If 30% of Oregon 2020 Unemployment Benefits Were Used for Housing Expenses They Provided $1.8 Billion in Housing Support.

In 2020 Oregon paid total unemployment benefits of more than $6.2 Billion.

Using county data on UI payments posted by the Employment Department I put together the PDF table HERE and embedded below that shows total annual amounts of unemployment insurance benefits and annual amounts available for housing expenses using 30% of the unemployment benefits. 

Using that 30% of income standard, more than $1.8 billion was available for housing expenses from unemployment insurance benefits. 

That's $157 million a month. (It's actually more than $157 million a month since pandemic unemployment insurance benefits didn't begin flowing in April). 

The $1.8 billion available for housing expenses from unemployment benefits is more than 5 times larger than the (record setting) $336 million in HUD rental housing voucher spending in Oregon in 2020.

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