Metro Tuesday March 2 Work Session Item: Auditor Identified Problems with Follow Up on Functional Plan Reporting Changes.

The Tuesday March 2nd. Metro Council work session includes an agenda item to discuss a just (Feb 22nd.) released Metro Auditor's report on Metro's failure to follow up on changes in performance reporting for the Urban Growth functional plan, following a Metro suspension of performance reporting in November of 2007. (This included suspension of reporting of changes in the supply of affordable housing units).

The Auditor's report can be found HERE.

The last annual performance reporting from Metro on the Urban Growth Functional Plan was published in September 2005, reporting progress as of 2004; a Metro web site with that Urban Growth Report functional plan compliance reporting is HERE.

The Metro 2004 compliance report HERE notes that as of 2004:

"Compliance for Title 7 [The Affordable Housing Title'] was at 62% and only four local governments have met all of the Title 7 reporting requirements."

The Metro response to the poor rate of reporting was to adopt new reduced reporting requirements for local governments, including reporting of changes in the supply of affordable housing. HOWEVER, Metro failed to follow up on this reporting requirement and effectively stopped any reporting on changes in housing supply by suspending reporting in November of 2007 (for a planned two year period).

The Metro Council packet for the meeting is HERE; the meeting is scheduled to start at 1PM, with this agenda item scheduled for discussion at 1:15 PM.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Year to Date HAP 2007 Board Agendas and Minutes Combined into one Single Searchable Document; Innovative HAP Dashboard Report Also Noted

The Housing Authority of Portland (HAP) probably does the best job in Oregon of any HUD grantee of posting for download their individual monthly Board meeting agendas and minutes on their web site HERE. (HAP also posts a regular monthly “Dashboard” of key metrics that is a unique and innovative snapshot of Housing Authority operations. The current dashboard on their website can be found HERE).

HAP is HUD’s largest grantee in Oregon. Kudos to the staff and Board at HAP for their leadership in making Board information readily available in advance of Board meetings and for their continuing improvements in improving the scope and quality of information made available to the public.

To build on HAP’s good work on monthly board reports:
1. I have downloaded the individual monthly year to date Board packets and combined them into a single document HERE. The current PDF file, covering meetings from Jan-July of 2007, is a 4.6 MB download with 497 pages, and may require free Acrobat Reader 7 to view.

2. Within the PDF file I have added a bookmark panel to the left so that you can continue to navigate directly to board packets for an individual month.

3. With this new combined 2007 HAP Board Meetings PDF file, it is possible to do ONE search by keyword within the file and see the results from ALL of the HAP agendas and minutes for 2007. (So for example, one now can find all 88 references to the keyword “New Columbia” from all meetings from Jan-July 2007).

(Note: The combined Board packet link http://www.housepdx.com/pdfs/housing/07hapytdboardpackets.pdf from above will be a permanent link to the most recent combined HAP Board 07 package that I have prepared. You may want to add this URL to your browser “favorites” or “bookmarks” so that you can get easily to the latest combined HAP board packets in the future.)

From HAP's website it appears that their next Board meeting will be in September, so look for the next update of this combined PDF file in mid September.