Home Forward Plans Health Care Outreach to Voucher and Public Housing Tenants.

Kudos to Home Forward for planned health care outreach efforts.  

From the Board packet for their October meeting (Home Forward YTD Board Packets are available in right pane):

Heath Insurance Outreach: We received a grant from the Oregon Health Authority on behalf of Care Oregon to help our residents sign up for health insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act. Rachael Duke, who now stewards all of our supportive housing efforts in addition to her oversight of the Bud Clark Commons, will spearhead these efforts. We will train staff throughout the agency on how to educate our residents on the options now available to them. While we don’t know precise numbers, based on sampling at a few of our sites, we estimate as many as 50% of the 11,000-plus households in our public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs may not have health insurance

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Stuff I Didn't Know: Home Forward Kids Represent 7% of ALL Multnomah County Kids in Kindergarten.

Have updated the the Home Forward Board packet in right pane under Home Forward YTD Board Packages.  (Be patient, file is now 600 pages+, so will take a while to download).

On PDF page 26 for the July 17th Board meeting XO Steve Rudman report says that Home Forward kids are 7% of all  Multnomah county kids in kindergarten. (you can add that to the long list of stuff I did NOT know).

A kindergarden round up report beginning on PDF page 31 provides more details about what Home Forward is doing to work with families with children. ( Similar demographic data should be available for LIHTC properties, but don't get me started..).

Highly recommended reading. 

Anyone else see a need to connect Oregon families and children in HUD assisted and LIHTC properties to Oregon's "Prosperity Initiative"?

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Home Forward Board Packet Has Information on Sequestration Related Rent Reforms and Demographics of New Wait List.

April 16th board packet has been added to Home Forward YTD Board Packages link in right pane. 

It includes information on the impacts on specific demographic groups of the proposed sequestration related rent reforms and also information on the demographics of  21,149 wait list applicants, including the 3,000 applicants selected by lottery that constitute the new wait list. 
 
Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Looking at Sequestration Cut Options; Community Outreach Planned.

I attended partner meeting on Tuesday at Home Forward to discuss options to cope with reduced funding from HUD because of the sequestration. 

HF is looking at a wide range of options to prevent any existing housing voucher holder from involuntarily losing their voucher because of sequestration. 

On their new sequestration webpage HERE Home Forward  has posted yesterday's presentation HERE:

• Pg 13 has some of options for proposed reductions.
• Pg. 14 has possible impacts of some options at the tenant level.
• Pg 15 has planned community outreach schedule. 

In response to question I raised I understand the HF will not be re-leasing tenant based housing choice vouchers as they are turned back from tenants leaving the program. 

Looking at historical Dashboard reports from HF my estimate is that there could be 300-400 HF fewer tenant based vouchers in use by the end of CY 2013 (assumes 40-50 lease ups a month x 8 months, May-Dec). Actual number may vary depending when policy starts and actual turns in every month. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Board Packages Link Updated to 2013.

Link in right pane to Home Forward YTD Board Packages has been updated to include first board packet of 2013, for meeting tonight. 

Large board packets for full prior calendar years remain available:
CY 2009
CY 2010
CY 2011
CY 2012

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Board Packet Updated for July 11 Work Session Agenda; Opening of New Wait List and Alder Elementary (The Dreamer) School Housing Support.

Home Forward YTD Board Packages link HERE in right pane has been updated to include Wednesday July 11 work session. 

Agenda items are:

• Discussion of opening, and procedures for, new wait list.
• Operations Plan update.
• Working with Human Solutions and the school, HF and Multnomah County will provide funding for housing and services for families with children at Alder Elementary "The Dreamer" school. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Lake Oswego Hollyfield Village OHCS Funding: 3rd Clackamas County Related Housing News in Last Two Days.

OHCS has included an existing HUD project based Section 8 project, Hollyfield Village in Lake Oswego, in the CFC funding recommendations announced today. 

My prior post with project list from OHCS is HERE.


Unfortunately, the project listing does not include units or dollars recommended, but I note that the application for this project from NW Housing Alternatives was for a total of $5.7 million which I believe included a commitment for  $200,000 from the Clackamas County HOME program. 

I note per the OHCS Director's message that Oregon Tax Credit applications for this cycle far exceeded the amount available, so it is possible the project did not receive the full requested funding in the OHCS recommendation.  

I will update this post once I know more about total funding approved for this project. 

Final award determinations will occur at a July 13th Oregon Housing Council meeting.

