In addition to celebrating, we’ll be marking the launch of our new effort to support key partners statewide in addressing the disconnect between what Oregon needs and what we’re doing. We are working to create an Oregon which offers its diversity of residents’ opportunities to thrive, pathways out of poverty and disenfranchisement and adequately supported public systems and structures as shared tools for these goals.  Working with all of our partners to improve communications across issue silos, we will work in the coming years to advance a broadly shared view of what it takes to build a state and communities where opportunity is real, asset building is a priority and citizens are engaged in creating the future.

Our special guest for the evening is Patrick Bresette.  Patrick is Associate Program Director of the Public Works Program at Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action.  He heads the fieldwork of the program, leading efforts to translate the research conducted at Public Works on Americans’ perceptions of government into practical applications for interested individuals, organizations, and coalitions

Patrick will share some of the Demos work on how to communicate the role that government can and should play in the lives of our communities. Demos’ work is grounded in theories of effective communications from cognitive science, cultural anthropology, linguistics and other “framing” studies.

The event will be at Northwest Natural in downtown Portland from 5:30–7:00PM.  Email us and let us know if you would like to celebrate with us!

Revenue Coalitions

States all across the Country are facing extreme budget shortfalls for both the current year and coming year, and Oregon is certainly no exception.  With little prospect for additional federal stimulus dollars, and no appetite for raising taxes, advocates for human services and housing are faced with fighting draconian budget cuts to services for low income families, children, disabled, and the elderly.  One strategy that worked last year in Washington State was to create a Revenue Coalition—Rebuilding our Economic Future—aimed at increasing state revenues through the closing of tax loopholes and sunsetting tax credits.  Oregon advocates will be considering similar approaches—e-mail us if you’re interested in hearing more about what’s going on.

TANF Reauthorization

Legislation which governs TANF, or welfare, is due to expire in September, 2010.  However it is unlikely that TANF will be reauthorized in 2010, and we will likely instead see a series of ‘continuing resolutions’—which just extend spending authority temporarily—for the next one to three years.  Liz Schott from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities presented on the prospects for reauthorization as well as the possibility of an extension for the Emergency Contingency Fund to increase TANF funds due to the recession.

Re-Employment Strategies

We also heard Deborah Schlick of the Affirmative Options Coalition give a great presentation about how, as a result of unequal access to unemployment benefits, TANF has essentially become unemployment insurance for thousands of low wage workers or workers in industries with high turnover such as service industries, retail, and even health care jobs.  As a group, we discussed ways to improve unemployment insurance to make it work for low-wage workers—including extending benefits to temporary workers, part-time workers, low-wage workers, and families.

Overall, it was a great conference filled with interesting presentations, information and connections. We’re looking forward to exploring some of the things we learned, and putting new information into practice here in Oregon.

In September and October, we’ll hold two Housing Alliance Membership Meetings.  We will be meeting in Salem on Monday, September 27, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Friday, October 29, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Prospective members may be invited to attend, but will not be allowed to vote—please contact Alison McIntosh if you are a prospective member or have an organization you would like to invite. Find out how to join the Housing Alliance!

Another revenue forecast is scheduled to be released on August 26, 2010.  We will be watching this closely, both to see what it holds for the remainder of this biennium as well as 2011-2013.  Early reports are predicting another downturn—which will make meeting needs and balancing the budget even harder than we already anticipated.

We are continuing to refine our list of legislative priorities.  Right now, the list includes:

Maintain Document Recording Fee Resources for Affordable Housing;
Increase the Emergency Housing Account;
Preserve Existing Affordable Housing;
Maintain current tools to keep affordable housing affordable, including the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit and maintaining state enabling legislation for local property tax abatement programs;
Permanent supporting housing construction to help end homelessness;
Increasing resources to support Minority Homeownership;
Expanding protections for tenants in foreclosed properties;
Supporting resident purchases of manufactured home parks;
Supporting land trusts; and
Protecting homeless from hate crimes.

A full and more detailed list is available here.

Questions? E-mail us.

