Update: HUD Announces $19.2 Million in Oregon Homeless Funding.

Update: Post about HUD homeless funding for Oregon last year is HERE. (Funding this year is $1 million more than last year)/
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National press release is HERE; Excel listing of all grants by state is HERE. 

Pasted below is my compilation of homeless grants by Oregon city and HUD program (Shelter Plus Care or Supportive Housing Program).

 Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report Released to Congress.

PDF report is HERE. 

Oregon data on homeless counts for last several years is on page 132; use keyword "Oregon" to find other tables with Oregon data, including local Continuum of Care data.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Housing Council Telephone Meet March 31: Up to $25 Million Revenue Bond for South Waterfront Project With 42 Units Set Aside for Homeless Veterans.

The Oregon Housing Council is holding a telephone conference call meeting on Thursday March 31st., at 10 AM (telephone number from agenda is 503.986.2005).

The only agenda items for this meeting are a consent calendar listing of 3 SF loans AND a resolution authorizing up to a $25 million revenue bond approval for the 209 unit Block 49 South Waterfront Apartments. 

That project includes a set aside of 42 units for formerly homeless veterans who will receive reduced rents via project based vouchers from the Housing Authority of Portland.  Also included in the Council packet are much more details on funding sources and uses for this project. [A separate project fact sheet for this project from the Portland Housing Bureau, and not in the Council packet, can be found HERE]. 

The link to the YTD Oregon Housing Council Materials , that includes the March 31st meeting materials, is found permanently in the right pane of the blog.  

The next regular Council meeting is scheduled for Salem on April 15th.  (I missed a Council meeting in February, the materials for that meeting has been added to the Housing Council packet).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Oregon Homeless Continum of Care Grants: $18.2 Million, Up $1 Million.

HUD PR is HERE; Oregon listing is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Conference of Mayors Report on Hunger/Homelessness Includes Portland Data.

Report is HERE.  Some tidbits, including Portland: 

• The increase in the number of requests for emergency food assistance increased by an average of 24 percent. Portland's increase was 2%.
• There was an overall increase of 9% in the total number of families experiencing homelessness; Portland's increase was 31%.
• ...In late 2009, HUD provided  $4.2 million in Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program funds... In the first full year of program funding, housing service providers throughout Multnomah County used federal stimulus-funded rent and utility assistance to help more than 2,800 people in more than 1,000 households avoid homelessness or move rapidly from homelessness back into housing.Though HUD requires that the funds be used within three years, Portland housing officials have spent more than half of the funds in only one year due to unprecedented demand for this type of assistance. To date, area providers have delivered more than $2.2 million in direct assistance, an average of approximately $2,100 per household. With remaining funds, housing officials expect to assist as many as 1,000 additional households. More than three-quarters of the households assisted were currently housed, but were at imminent risk of becoming homeless, most due to the current economic
  recession

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog

New GAO Report on Rural Homelessness.

New 59 page report is HERE.  

I have pasted below the tables and figures from the report, along with hard copy (not PDF) page numbers:

Number	Description	Page
Table 1	Typology of Definitions of “Homelessness” among Federal Agencies with Targeted Homeless Assistance Programs, as of July 2010	5
Table 2	Rural Funding within HUD’s CoC Programs, Based on Grant Applicant Reporting as Rural or Not	21
Table 3	Urban and Rural Fiscal Year Funding for VA’s Capital Grant Awards for the Grant and Per Diem Program Based on Grant Applicant Reporting as Rural or Not	22
Table 4	Possible Needs of the Homeless Population and Potential Corresponding Barriers in Rural Areas	27
Table 5	Examples of Supportive Services That Federal Agencies, Excluding HUD, Can Provide to Persons Experiencing Homelessness	34
Figure 1	Federal Programs That May Benefit Persons Experiencing Homelessness in Rural Areas	15
Figure 2	Percent of Total Federal Funding Targeting Homelessness by Agency for Fiscal Year 2009	20
Figure 3	HUD's CoC Housing and Supportive Services Distribution	36

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New National Homeless Strategic Plan Released.

PR is HERE.

Plan is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HAP/Portland's Resource Access Center Makes it to HUD's YouTube Channel.