This Clackamas County housing funding announcement follows two other posts in the last two days highlighting Clackamas County related housing news:

1. A multi PHA jurisdiction  workforce development program that includes the Housing Authority of Clackamas County and 
2. A HACC housing voucher mobility pilot project with Home Forward in Multnomah County, that includes a boost in voucher payment standards for Lake Oswego and West Linn. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update: Portland Metro Housing Choice Gets Big Boost with HACC and Home Forward Voucher Mobility Pilot.

Update: Home Forward has PR on their website HERE. 

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Home Forward and the Housing Authority of Clackamas County have taken a substantial step to improve housing choice for the 7,500+ HUD housing choice tenant based rental voucher holders in Clackamas and Multnomah counties. 

On June 21st Clackamas County Commissioners authorized the Housing Authority of Clackamas County to enter into a housing voucher mobility pilot MOU with HOME Forward that will begin on July 1. The Board for Home Forward had approved a similar resolution on May 15th.

More background and a version of that MOU can be found in Home Forward YTD Board Packages link HERE in the right pane. (Be patient, the file will take a few moments to view; the MOU is from the May 15th meeting and begins at [current] pdf page 163).   

I would check the Clackamas County Housing Authority and Home Forward websites frequently for updated and complete information about this new cross county effort to improve housing choice. 

My understanding is that, effective for new vouchers issued after July 1 (and for vouchers renewing after Sept 1):

1. Voucher holders in each county will be able to freely use their vouchers in either county. 
2. Each county will keep full funding authority for their vouchers, whether used in their county or in the neighboring county. 
3. The two housing authorities have developed a standardized set of understandings about how inspections, rent determinations, and utility allowances will be determined and who does what. 
4. The housing authorities will conduct expanded outreach to landlords and tenants to explain how the changes will work.

Clackamas County Payment Standards Moving to Zip Code Level to Better Capture Local Market Conditions. 
As part of this pilot Clackamas County is also adopting changes in their payment standards to move them to the zip code level for the first time (Home Forward already uses zip code level payment standards).

Use of more localized payment standards can make vouchers more attractive to landlords as rents will better reflect local market conditions and can also lead to expanded housing choice and opportunity for voucher holders. 

Lake Oswego and West Linn Receive Biggest Boosts to Housing Payment Standards
Readers will recall the recent Oregonian LOCKED OUT story HERE that detailed very little use of HUD housing vouchers in Lake Oswego and West Linn. 

Zip codes in Lake Oswego and West Linn (97034, 97035, and 97068) will move to 110% of the HUD published Portland Metro area Fair Market Rent, the maximum level the housing authority can approve. The 2 bedroom voucher payment standard in these three zip codes will increase by 10% to $980 from the prior $891 payment standard. 

Payment standards are also increasing from their current level in other Clackamas County zip codes; I do not have details so you will need to check with Housing Authority of CC for details in these other zip codes.

Note that voucher rents for individual units in both counties will continue to be subject to housing authority rent reasonableness determinations; this means that a voucher rent for a specific unit will not automatically be at the new payment standard for that zip code, but will also reflect the competitive features and condition of the unit.

Editorial Comment: This is the most concerted and coordinated effort I have seen to date to improve housing choice for HUD voucher holders in Oregon. 

I applaud the staff and leadership in both housing authorities for doing the detailed grunt work required to think through the coordination of work flow and the standardization of procedures and also to the HA Boards for having the confidence to move beyond "turf issues". 

I hope that robust outreach to landlords and tenants will address some of the concerns that landlords have historically had about the use of vouchers and will expand voucher holder willingness to consider opportunity areas outside of their normal comfort zone. 

While there are likely to be hiccups along the way that require program tweaks, this effort will test:

1. How willing voucher tenants are to USE the more robust housing choice offered by this pilot.
2. How willing suburban landlords, especially in Lake Oswego and West Linn, are to USE the largest HUD rental program in Oregon. [The absence of LIHTC projects (who are required to accept voucher holders) may impact this metric].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Board Packet Has Annual Moving to Work Report, New Payment Standards at Higher Cost.

Right pane link to Home Forward YTD Board Packages has been updated with material for June 19th meeting. 

• The MTW annual report starts on page 30.
• June 1st payment standard changes are reported starting on page 78, with a map on page 85. Projected  3 year cost of this second round of higher payment standards totals $751,284 vs. $1.3 million for previously approved higher payment standards--an increase of 58% because of this second round of payment standard increases. Total increased 3 year costs because of payment standard increases appears to be $2.051 million.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Oregonian Locked Out Editorial and Home Forward Op Ed.