Ms. Shir recommended developing a recruitment strategy that maps out plans for the year including the target numbers of inquiries, applications and enrolled savers each quarter. Many of Ms. Shir’s recommended recruitment strategies are common sense approaches such as:

Reaching potential IDA savers though major employers of traditionally low wage workers such as hospitals, hotels, big-box retailers, restaurants, cleaning services, and sports and entertainment venues;

Reaching IDA savers by partnering with affordable housing programs, Small Business Centers, tribal organizations, Community Action Agencies, Head Start, vocational schools, or Refugee Resettlement Programs; and

Targeting low and moderate-income families who get their taxes prepared through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programs, and encouraging new enrollees to save part or all of their Earned Income Tax Credit refund.

Ms. Shir also reminded those in attendance that a well planned retention strategy saves time and money for IDA providers in the long run. Ms. Shir recommended retention strategies such as:

Offering alternatives to participants physically having to go to the bank to make monthly deposits such as direct deposit, mail-in deposits, and ATM deposits;

Staying in touch with participants during the savings period through initiatives like Savers Club meetings, quarterly budgeting check-ins, electronic newsletters and Facebook groups, text message reminders to save, and sending monthly progress statements to savers;

Offering focused asset-specific resources to participants such as peer networking events for microenterprise IDA savers, campus tours and financial aid seminars for education IDA savers, and home tours for home ownership IDA savers;

Making financial education training as flexible and accessible as possible by offering perks for training attendees such as a convenient location, bus passes or other transportation support, multiple scheduling options, childcare, food, and interpreters if appropriate;

Encouraging prospective participants on waiting lists to start saving prior to enrollment since pre-savings can make it even easier for participants to reach their goals; and

Working with participants on credit repair as soon as they apply to the program to avoid unanticipated delays once the participant has met his or her savings goal.

Above all, Ms. Shir stressed flexibility, creativity and the importance of tailoring each IDA program to meet the diverse and changing needs of savers.  Click here to see Ms. Shir’s full PowerPoint from her June presentation. NP’s next IDA provider training will cover strategies for providing financial education to adult learners.  Email Haley Cloyd for more information.

Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, describing herself as a member of the Bridges to Housing fan club, welcomed families, case managers and those who’ve worked at the City and County to make this program a success.  Commissioner Kafoury also announced the great news that Multnomah County had committed over $400,000 to services in 2010-2011 for Bridges to Housing!

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Commissioner Nick Fish discussed the importance of the regional effort, and talked about the critical contributions made by various partners: the Housing Authority of Portland, which dedicated project-based Section 8 vouchers, making housing affordable for these families and allowing funds to be spent on case management; the City of Portland, who contributed resources to build new affordable housing units and to reprogram existing units to create 139 units dedicated specifically to this program; and Multnomah County, who committed funds for services to continue the program.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Janet Byrd of Neighborhood Partnerships described the four county effort, and the importance of the ongoing evaluation, which is being conducted by Portland State University.  Janet also talked about the private funds raised to support Bridges to Housing and thanked the many foundations who have contributed over the past four years.  She also described the huge contribution of time from Regional Steering Committee volunteers and thanked them for their efforts.

Jean DeMaster talked about the contribution and partnership shown by housing providers, and property and asset managers, and how important their support had been to making the program successful.   Suzanne Washington recognized the dedication and hard work of case managers who have been working alongside these families since day one.  The case managers have played a huge role in helping these families maintain their housing, and move forward on their goals.   She thanked them for their commitment to the program and to the families

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

We also had the opportunity to hear from some of the families who have participated in Bridges to Housing.  Several were generous enough to tell us their stories of how they came into the program, and how it’s helped them.  We heard from a family of four, who camped for a year after losing their rental apartment when it was sold.  The father is now back in school and earning a degree in green building.  We also heard from a family who escaped domestic violence and substance abuse and is now also back in school.  Commissioner Kafoury said it best when she reminded us that the families are the one and only reason this program matters.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Thanks to everyone who came, and thank you especially to the families who shared their stories and their afternoon with us.

Photo by Maileen Hamto, Portland Housing Bureau

Also special thanks to those who donated food or raffle prizes to the event: Cupcake Jones, New Seasons Market, Starbucks, World Cup Coffee, Human Solutions, and Ellington Handbags.  Thanks to Maileen Hamto of Portland Housing Bureau for taking photographs. And thanks to Hacienda CDC’s Micro Mercantes for a wonderful lunch.

We’ve contracted with the Regional Research Institute at Portland State University to do a multi-year evaluation of the IDA Initiative.  PSU’s objectives are to track and report program performance and results, capture the IDA Initiative’s impact on participants, and support ongoing program improvement.  Their preliminary research results are impressive!  Click here to see preliminary results released in June of 2009.