Thanks to work of HAP staff and HUD Seattle Public Affairs Officer Lee Jones, [Leland.Jones@hud.gov if you want to give him a shout out] a 90 second video about the downtown Portland Resource Access Center has been posted to the HUD YouTube channel (you knew HUD has a YouTube channel, right?).

Video is HERE and embedded below:



Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Study: Cost of First Time Homelessness.

PR is HERE.

Study is HERE. From study, average monthly costs:

Individual Sites	Emergency Shelter	Transitional Housing	Permanent Supportive Housing
Des Moines	$581	$1,386	$537
Jacksonville	$799	$870	$882
Houston	$968	$1,654	$966
Family Sites
Houston	$1,391	$3,340	$799
Kalamazoo	$1,614	$813	$881
Upstate S.C.	$2,269	$1,209	$661
Washington, DC	$3,530	$2,170	$1,251

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

CRS Report: FEMA Disaster Housing from Sheltering to Permanent Housing.

Report is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Student Homeless Up in Oregon Schools.

Says Oregonian story HERE.

Kudos to Salem Statesman Journal for their story HERE which ALSO has links to actual data by county and school district. (look in right pane).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New CRS Report: Veterans and Homelessness.

You can find June 2009 Congressional Research Service report HERE.

Likely most concise, comprehensive review of veteran homeless data and programs you will find; link above also includes links to earlier related reports.

[Note: Veteran counts are available from American Community Survey; 2007 counts are HERE; 2008 ACS schedule says updated data is coming out at end of September for 1 year estimates, end of October for 3 year estimates.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NPR Talk of the Nation: Service Enriched Housing Saves $$ for Homeless.

Story is HERE; Site notes that AUDIO won't be available until 3 PM PST.

Dr. Jessie Gaeta co-founded the Home & Healthy for Good project. The program gets the chronically homeless in Massachusetts into permanent housing first, then focuses on medical treatment.Home & Healthy for Good is part of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance. The program has provided homes to nearly 400 chronically homeless individuals. In addition to lowering homeless rates, the program has saved the state Office of Medicaid thousands of dollars per person.

UPDATED: Homeless Data Being Released by HUD; Oregon Has Highest % of Population Who Are Homeless?

UPDATE: Found the source data reports. Editorial Comment: Data is a pain to find and data is presented in a way to make comparisons between areas virtually impossible.

1. I combined a national summary report (first 13 pages) and the full report into one document HERE.
2. The HUD HMIS (Homeless Mgt Information System) main page for homeless reports for this year (2008 actually) is HERE.
3. Local reports (30+ pages each) can be downloaded from the HMIS page HERE (The "Rest of Oregon" area is not included for some reason; only metro Oregon reports are currently available).
4. I have downloaded a sample of a local report, for the Portland area, HERE.

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USA Today news story is HERE. Story lead

As the recession took hold last year, homelessness shifted toward rural and suburban areas and gripped a growing number of families, the U.S. government reports today

USA Today story includes state table that I read to say that Oregon/Nevada/Hawaii homeless % of population led the nation in 2008.

I can't yet find actual HUD report on which story is based; when I do I will update this post.

Comments Due by May 11th to State on Homeless Amendment to Spend $7.8 Million in HUD Recovery Act Funding.

Tomorrow the City of Portland is holding their hearing on their Recovery Act related homeless plan amendment; my prior blog post is HERE.

The State of Oregon Oregon Housing and Community Services Agency has similarly developed a plan amendment for their jurisdiction and is seeking comments by May 11th.

Taken together the two plan amendments total more than $12 Million in Recovery Act funding for homeless programs. Oregon communities will receive a total of $14.9 Million under this Recovery Act program; other recipients are Clackamas County, Eugene, Salem and Washington County.

Since Oregon communities received $21,274,487 in HUD funding last year for homeless programs (prior blog post HERE), the new Recovery Act program funding for HUD funded homeless activities represents a one time 70% boost compared to the funding from last year).