Sunday Oregonian has editorial HERE following up 4 front page story series earlier this week about affordable/fair housing problems in metro Portland. Editorial calls for regional solution and statewide elimination of discrimination against voucher holders as a source of income. 

Earlier OP-ED from Home Forward Chair and Board member HERE says that vouchers are subject to market forces and indicates need for community wide discussion about role of government in dealing with issues of poverty, race, and ethnicity. 

 

If there are other notable op ed pieces, please feel free to add links as a comment at the bottom of this post. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update-Analysis of Realtor Data: In Blumenauer District, Rate of African American Home Purchase Loans Far Less than Rate of African Americans Getting Rent Help from Home Forward.

Update:  I suppose a simpler short hand way to look at this is that:

• Home Forward is helping 20% of African Americans in Multnomah County (and likely more in this district)
• While all lenders combined are helping 30% of African American households in this district

--------------
Realtors have put up map site HERE allowing pull down of select home ownership information by Congressional District.

Interestingly, the PDF HERE for Congressman Earl Blumenauer, which includes the east side of Portland and Multnomah County:

• Shows a total of 94 home purchase loans to African Americans in 2010 and a 30% home ownership rate for African Americans in this district. .
• While the 2010 ACS estimate HERE for African American households in this district is 16,059.
• That means that home purchase loans went to 5.9 out of all 1,000 African American households in this district in 2010. [94/16,059=.59% x 1,000=5.9 per 1,000].
• If we use the lesser share of only current African American renter households in the district (70%) this would mean that there were 11,241 [16,059 x 70%=11,241] potential African American renter households who could get home purchase loans. This conservative estimate would increase the rate of 2010 home purchase loans to 8.4 loans per 1,000 African American renter households in this district. [94/11,241=.84% x 1,000=8.4 per 1,000].

Home Forward Rate of Housing Assistance Was 24-24 Times The Rate of Home Purchase Loans to African Americans in this District
As a frame of reference, recall that the recent Oregonian Locked Out series indicated that Home Forward rental housing programs helped one in five ( I.E. a rate of 200 out of 1,000) African American households in Multnomah county. That's a rate of assistance 24 to 34 times the rate of home purchase loans to African Americans in this district in 2010.[200/ 5.0=34 X; 200/8.4=24 X].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Payment Standards Changing April 1.

I have updated the Home Forward YTD Board Packages link in the right pane to include the material for the March 20th. Board meeting. 

On current page 109 you will see a recommendation to raise 1 and 2 bedroom payment standards in selected areas effective April 1st. 

You will see that the staff backgrounder indicates that this could mean a loss of some 182 vouchers because of the higher costs required for the new payment standards. 

The staff recommendation is to also allow a 6 month initial lease period, to mirror the practice now required by some landlords in a tight rental market.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Tuesday Public Hearing on Moving to Work Draft Plan for FY 2013, Including Voucher Mobility Provisions.

I have added the Tuesday December 13th Board Package to the Home Forward YTD Board Packages link in the right pane [meeting starts at 6:45 this month]. As is frequently the case the Board package has some goodies.  (This December package completes the CY 2011 Home Forward Board Packages, all [searchable] 766 pages).

On pages 26-32 you will find an Oregon Legislative report.

In addition this meeting will serve as the public hearing for the draft FY 2013 Moving to Work Annual Plan. While I have not read the entire document yet, there are some mobility related restrictions and incentives that caught my eye; I will read and I highly recommend to others reading the draft plan and submitting written testimony or testifying at the public hearing.

Mobility Related Provisions

The full draft MTW Draft Plan can be found HERE, and the mobility related sections start on PDF page 18: 

1. As a cost cutting measure Home Forward is proposing to RESTRICT mobility and to  

..deny requests for portability moves to another jurisdiction when:

• The receiving housing authority intends to administer, rather than absorb, the voucher; and
• The combination of higher payment standards and/or more generous subsidy standards would result in a higher payment standard for the household than the payment standard applicable within Home Forward’s jurisdiction.

Home Forward will make exceptions to this policy and will allow households to use portability to move to a higher cost area in any of the following circumstances:

• A member of the household has confirmed employment in the new area;
• A member of the household is confirmed to be enrolled in school [emphasis added] or in a training program in the new area; or
• A documented household emergency requires the household to move to the new area.

[My read is that this restriction would not apply if families have a child enrolled in school for the new area].

