State Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo announced today that Oregon’s homeless student population for the 2005-06 school year was 13,159.  This represents an increase of 1,867 homeless students enrolled in public schools from the previous year.

The results of the homeless student count are listed below:

> 13,159 of Oregon’s 559,244 K-12 students (2.4%) were homeless for some period of time during 2005-06

> 5,912 homeless students were enrolled in grades K-5

> 2,937 homeless students were enrolled in grades 6-8

> 4,310 homeless students were enrolled in grades 9-12

> Just as in 04-05, the greatest numbers of homeless students were 12^th graders (1,233)

> 1,939 students were unaccompanied homeless minors who had been abandoned by parents, or had runaway from home or foster care placement.

> At the time of their enrollment, 61% of homeless students in Oregon reported sharing housing with relatives or friends due to economic hardship or similar reason; 17% reported living in a homeless shelter; 15% were reported as unsheltered or living in substandard housing; and 7% were living in motels.

“There are thousands of children and youth attending Oregon schools despite lack of safe and stable housing,” Castillo said.  “Most of these students are ‘invisible’ to the general public, sleeping in spare rooms and garages in the homes of friends or relatives, living in homeless shelters and transitional housing, or sleeping in trailers or tents in campgrounds. The increase in homeless students this year alone would fill 60 school buses.”

Portland Public Schools counted fewer homeless students in 2005-06 compared to the previous year, while the state's numbers went up, according to data released Wednesday by the Oregon Department of Education. The school district reported 1,411 students were homeless during some period last year, compared to 1,620 in 2004-05. That's 3 percent of PPS students. Of the homeless students, 39 percent said they were living in a shelter, 60 percent were sharing housing with extended family or friends, and 1 percent were staying in motels.

More than 90% of Oregon’s school districts reported this year.  State officials believe the increase in the count was due to a combination of factors: an increase in the overall population of people in extreme poverty in the state, a marked increase in the cost of affordable housing and other primary costs (e.g., fuel for transportation and heat) and an increase in the number of districts reporting, although the newly reporting districts tended to have smaller enrollments.

The federal McKinney-Vento Act’s Homeless Education Program ensures that homeless children have equal access to the same education provided to other children.  Each school district is required to have a Homeless Liaison to coordinate outreach efforts and services for homeless students in their area, as well as conduct the annual counts.  Castillo credited the work of local district Liaisons for providing services to homeless students that include school enrollment, extra transportation and tutoring, and referrals for shelter, housing, health care and counseling services.

“Homeless Liaisons provide students with all kinds of assistance, including school supplies, clothing, shoes, coats and referrals to the community service providers,” Castillo said.  “They provide homeless students with wonderful support to ensure they can succeed in school.  While we can’t provide housing, we can provide education – and that’s a major factor in preventing chronic poverty and homelessness in future generations.” 

Oregon received $596,551 in federal McKinney-Vento funds in 2005-06.  Forty-three local districts were served by 21 subgrant projects from this program last year.  Most districts also use federal Title I funds, local general funds and donations from local community members, businesses and nonprofit organizations to help provide resources for homeless students.  They find that charitable donations are needed year round, not only during the holidays.

At this time, several inter-agency councils are working on housing plans for homeless adults, youth and children, at state and county levels.  The Oregon Department of Education is represented on the Governor’s Ending Homelessness Advisory Council, to help ensure that the “invisible children” are included in state and local 10-year plans to end homelessness. 

Without Housing Report Connects Historic Federal Housing Cuts, Homelessness

The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a coalition of west coast social justice-based homelessness organizations, released a report that documents how more than 25 years of federal funding trends for affordable housing have created the contemporary crisis of homelessness and near-homelessness.  The report was released in 8 cities ranging from Seattle, Washington to San Francisco to San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 14, 2006.

“Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures,” documents the correlation between these trends and the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in the 1980s which continues today.  It particularly focuses on radical cuts to programs administered by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), which administers funds for rural affordable housing.  Available at http://www.wraphome.org/, the report also demonstrates why federal responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed.

Created in partnership with five other organizations, the report uses federal budget data and other sources to document that:

· HUD’s budget has dropped 65% since 1978, from over $83 billion to $29 billion in 2006.

· The Emergency Shelter phenomenon was born the same year that HUD funding was at a drastic low point.  In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion, the same year that general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide.

· HUD has spent $0 on new public housing, while more than 100,000 public housing units have been lost to demolition, sale, or other removal in the last ten years.

· Federal housing subsidies are going to the wealthy.  In 2004, 61 percent of these subsidies went to households earning more than $54,788, while only 27 percent went to households earning under $34,398.

· More than 600,000 identified homeless students went to public schools in the 2003-2004 school year, according to the US Department of Education.

