Oregon Gets 150 Vouchers for Homeless Vets.

HUD PR is HERE.  

PDF with breakout of individual awards by state is HERE; Individual Oregon awards are shown in table image pasted below.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

WaPo Goes After Delays in HUD HOME Program in Series.

First story is HERE in printer family version.  HUD has issued a rebuttal on their blog HERE. WaPo story says:

Nationwide, nearly 700 projects awarded $400 million have been idling for years, a Washington Post investigation found. Some have languished for a decade or longer even as much of the country struggles with record-high foreclosures and a dramatic loss of affordable housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the nation’s housing fund, has largely looked the other way: It does not track the pace of construction and often fails to spot defunct deals, instead trusting local agencies to police projects.

In WaPO map HERE, indication is that in Oregon out of 39 projects totalling $26.3 million a total of $2.7 million was delayed and there were no projects with "zero draws". [Would have been nice if WaPo provided names/locations of delayed projects instead of just maps]. 

Tease from WaPo indicates that next story will be about problematic DC projects.

Oregon HOME Snapshot reports by jurisdiction are available from HUD HERE.  If anyone knows a more relevant set of HOME reports for Oregon, pls make a comment below with the link.

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.

State of Homelessness Report is Out, Shows Oregon Declines from 2008-2009, Including 25% Decline in Homeless Family Population.

From National Alliance to End Homelessness main page for report is HERE. 

First map with state data for TOTAL homeless population can be found HERE. Map shows total homeless persons declined in Oregon by 16% from 2008-2009, with 17,309 homeless in 2009.

Second state map HERE shows FAMILY homeless population in Oregon declined by 25% from 2008-2009, with a family homeless population of 6,866 in 2009. 

Third state map HERE shows UNSHELTERED homeless population has declined in Oregon by 8% from 2008-2009, with 9,867 unsheltered in 2009.

Fourth state map HERE shows CHRONIC homeless population declined by 15% in Oregon from 2008-2009, with 2,842 chronic homeless in 2009. 

(Other interactive state level data tools for this report can be found HERE). 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Gets $1.2 Million for 235 HUD Housing Vouchers for Oregon Homeless Veterans.

HUD national PR is HERE; Oregon amounts by housing authority are pasted below:

Recipient	City	VA Medical Facility	Units	Funding
TOTAL			235	$1,239,904
Housing Authority of Portland	Portland	Portland VAMC	60	$     361,915
Housing Authority of Douglas County	Roseburg	Roseburg VAMC	25	$      67,566
Housing Authority & Comm Svcs of Lane Co	Eugene	Roseburg VAMC	25	$     132,189
Housing Authority of the City of Salem	Salem	Portland VAMC	25	$     134,544
Klamath Housing Authority	Klamath Falls	White City VAMC	25	$     113,394
Coos-Curry Housing Authority	North Bend	Roseburg VAMC	25	$      96,879
Housing Authority of Washington County	Hillsboro	Portland VAMC (Hillsboro)	25	$     178,596
Central Oregon Regional Housing Authority	Redmond	Portland VAMC (Bend CBOC)	25	$     154,821

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Testimony at Senate Hearing on Homeless Programs, Including Homeless Vets.

Secretary Donovan's testimony is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NY Times on New Portland Resource Access Center.

HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Public Facility Authority Holding Jan 19th Hearing on Central City Concern Refinancing of 450 Units in 5 Projects.

Saw this in yesterday's Oregonian Public Notices

Notice of Public Hearing A public hearing will be held by the Executive Director of the Oregon Facilities Authority beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at the State Office Bldg., 800 NE Oregon St., Room 1E, Portland 97232 with respect to the issuance of not more than $4,550,000 aggregate face amount of tax exempt bonds to refinance five outstanding loans (the "Loans") used to acquire five facilities, to finance the remodeling of two of those facilities, and to pay costs of issuance the bonds.

Each of the facilities to be refinanced or remodeled is used by Central City Concern ("CCC"), a non-profit organization qualified under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, in furtherance of its charitable mission to mitigate the effects of homelessness, poverty and addictions. Each of the facilities to be refinanced or remodeled is described below:

• Henry Building - an approximately 60,802 square foot facility located at 309 SW Fourth Ave., Portland, OR with 153 units of low income housing, space used by CCC in its Community Engagement Program, and approximately 6,637 square feet of commercial space.
• Letty Owings Center - an approximately 17,074 square foot facility located at 2545 NE Flanders St., Portland, OR used as a 37-unit residential drug treatment facility.
• Medford Building - an approximately 27, 840 square foot facility located at 506 NW 5th Ave., Portland, OR with 62-units of low income housing and approximately 12,300 square feet used as a homeless shelter.
• Sally McCracken Building - an approximately 35,989 square foot facility located at 532 NW Everett, Portland, OR with 95-units of low income housing and CCC administrative office space.
• Hatfield Building -an approximately 48,250 square foot facility located at 726 W. Burnside St., Portland, Oregon with 106 units of low income housing and approximately 4,082 square feet used by Central City Concern's Recovery Center.

Interested individuals may express their views, both orally and in writing. Oral comments at the public hearing will be limited to 10 minutes for each speaker. Written testimony may be submitted to the Oregon Facilities Authority, 1600 Pioneer Tower, 888 SW Fifth Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97204, until the close of business on Monday, January 18, 2010, or at the hearing.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Homeless Grants Announced, Oregon Gets $17.2 Million.

HUD press release is HERE.

Excel file with Oregon grants is HERE.

$17.2 Million for Oregon appears on the surface to be a significant reduction from $20.1 million for Oregon for FY 2008, however the number of multi-year grants can vary by year, so it is impossible to make an "apples to apples" comparison.