Graduating participants explain that participating in the IDA program has changed their lives in concrete ways:

“I have a house!”

“It helped me start my business and has brought me the most financial stability I’ve ever had.”

“I completed college and am now a teacher.”

PSU’s evaluation is also finding that IDAs change behaviors.  Graduating participants reflect:

“I am more organized and use a budget.”

“I learned to treat a savings account like a bill.”

“Taught us we can save if we put our minds to it.”

After graduating from the IDA program the percentage of participants who report being satisfied or highly satisfied with their financial status increases from 46% to 82%.  Forty-eight percent of graduates report reduced debt, and 46% report increased income.  Graduating participants are also significantly more likely to maintain emergency savings funds and track their personal finances using a budget.

PSU’s evaluation is also finding that IDA program graduates set new savings goals for themselves after purchasing their assets through the IDA program.  After completing the program graduates continue to save for emergencies, to purchase or improve a home, for family vacations, for retirement, or for education.  Encouraging participants to establish a lifelong savings habit is a program outcome we’re especially proud of!

In addition, a year after exiting the program, participants’ financial behaviors have changed:

55% often use a budget to monitor expenses.

46% maintain an emergency fund.

33% are regularly making deposits to savings.

A year after completing the program participants also report significant changes in their lives such as:

“I found it incredibly helpful.  I would have really struggled in this economy if I hadn’t worked with this program.”

“I thought this was an awesome experience.  I would love to participate again.  What I learned about budgeting I still use today.”

“Stability, my children are very happy and proud to own their home.  I feel I can do whatever I want in life.  My next goal is to go back to school and get more education.”

Full evaluation results from Portland State University will be available later this year.  We look forward to sharing those results with you in the coming months!

Learn more about the IDA Initiative!

Now, we’re working on a very exciting project with Patrick and Larry Wallack, Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University to create an Emerging Leaders Advocacy and Messaging Training.  (Larry was instrumental in helping the Housing Alliance create messages to better communicate the importance of affordable housing.)

The goal of this training, first and foremost is to support established leaders and communications professionals who are working to create an Oregon which offers its diversity of residents opportunities to thrive, pathways out of poverty and disenfranchisement and adequately supported public systems and structures as shared tools for these goals.

Second, we want to train and support an emerging cadre of leaders and communicators as they work on issues and in cross-issue coalitions to develop messages and materials that resonate and move an advocacy agenda. We will select participants who have a clear issue focus and advocacy or campaign plan, a commitment to strategic communications, and a recognition that building public support for governmental action and resources is an underlying priority.

And third, we intend to improve communications across issue silos. We will advance a broadly shared view of what it takes to build a state and communities where opportunity is real, asset building is a priority and citizens are engaged in creating the future. By working across silos we hope to support one another’s efforts to address critical needs, and together address the underlying resource and public will challenges that hamper all of our success.

This training will be based in large part on the research done by Demos on how to communicate the role that government can and should play in the lives of our communities. Demos’ work is grounded in theories of effective communications from cognitive science, cultural anthropology, linguistics and other “framing” studies. Key elements of this theory and practice will shape the training curriculum.

The trainings will be conducted primarily by Patrick Bresette of Demos and Larry Wallack, Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University. Other trainers and speakers will be announced in September.  Applicants must commit to attend all sessions of the training, to be held once per month into the spring of 2011.

Interested in applying to attend the trainings? E-mail us today!  Applications are due August 15, 2010.

Interested in more Demos research? Check out a recent publication from Demos: “Government, The Economy, and We, The People: Creating Public Will to Shape an Economy that Works for All.“

Some highlights of the appropriations bill include: A 10% increase to $2.055 billion in funding for HUD’s McKinney-Vento programs which serve homeless families and individuals.  While this is great news, estimates indicate that to fully implement the Hearth Act will require $2.4 billion.  The Hearth Act was the 2009 reauthorization of the McKinney Vento act, and it expanded the definition of homelessness; expanded homelessness prevention activities; and increases efforts to serve homeless families and children, among other things.  (Read a summary here.)

The bill also requested $75 million for additional VA Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers to serve homeless veterans, continued funding for housing programs for seniors and people with disabilities; and increased funding for the tenant based rental assistance program renewals.