· Federal support helps homeowners instead of poor people.  In 2005, federal homeowner subsidies totaled more than $122 billion, while HUD outlays were only $31 billion – a difference of more than $91 billion.

According to Paul Boden, executive director of WRAP, “The Administration’s current ‘Chronic Homeless Initiative’ is just the latest in a series of inadequate flavor-of-the-month distractions from the real problem.  It does nothing to address the huge cuts to federal affordable housing funding that caused mass homelessness.  Housing is a human right, which a democracy should advance, not restrict.

Those on the frontline of homelessness – homeless people and the providers who serve them – are drowning in a sea of blame.  We have joined together to speak truth to power: until federal affordable housing programs are restored and expanded, homelessness will continue to grow.”

Staff members of Sisters Of The Road – a WRAP member in Portland, Oregon dedicated to working with the low-income and homeless community – will personally deliver the report to Portland City Commissioners and Multnomah County Commissioners to highlight its importance.

“We are really, really pleased to have such a comprehensive and engaging report that tells the truth about why so many people are homeless in Portland, Oregon and across the country," said Monica Beemer, executive director of Sisters Of The Road.  "We hope that it will inspire the community to stop blaming people for their circumstance, and instead create real solutions and a real strategy to ensure that everyone has a warm, safe home.  This report ends the myth that the problem of homelessness is not systemic; it is, and we can change that if we work together and demand affordable housing as a basic human right.”

According to Michael Anderson with Affordable Housing NOW!, “Without Housing makes plain the connection between the lack of affordable housing and federal dis-investment in proven housing programs over the past three decades.  More importantly, this report shows that we can address our nation's housing needs easily within our current Federal Budget.  As a community we must stand up and demand that everyone have a safe, decent place to call home.”

Vendors of street roots, a Portland, Oregon street newspaper, will sell $1 buttons and postcards with the web link to the report and the declaration, "Housing is a Human Right."

The report was prepared by Western Regional Advocacy Project – in partnership with Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR), National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH), National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC), National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), and Iowa Coalition for Housing & the Homeless (ICHH).

About WRAP
Headquartered in San Francisco, WRAP was founded in 2005 to connect local frontline service providers, advocates, and homeless people to each other and to create a national network committed to ending homelessness in the United States by addressing its root causes.  Sisters Of The Road is a founding member, along with 5 other organizations located in 3 western states.  Executive Director Paul Boden was a co-founder and longtime director of Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco (1988-2005), and is a former board member of National Coalition for the Homeless; he is currently on the board of National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness.

California Voters Approve $2.85 Billion Bond for Shelters, Affordable Housing

California voters approved Prop 1C, the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006, that will provide $2.85 billion for emergency shelters for battered women, affordable homes for seniors and former foster youths, and shelters with social services for homeless families -- within existing resources -- without raising taxes.

Last summer, few people in California’s capitol Sacramento gave housing advocates much chance to get a shelter and housing bond through the legislature — let alone convince more than 50% of a weary electorate to support the bond. Prognosticators said it was impossible to compete with transportation, schools, levees, and others for limited bond funding. But California housing advocates proved them wrong!

Through incredible grassroots and Capitol lobbying efforts, the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006 passed the Legislature and became Proposition 1C on May 5, 2006. That victory was just the start.

In the six months leading up to the election, housing advocates:

·       Raised more than $2.3 million to run the Yes on 1C campaign

·       Bought $1.55 million in TV ads

·       Distributed 11,000 lawn and window signs

·       Secured 800 endorsements, including 24 newspapers

·       Wrote letters to the editor and Op Eds, walked precincts, phone banked, and more!

All this hard work paid off — Prop. 1C passed on November 7, 2006, with 57.5% of the vote.

Multnomah County Chair Recognizes CDN with Partnership Award

Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn attended the Community Development Network board meeting in November.  Chair Linn presented the "Chair's Award" in recognition of the CDN's commitment to low income seniors, families with children, and other populations that the county serves.  Chair Linn cited CDN's involvement in ending homelessness, creating permanent supportive housing, regional affordable housing strategies, and resource generation for community development. 

Chair Linn congratulated CDN members on their successes, thanked them for their perseverance, and assured them that the County will continue work on issues that affect our organizations and residents.  She emphasized that her office is working with new Chair, Ted Wheeler, to provide a smooth transfer in administration and that Wheeler will carry on the same work for affordable housing and supportive services.

CDN discussed their appreciation for her work as Chair to secure the Martha Washington building for low income seniors in downtown, as well as thanking her for her work to secure Strategic Investment Program funds, for elevating affordable housing to a cabinet level position in her staff and more.  

City Updates Transit Supportive Residential or Mixed Use Development Program

City Council has taken action in the last two weeks to update the City’s New Transit Supportive Residential or Mixed Use Development (TOD) program.  This tax exemption program provides an incentive for new multifamily and mixed-use development near MAX light rail stations and other areas of the City where transit-oriented development is planned. City Council revised the program’s boundaries and regulations, found in City Code Chapter 3.103 to reflect current City housing priorities, require greater program oversight, and respond to public comment on recommended program changes.  