It also appears that this announcement may ONLY be for renewal grants and that NEW grants will not be announced until 2010. Note also that Oregon received significant Recovery Act funding for homeless programs, so TOTAL HUD dollars for homeless programs this year is WAY up (2X+) compared to last.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Former US Interagency Homeless Head Starts New Non Profit.

SF Chronicle story HERE. Rather sparse website for new non profit is HERE.

(I noticed that Mangano recently spoke at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. A link to PDF of his presentation is HERE).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Continum of Care Homeless NOFA Finally Came Out, A Week Before End of FY.

I am sure that Recovery Act funding has taken precendence at HUD, but jeez, the FY 2009 Continum of Care homeless funding announcement/NOFA came out just last week; and the Notice will not appear in the Federal Register until tomorrow, a year after the start of FY 2009, and 6 months after the HUD budget was finally approved by Congress and signed by the President.

In recent years funding awards were made in the Winter and my guess is that the long delay in the NOFA will mean that funding awards for this program will not occur until well into the Spring of CY 2010.

The main page for HUD Continuum of Care homeless funding is HERE.

Originally created and posted in the Oregon Housing Blog.

2009 HOME Rent Limits Posted; Portland Change Table Calculated.

HUD has finally published the HOME program rent limits for 2009.
The main HUD page for HOME rent limits can be found HERE.

I prepared a table for the Portland Metro area showing the change in HOME program rent limits, using the CPD data for 2008 and 2009. The table is HERE.

For Portland Metro, I calculate that:

• Increases in maximum rent for Low HOME program units range from $20 for a one BR to $30 for a 4 BR.
• Increases in maximum rents for High HOME program units are HIGHER for a one BR ($45) than the $40 per month allowed for a 4 BR.

[If more experienced HOME program folks discover any problems with my calculations, please let me know].

Seattle Study on $4 Million in Savings from Housing First Model for Homeless Alcoholics.

Oregonian had short story today about this study, published in Journal of American Medical Association. Study says taxpayers saved $4 Million a year.


Took me a while to run it down, but HERE is original story in the online Seattle PI. AND within that story is a link to the actual study HERE.

China Construction Plans to House Millions Made Homeless by Quake.

Ambitious plans to build 1 Million temporary homes within 3 months to help China quake victims are outlined in a news story HERE. (This story indicates 4 million made homeless, other stories have said 5 million made homeless).

Story also says "The administration plans to construct a water supply lot, a toilet, and a garbage collection area for every 50 houses; a primary school, a clinic, and a grain market for every 1000 houses; and a middle school for every 2000 houses."

MP 3 Audio Available: Urban Institute Session on Special Needs Housing for Frail Elderly and Homeless.

Conference was held in early January 2008. Includes presentations and question and answer session.

Download individual presentations, just the question and answers, or the entire conference as in MP3 audio files HERE.

$14.7 M. in Oregon HUD Homeless Grants Announced

Excel Project/Location List is HERE.

Local news release is HERE

Exclusive IPOD Audio: Oct 16th, Subcommittee of House Financial Services Committee Hearing; McKinney Vento Homeless Reauthorization Act

HERE is a MP3 audio file of the actual subject subcommittee hearing. It is 3 hours and 10 minutes in duration, 134 MB in size.

Written testimony for the hearing can be found on the Financial Services Committee website HERE.

Expect More from OMB—Contradictory 5 Year Chronic Homeless Unit Production Goals Appear in Same Document.

After looking over the years at the program evaluations posted on the federal Office of Management and Budget [OMB] Expect More website I have often concluded that it is an ambitious yet frequently flawed attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of government programs.

Take for example OMB’s recently updated evaluation of HUD competitive homeless programs, one of the few programs at HUD that OMB rates as “moderately effective”.

OMB’s detailed evaluation of the HUD program can be found here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail/10001234.2005.html#performanceMeasures

Problem #1-OMB States Goal First as 20,000 Chronic Homeless Units and Then As 40,000 Units-Which Is it?

OMB’s Strategic Planning Question 2.1 asks: Does the program have a limited number of specific long-term performance measures that focus on outcomes and meaningfully reflect the purpose of the program?

The OMB evaluation provides this as the answer:

“The overall long-term goal of the Homeless Assistance Grants is to end chronic homelessness and to help homeless families and individuals move to permanent housing and to live as independently as possible. The first part of the goal is measured with the following long-term measure: "Within the next five years (2005 - 2009), HUD will create 40,000 new units of permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals.”

However in the same report, in the Program Performance Measures section, OMB states the outcome goal as: “Within the next five years (2005 - 2009), HUD will create 20,000 new units of permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals.”

My Evaluation: The goal is either 20,000 or 40,000 units over 5 years but it can’t be both.

Problem #2—150,000 Unit Goal—Who is Going to Produce and Track?

If that outright conflict were not enough, consider another strategic planning question, number 2.7 which asks: Are Budget requests explicitly tied to accomplishment of the annual and long-term performance goals, and are the resource needs presented in a complete and transparent manner in the program's budget?

OMB’s evaluation provides this as the answer:

“HUD's 2006 budget request for Homeless Assistance Grants is tied specifically to accomplishing the long-term goal of ending chronic homelessness. This goal can be accomplished by creating 150,000 permanent supportive housing units. HUD requested nearly $200 million in new funds for 2006 to create approximately 8,000 more units towards this goal. “

My Evaluation: Projection of the cited 8,000 HUD units annually would seem to confirm the 40,000 unit 5 year target. However, since HUD is by far the largest Homeless funder, and if it’s funds are going to produce only 40,000 units, WHO is going to produce, pay for , and track progress on the 110,000 remaining unit goal?