The bill does not provide funding for two new HUD initiatives, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, or PETRA (Preservation, Enhancement and Transformation of Rental Assistance). Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is a HUD proposal to replace HOPE VI, a program which was designed to rehabilitate and replace distressed public housing properties.  PETRA is a proposal by HUD to transform its current programs.  The proposed changes would: streamline its current subsidy programs, change the way public housing is rehabilitated and preserved in the future, and promote resident choice.  Advocates for affordable housing and their residents are concerned about some components of PETRA, while HUD asserts that PETRA will be both beneficial and critical to the future of affordable housing.

Funding for the National Housing Trust Fund was not included in this appropriations bill.  Advocates are still hopeful that the Senate will again consider legislation to fund the Trust Fund through the Tax Extenders Bill (HR 4213).  A $1 billion investment into the Trust Fund would bring over $15 million to Oregon.

What’s next?

The Senate Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee will also markup its Fiscal Year 2011 spending bill.

Want to know more?

If you’re interested in learning more, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition are both tracking this issue.  Download the NLIHC summary of spending since FY 2005 and proposed FY 2011 levels.

After an opening interfaith devotional the first panel on Childhood, Youth, and Family Homelessness in Oregon began. Members of this panel gave participants background on the current state of homelessness in Oregon and some of the efforts underway to help those in need. After a short break, the group moved right into an overview of the four small group topics for the afternoon. They included: Shelter and Services; Preventing, Reducing, and Ending Family Homelessness; Education of Homeless Children; and Homeless and Runaway Youth.

The group moved outside to enjoy the sunny weather and hold a walking vigil late morning. We heard a bit about the history of churches marching for social justice. Over lunch keynote speaker Barbara Duffield of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth spoke about why it’s so critical to ensure homeless children have access to education.

Afternoon breakout groups filled the afternoon, with Neighborhood Partnership’s Executive Director Janet Byrd helping to lead the panel on Preventing, Reducing, and Ending Family Homelessness. We talked in our session about the various responses to homelessness, how to contact the folks in your community working on 10 Year Plans, and how churches can and are playing important roles in this effort.

The day ended with a call to action and a discussion about next steps. Neighborhood Partnerships is excited to meet so many folks from across the state who are interested in and committed to ending homelessness in Oregon. We’re looking forward to taking the next steps with our faith-based partners!

If you’re interested in hearing more about the day, or want to get involved moving forward, contact us or Kevin Finney from Ecumenical Ministries.

A review of available data shows us that we need to create 30,000 or more new homeowners from communities of color to close Oregon’s homeownership gap.  This task will require the hard work of all existing partners, and some creative work to improve our impact, increase the tools we have at our disposal, and increase the resources available to us.

The good news, though, is that partners now hard at work in Oregon know how to accomplish this.  We heard from several speakers about the barriers that we need to overcome in various communities across the state, and reviewed materials gathered from the City of Portland’s Operation Home efforts.  Then, we heard from a diverse panel about a sampling of the successful efforts now underway.  Strategies shared included a tribal-sponsored down payment initiative, maintaining a multi-cultural staff, focus groups and homebuyer clubs, and land trusts to increase affordability.  Creative partnerships, efficient use of resources, and genuine commitment to reaching people in their communities were evident in all the examples shared by the panel and participants.  And we know we just scratched the surface and did not have time to acknowledge all of the expertise in the room.

Regrettably we couldn’t hear from everyone, and we only touched on key strategies. But our goal was to highlight possibility and commit to taking the next steps together to increase resources and political will to close the gap.

Several next steps were identified.

Best practices sharing through practitioner networks. Oregon Opportunity Network will discuss possible next steps for peer learning and sharing.

State funding decisions for use of the document recording fee. Roberto Franco shared timelines for the five program areas to be funded through the document recording fee. Neighborhood Partnerships will track these timelines and processes and facilitate comments on priorities and processes.

Our Oregon plans to continue discussing legislation that would tie financial education to some loan products. Neighborhood Partnerships will track development and facilitate Housing Alliance consideration of proposals.

There was lots of interest in improving our data—on historical trends in homeownership rates, on the impacts of foreclosures, and on lending practices. Neighborhood Partnerships will follow up on these ideas in the coming months.

Email Janet with your thoughts, or let us know what you’d like to be part of in the comments section of the blog!