2. Conversely, Home Forward is proposing to offer some limited landlord INCENTIVES related to mobility (PDF page 42):

Landlord incentive program: Home Forward will implement a landlord incentive program to attract new landlords and units in low poverty areas to the Housing Choice Voucher program. 

In its initial year of testing, the program will offer a one time, $100 incentive payment for each eligible unit a landlord leases to a Housing Choice Voucher participant. A landlord will be eligible to receive up to ten incentive payments per multifamily complex. 

Eligible units must be located in zip codes considered low-poverty areas and not have had a Housing Choice Voucher tenant in the prior 24 months.  

[It's not clear to me if prior 24 months restriction relates to project or to zip code]. 

3. Elsewhere in plan (PDF page 12) HF indicates that they will be providing some mobility counseling to voucher holders:

Home Forward has been awarded a grant from Metro to work collaboratively with the three neighboring housing authorities to develop tools to provide mobility counseling to Section 8 participants. This project, once implemented, will educate Section 8 participants about the costs and benefits of choosing housing in various locations, and provide them with tools for comparing the relative costs of living in various areas. The goal for this project is to reduce the combined housing and transportation costs for Section 8 participants.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Moving Forward Board Materials Update Includes Summary of East Multnomah County Activities and Multnomah Zip Code Map Showing Voucher Use.

I added materials from last weeks Home Forward Nov 15 board meeting to the Home Forward YTD Board Packages  link in the right pane. 

This file now includes nearly 700 pages from 9 different Board meetings. While it is large [currently 37MB's] it contains a lot of very useful, and searchable, background material, as illustrated by the materials for November:

On current page 23, you will find a 20+ page report from Policy Director Betty Dominquez on HF activities in East Multnomah County.  

Page 31 includes counts of Section 8 vouchers by Multnomah county zip codes for 2010, while Page 32 includes counts of Section 8 vouchers by zip code in 2011.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Board Packet Includes Materials on Upcoming Rent Reforms and Other Changes.

The Home Forward YTD Board Packages link in the right pane has been updated with materials for the Tuesday, October 18th Board meeting. Meeting is 6:15 PM at Multnomah County Building 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

In reading the packet I noticed briefing materials on significant rent reforms planned for implementation in April of 2012. 

From the Executive Director's Report to the Board, a summary of those changes: 

...we are moving to calculating rent on gross income and eliminating a web of deductions that were intrusive for our residents and consumed inordinate staff time.

For seniors and persons with disabilities, we will set rent at 27.5 percent of gross income, with triennial reviews and no minimum rent. [Note: My calculation is that 65% of HF  Public housing residents and about 50% of all HF tenant based voucher tenants are either elderly or disabled, so this appears to be a significant reduction in income verification workload].

For residents who are able to work, we will calculate rent at 27.5 percent of gross income for the first two years, and then increase it to the higher of 29 percent or a minimum rent of $100 a month in years three and four. Under the new system, a resident whose income increases will have a longer time before their rent increases.

Beyond four years, rent for residents able to work will be calculated at the higher of 31 percent or a minimum rent of $200 a month. Reviews will occur every two years for
these residents.

The new rent calculation will result in lower rents for the majority of our residents and higher rents for some. We’ve developed a phase-in and hardship policy that will cap
increases in certain cases and prevent excessive rent burdens in others. Work on implementation began in February. Rents will be calculated under the new
system starting April 1, 2012.  

If you want to see the extensive planning and work that went into developing and implementing the rent reform changes take a look at "Attachment A" (PDF pages 28 to 31) to October 18th package. It 

Changes Go Beyond Rent Reform: 
In addition to the rent reform changes, Home Forward is also making multiple changes to their Admissions and Continued Occupancy Plan [for PUBLIC Housing] (see PDF pages 52-71) and their Section 8 Administrative Plan (see PDF pages 72-79). 

One example from the Admissions and Continued Occupancy Plan [for Public Housing]: HAP will now define "senior" as age 55 and older, instead of the prior definition of senior as age 62 and older. 

One More Thing: Hillsdale Terrace Name Change; Relocation Update. 
The proposed new name for Hillsdale Terrace is Stephens Creek Crossing. Packet materials also indicate this relocation update:

" Forty-four households will be relocated. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided sixty Section 8 vouchers for the project"

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward YTD Board Packages Updated with June 21 Meeting Materials.

"HAP" link in right pane has been changed to read Home Forward YTD Board Packages.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.