The State of Oregon proposed amendment is HERE; pasted below is select information from their website:

"Oregon Housing and Community Services OHCS) is seeking public comment relating to a proposed substantial amendment to Oregon's 2008 Action Plan for funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). On May 18th OHCS will be submitting a 2008 Action Plan substantial amendment to HUD for the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) in the amount of $7,873,436. HPRP is a new program created by Congress under Title XII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. HUD requires amendment of the 2008 Action Plan to reflect the HPRP activities designed to provide homelessness assistance to households who otherwise would become homeless and provide assistance to rapidly re-house persons who are homeless as defined by Section 103 of the McKinney - Vento Act. HPRP regulation requires a comment period of twelve calendar days. Written, faxed, or e-mailed comments can be submitted to the address below at any time prior to 5 PM on May 11, 2009. Deaf and hearing-impaired individuals may use a TTY by calling 1-800-735-2900. Rainy Gauvain;OHCS 725 Summer St. NE, Ste. B;Salem, OR 97301 Phone 503.986.6702; Fax 503.983.2020 Rainy.Gauvain@hcs.state.or.us

NLIHC Posts Side by Side of New Homeless Bills With Existing Law.

Detailed comparison from National Low Income Housing Coalition is HERE.

Updated: Child Homeless Report; Oregon Ranked 26th.

Corrected national report link; added second link to longer version of Oregon report

• National report is HERE.
• Two page Oregon report is HERE. (Includes data on food security, health, and educational data for homeless children). Longer version is HERE.
• Washington Post story HERE.

Report uses 2005-2006 data.

New Housing Funding Announced in Oregon in Last Week: $125 Million.

Last week we saw announcements of what I suspect is the largest amount of housing related funding in the history of Oregon.

In the last week funding announcements were made for $125 million in new housing funding! I have listed those funding announcements below by program, source, amount and period of funding.

1. Homeless Grants: HUD, $20 Million (2008 NOFA), 1 year.
2. HUD Recovery bill Formula Grants: HUD, $85 Million, multi year
3. Oregon Document Recording: Oregon, $15 Million, 21 months.
4. MacArthur Preservation Funding, MacArthur, $5 million, multi year.

HOWEVER, to put this in perspective, and as I noted HERE, Fannie Mae LOST $276 million PER DAY in the last quarter of 2008.

Pitch Made for Additional Housing Vouchers and Emergency Shelter Grant Funding: Oregon Projected At $34+Million, Helping 7,500+ Families.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has put together a paper pitching an increase in housing vouchers and emergency shelter grant funds to help deal with what they say is a growing number of homeless families.

Their paper, HERE, includes breakout of vouchers and emergency shelter grant funding by state.

Oregon figures in their report (pg. 15) are:

• Additional housing vouchers: 2,957
• Emergency Shelter funds:$14,785,000
• Families to be helped with Emergency Shelter [ESG] funds: 4,562

My Cost Calculations:

1. Using a conservative cost per voucher of $5,000, the annual voucher cost would total $19,936,338.
   
2. Adding ESG and voucher $$ the first year costs would be $34,721,338.
   
3. Total families helped for both programs would be 7,519.
4. Therefore, first year cost per family in Oregon for both programs would be $4,618.

Oregon Initial Homeless Data Analysis: Focus on Unsheltered.

HUD has issued the third annual homeless assessment report to the Congress HERE. The nationwide report touts a drop in the number of chronic homeless persons.

As part of that release HUD has made available 2007 local and state level homeless population and inventory counts HERE.

My first look at that data focuses on changes in Oregon statewide totals for homeless populations and sub populations from 2005-2007, with particular focus on statewide changes in UNSHELTERED counts.

The PDF document HERE contains my analysis and the Oregon statewide household, population, and sub population data for 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Some key points about 05-07 changes for Oregon's UNSHELTERED homeless:

1. HOUSEHOLDS: Family households declined by 29%, but individual (single person) households grew by 17%.
2. PERSONS: Persons in families declined by 13%, but persons in individual (single person) households grew by 30%
3. PERSONS IN SUB POPULATIONS: INCREASES-Severely Mentally Ill , Veterans, Domestic Violence and Unaccompanied Youth; DECREASES-Chronically Homeless, Chronic Substance Abuse, and HIV/Aids.
   

I encourage others to further examine HUD homeless data to discover other trends (and possible data problems and issues).