• On November 8, 2006, City Council approved Ordinance No. 180572, which changed the program’s regulations and boundaries.  

• On November 1, 2006, Council approved Resolution No. 36453, which places a cap on the improvement value of TOD projects that can apply each year for the program. 

Proposed program changes were drafted in response to Council’s concerns about the City’s multifamily tax exemption programs raised at their joint meeting with the Portland Development Commission on January 11, 2006.  Several public meetings were held on proposed changes in the spring of 2006.  The Planning Commission held a public hearing on proposed changes to the program on June 27, 2006, and forwarded a recommendation to City Council. Council approved the recommended changes after making several amendments to them.  They also approved a staff proposal that accompanied the program changes.  

A summary of the adopted changes follows:

Adopted Changes to the Program Boundaries:  

• Add Light Rail Station Areas within one-quarter mile of:  MAX Interstate Corridor light rail stations outside the Central City, I-205 light rail station areas, both existing and planned.  

(The east-west MAX light rail station areas are already in the program.) 

• Revise the Regional Center Boundaries and Add a New Town Center Gateway Regional Center and East Max Corridor. The program boundaries are changed to match those of the current Gateway Plan district. Areas east of Gateway that are no longer included in the plan district are eliminated from the program if they are not within one quarter mile of the light rail station areas.

Hillsdale Town Center. The area within the Hillsdale Plan District is added.  (The Lents and Hollywood Town Centers are already in the program.)

• Add Three Main Street Areas:

Sandy Boulevard area (previously proposed for the TOD) between NE 12th and NE

37th Avenues including the Albina Fuel Site and NE 47th and NE 54th Avenues.

NE MLK Jr. Blvd. between NE Lombard and NE Schuyler Streets; and Foster Road between SE Holgate Boulevard and SE 79th Avenue.

• Add Another Transit-Oriented Area: 

The commercial area around the intersection of SW Barbur and Terwilliger Boulevard is added to program.  

Adopted Changes to the Program’s Regulations  

• Minimum Project Size: Minimum project size is changed from 8 to 10 units.

• Rental Housing Affordability Requirement: All rental housing projects over 15 units must provide affordable units that mirror the unit mix in the project.  Options are: 20 percent of units in a project, or residential building square footage, for housing affordable to households at or below 60 percent area median family income (MFI), or 10 percent of units in a project, or residential building square footage, for housing affordable to households at or below 30 percent MFI 

• Public Benefit Options: Provide three additional public benefits from the following list:

1. 20 percent of units dedicated to persons with special needs and are designed for full accessibility.  

2. 10 percent of rental units include 3 or more bedrooms. 

3. Provide childcare on-site or support child care facility. 

4. Provide residential unit-per-acre density equivalent to at least 80 percent of maximum density 

5. Permitted ground floor service or commercial use. 

6. Office space or meeting room for community. 

7. Permanent dedications for public use including open space, community gardens, or pedestrian and bicycle connections to public trails and adjoining neighborhood areas.

8. Family oriented recreational facilities.

9. A dedicated car-share space(s).

10. Structured parking.

11. LEED Silver certification from the US Green Building Council. 

12. Twice the percentage of affordable units, or percentage of residential building square footage for affordable units, than is required by the affordability requirement.  

13. Other benefits as proposed by the developer and approved by the Planning Commission.

14. Transportation improvements above those required by development standards approved by the Portland Office of Transportation and the Planning Commission.

15. An agreement to sell off-street parking spaces separate from condominium units so that a unit can be purchased without a parking space.

• Eligibility of existing low-income housing projects is added to the TOD Program if they are subject to a public low-income housing assistance contract.  This also allows low- income housing units in mixed-income projects to be eligible for a tax exemption for the term of the low-income housing assistance contract.  These projects must apply for the program and demonstrate that the tax exemption is needed in order to maintain the affordability of the low income housing units.

• Changes to Reporting and Possible Repayment Requirements to the TOD program

(City Code Chapter 3.103) require the same annual reporting and partial repayment or extension of affordability requirements that were adopted for the New Multiple Unit Housing Program (City Code Chapter 3.104) in October 2005.  

• Changes to the Approval Process

At least every three years City Council reviews and, if necessary, adjusts program boundaries. 

PDC staff makes a determination whether the tax exemption is necessary to the economic feasibility of the project. 

Planning Commission instead of the Portland Development Commission holds a public hearing on the request for a tax exemption.

