

-Bioremediation

-Drainage

-Culvert Installation

-Controlling Unwanted/Noxious Vegetation (hand, herbicide, flooding/inundation)

“ProLandscape is excited about this partnership,” said Manuel Castaneda, President, ProLandscape. “We can benefit customers, and at the same time benefit the community by creating environmental jobs and job training opportunities.”

Verde's bids for jobs may be a bit higher than other landscaping and natural restoration firms because of Verde provides its employees training and full healthcare, but fundraising helps close the gap so that hiring Verde is still competitive.  Also, because Verde’s is providing opportunity for economic advancement to its employees, mission driven dollars (i.e. costs associated with nonprofit development) go further when Verde is on the job.

“Community development folks understand the impact of a dollar,” said Hipólito.  “They know that publicly funded projects, like the Interstate MAX or New Columbia or the many activities at South Waterfront, result in more than a train, apartments, or a new community.  These projects affect economic lives – money spent to build a train finds its way into a business’s bank account, into a worker’s pocket, and into a neighborhood’s stores. Verde is part of the CDN tradition of advancing workforce development, disadvantaged business contracting, and job/business development opportunities for residents of affordable housing.”

To find out more about Verde, go to: http://www.verdenw.org/, or contact Alan Hipólito via email . or at (503) 980-5260. 

For more information on the Verde/ProLandscape partnership, contact Alan Hipólito, or contact ProLandscape’s Manuel Castaneda at (503) 642-5696.

On Thursday, July 12, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes for public comment in the Federal Register HUD's Proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for the (Section 8) Housing Choice Voucher Program and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program. The public comment period will be open for 30 days (plus a weekend), through August 13. The Proposed FY2008 FMRs, developed by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), are the first to use data drawn from the full implementation of the new American Community Survey (ACS), published by the U.S. Census. The ACS will eventually provide high quality annual data on rents for all areas, which in turn is expected to yield greater accuracy of FMR estimates.

Simultaneous with publication of the Proposed FY 2008 Fair Market Rents, PD&R is posting a documentation system on the HUD website, www.HUDUSER.org. This system will allow users to review the underlying data and computations used in developing the proposed FMRs for each of the approximately 2,400 FMR areas in the country.

The 2007 Legislative Session is over and there were BIG WINS for affordable housing. Despite the loss on the document recording fee, we had unprecedented success – including $26 million in new funds for the Department of Housing and Community Services budget!

Housing Alliance members and housing supporters are invited to participate in an Oregon Community Development Collaborative (OCDC) ‘Cyber Café’ on Wednesday, July 18 from 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm.  A Cyber Café is a web-based forum that allows participants to call in via telephone and take part in an interactive discussion.  Logging on to a Cyber Café requires following simple instructions and can be done from your office or home computer.

In this Cyber Café, OHCS Director Victor Merced and Housing Divison Manager Lynn Schloessler will take Café through the department’s new budget and explain their vision for how the funding will be rolled out.  In addition, members of the Housing Alliance will discuss the wins and losses on the 2007 Housing Opportunity legislative agenda. 

Don’t miss this important information session and learn what you can do to help lay the groundwork for the session starting in February 2008!

To find out how to log on to the OCDC Cyber Café, contact Amy Fauver via email or at (503) 226-3001 x102

Native American Housing to Homeownership Fair July 28

The NAYA Family Center invites you to Portland’s 2^nd Annual Native American Housing to Homeownership Fair July 28 at the Legacy Emanuel Medical Office Building Atrium (501 N. Graham).  The event runs from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, is free, and open to everyone.

The fair will feature classes, homebuyer assistance information, and housing resources for renters with homeownership goals.  Features include raffle prizes, a kid’s corner, and native American Dance performances.

NAYA would like to send special thanks to the fair sponsors: Countrywide, Washington Mutual, the Portland Development Commission, the Department of Consumer and Business Services and US Bank.

Questions, contact Sarah Libby at (503) 288-8177 x 232.

First Thursday “Art for Habitat” Show to Benefit Portland Habitat for Humanity

First Thursday in August (8/2) will feature a unique exhibit of abstract paintings and fashion accessories inspired by the work of Habitat for Humanity.

The show will be held August 2, 2007, from 6-9pm, at the offices of Capital M Lending in the historic Haseltine Building, 133 SW 2^nd Ave, Suite 410, Portland, Oregon, 97204. Twenty-five percent of all sales that evening will go to support Portland Habitat for Humanity.

Dubbed “Art for Habitat,” the event will include more than two-dozen original, abstract paintings, custom-design handbags, art cards and Giclée prints for sale by Portland abstract artist Tiffany Chantel. Chantel says this show’s art was largely inspired the creative vision she shares with Habitat for Humanity.

“I see a kindred connection between my artistic process and the work of Habitat for Humanity, which is about creating better lives, dignity and hope. I want this fundraiser to emulate the transformative power of art and, at the same time, raise money for an organization that simply wants to build decent, affordable housing for families in need. If this event can do that, then it’s all worth it,” says Chantel.

Capital M Lending, a new mortgage brokerage in downtown Portland is hosting the fundraiser in their new offices as part of their grand opening festivities.

“We believe everybody deserves quality, affordable homes. That’s why we’re so excited to be a part of this and support the work of support Habitat for Humanity. We are big fans!” says Capital M Lending owner, Michael Sullivan.

For more information, contact Capital M Lending at 503-445-9525 or email Tiffany Chantel.