Adopted Annual Cap on Maximum Improvement Value of TOD Projects City Council adopted an annual cap on the improvement value (the buildings and other site improvements) of new TOD projects proposed by staff.  This cap is $20 million a year for the first three years.  City staff proposed the annual cap to be set by Council every three years in response to Council concerns about the amount of revenue foregone to the City and other taxing jurisdictions due to the approval of tax exemptions.  This is not a change to City Code Chapter 3.103 and not a recommendation of the Planning Commission  

If you would like more information on these changes, please contact Barbara Sack at 503 823-7853.

NetEquality, the 501(c)3 that built out the wireless network for Hacienda CDC, now offers its wireless networks to CDCs at no charge. NetEquality provides the design, hardware and installation free for low-income housing and specializes in existing and older construction where wired solutions are not cost effective.

"Net Equality provided an inexpensive and simple solution for wireless internet access at Hacienda CDC properties that benefited some 1,200 residents who otherwise would be left out from the digital economy, said Pietro Ferrari, Executive Director of Hacienda CDC.

The system is available for immediate installation.  See http://www.netequality.org/ for more information or contact Michael Burmeister-Brown via email or at 503.516.4453.

Join the Choir: Housing Alliance Messaging Training Nov 28 in Portland

Get prepared to make a difference in your community! The Housing Alliance is poised to win $100 Million for homes in the 2007 Oregon Legislature, and we need you to join our choir.

The Housing Alliance is hosting a housing messaging training in Portland on Tuesday, November 28 from 1 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. at the YWCA of Portland. The training will cover framing, messaging, and media outreach, with hands-on practice writing letters to the editor and pitching ideas to editorial boards. Learn which messages and methods work, and help the Housing Alliance win support for a practical plan to create more affordable housing for hard-working families.

This training will make you a more effective advocate for affordable housing. Take advantage of cutting edge messaging techniques and local expertise: The Housing Alliance and Affordable Housing NOW! have received national attention for their messaging strategy.

If you have not already attended a Housing Alliance messaging training, this is cannot-miss opportunity.  If you are familiar with the housing messaging, but feeling a little rusty since your last training, come sharpen your skills before the kick-off of the 2007 Legislative Session.

This is a great opportunity for your organization’s communications staff, board members and for YOU!

Best of all, the training is FREE!

Tuesday, November 28
1 P.M. to 4:30 P.M.
YWCA of Portland
Collins Conference Center
1111 SW 10^th Avenue
Portland, OR  97205

Know someone outside of Portland who would benefit from this training? The Housing Alliance is offering this same training in Eugene on November 29 and in Bend on December 6.  Spread the word!

To download a flyer for the Nov 28 training in Portland, click here.

To download a flyer for the Nov 29 training in Eugene, click here.

To download a flyer for the Dec 6 training in Bend, click here.

To RSVP or for more information please contact Amy Fauver at (503) 226-3001 ext 102 or via email. Learn more about the Housing Alliance on the web at www.oregonhousingalliance.org

The Oregon Center for Public Policy presents: Understanding the Rules of Nonprofit Lobbying and Election-Related Activity, Tuesday December 19.

The fall elections are over, and policymaking critical to Oregon will soon begin. Good decision-making is more important than ever, but nonprofit leaders can mistakenly assume their 501(c)(3) status prohibits involvement in public policy debates. The fact is, nonprofit lobbying is both legal and important! Your organization just needs to know the rules.

The Oregon Center for Public Policy is pleased to invite you to this one-day workshop for nonprofit managers, staff, board, and volunteers, conducted by attorneys from the Alliance for Justice. Trainers will answer questions such as:

·       What is considered lobbying according to the IRS and Oregon law?

·       How much can our organization lobby?

·       Do I need to register as a lobbyist in Oregon?

·       Can we ask foundations for grants to lobby?

Two Opportunities:

Portland 
When: Tuesday, December 19 
Time: 8:30 AM - 4 PM 
Where: First United Methodist Church 
1838 SW Jefferson, Portland, Oregon

Trainers: Eric Gorovits, J.D.; Cynthia Cumfer, J.D.

Register for the Portland event here. 
Print a flyer for the Portland event here.

Redmond 
When: Wednesday, December 20 
Time: 8:30 AM - 4 PM 
Where: Becky Johnson Center, Redmond 
412 SW 8th, Suite 118, Redmond, Oregon

Trainers: Eric Gorovitz, J.D.; David Atkin, J.D.

Register for the Redmond event here. 
Print a flyer for the Redmond event here.

Cost for either training: $40 registration fee. ($60 after December 12, so register soon!)

Cost includes workshop materials and follow-up technical assistance with AFJ attorneys.

Lunch: Provided

Questions about the workshops? Contact Eric Gorovitz, eric@afj.org; or Janet Bauer, jbauer@ocpp.org.

These workshops are being provided in partnership with Alliance for Justice, Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS), and Central Oregon Partnership. They are supported, in part, by a grant from the Northwest Area Foundation.

View this announcement as a webpage here.