Neighborhood Partnerships

In the July 22, 2011 edition of Street Roots, we recap the 2011 Legislative Session for housing. Purchase a copy today from a Street Roots vendor downtown, or read the article here. The full text is below:

The State Legislature has been adjourned for over two weeks now, and we’re a little more than two weeks into the new state budget. The dust is settling, but the full impact of the work of the Legislature on Oregonians struggling to make ends meet won’t be known for many months.
We all need a safe, stable place to call home. Our state and our communities are stronger and better when everyone has access to opportunity, which comes from having a place to call home.

The Oregon Housing Alliance—a coalition of organizations from across the state concerned about the lack of affordable housing—has worked along with other housing advocates since 2004 to secure the resources we need to create strong communities across Oregon. The Oregon Housing Alliance made progress this past legislative session, but it was not nearly enough. Our victories were important: we secured funding to help preserve existing affordable housing across Oregon; protected tools such as the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit and others to help build new affordable housing; we protected funds for emergency rent assistance; we helped pass protections for tenants living in foreclosed properties; and we worked in coalition with partners to prevent the worst of the cuts to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

Despite these small gains, this Legislative session was a disaster for low income Oregonians. The prolonged recession and the continuing shortage of affordable housing have left too many of our neighbors at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Too many of our families and neighbors are struggling to keep both a roof over their head and food on the table.

Devastating cuts were made to essential services and supports, and we know that the impacts of these choices will hit hardest and be hardest felt by those who are already hurting. While we made progress on many fronts, overall we have stepped backwards this session. Protecting the most vulnerable among us and maintaining a strong safety net is one of the core functions of our government. The Legislature should make decisions that uphold and advance this purpose.

Instead, the Legislature made a choice in the 2011 session to pass a budget for human services and housing that will barely keep emergency services afloat during the next two years. The decisions made will have far reaching and very real consequences that will include thousands of Oregonians unable to access emergency rent assistance or affordable housing, or the supportive services they need to get back to work. When the Legislature returns in 2012 and 2013, we need them to be ready to make choices that will put all of our options—including new revenue—on the table, and we need them to make the best choices for our state.

We need your voice and your help in the coming months to ensure that this happens. We know how to solve the crisis of homelessness and the lack of affordable housing. The solution begins when housing advocates begin to speak louder.

We must do everything we can to build up our voices, to work across issues, and to help legislators understand the impacts of their decisions on the men, women, and children in their districts who need the opportunity that stable housing provides in order to fully engage in their life and their community.

Over the next year, three years and five years, we must work to expand the voices of those concerned about the lack of safe, stable and affordable housing for all Oregonians. We must document the effects of the economic recession, and the effects of the 2011-2013 budget on our neighbors passed by the Legislature this session, and share what’s happening with decision makers. Housing advocates must speak louder and do more to ensure everyone has a place to call home. If we’re going to build a movement across Oregon that speaks out for our communities and our neighbors, we have to shift the conversation in our state from “we can’t” to “we must”, and we need to talk to our neighbors and communities about our vision of what we want our home towns and our state to be, rather than about the budget and the deficit. We can solve the problems we face. We can make sure everyone has a safe, stable place to call home, and the opportunity that comes with it.

Neighborhood Partnerships is pleased to announce that applications are now available for the second round of our Advocates College, thanks to the commitment of our lead trainer, Patrick Bresette of Demos, and the generosity of our funders. The first Advocate’s College was a huge success, and has had immediate benefits for participants. We’ve written about the first round of the Advocate’s College on our blog here, here and here—read all about it! Round Two of the Advocate’s College will:

• First and foremost, our goal is to support established leaders and communications professionals who are working to create an Oregon which offers its diversity of residents opportunities to thrive, pathways out of poverty and disenfranchisement and adequately supported public systems and structures as shared tools for these goals.
• Second, we want to train and support an emerging cadre of leaders and communicators as they work on issues and in cross-issue coalitions to develop messages and materials that resonate and move an advocacy agenda. We will select participants who have a clear issue focus and advocacy or campaign plan, a commitment to strategic communications, and a recognition that building public support for governmental action and resources is an underlying priority. This session of the advocates’ college will prioritize individuals who are doing grass roots organizing or voter engagement.
• And third, we intend to improve communications across issue silos. We want to build our ability to advance a broadly shared view of what it takes to build a state and communities where opportunity is real, asset building is a priority and citizens are engaged in creating the future. We hope to support one another’s efforts to address critical needs, and together address the underlying resource and public will challenges that hamper all of our success.

Dates:
Sessions will be held in Portland from 10 am to 4 pm on four dates:

• Thursday October 27, 2011
• Thursday December 8, 2011
• Thursday January 12, 2012
• Thursday March 15, 2012

Patrick Bresette of Demos will be our lead trainer, assisted by Dr. Liana Winett of Portland State University and Janet Byrd of Neighborhood Partnerships.

Selection Criteria:
Download the full description of the Advocate’s College. The application is now available, and is due at Neighborhood Partnerships by September 9, 2011. Our application and pre-training questionnaire are designed to help us select the cohort most able to put these skills into use, and to tailor our sessions to support their progress.

Questions about the Advocate’s College, the application process or anything else? Email Alison or read more about it.

After more than twelve years in the Jeffrey Center, Neighborhood Partnerships is relocating to new offices on July 11, 2011 to the Board of Trade Building on Southwest Fourth Avenue between Southwest Stark and Oak Streets.  We will be setting up our telephone and computer systems (including email) during the week of July 11.  If you are trying to reach us during that period, we appreciate your patience!  We will do our utmost to respond as quickly as possible that week!

NP’s new address will be 310 Southwest Fourth Avenue, Suite 715; Portland OR 97204, effective July 11.  Until July 11, please use our current address of 1020 SW Taylor, Suite 680; Portland OR 97205.  Our phone and fax numbers, email and website addresses will remain the same.

Save the Date for Rebuilding the Path of Opportunity: An Oregon Asset Builders’ Conference.

The conference will take place at the Oregon Garden on November 9 and 10, 2011.

Early bird registration – for just $90 per person – will open on August 1.  Starting August 1, check http://ida.neighborhoodpartnerships.org for registration information and additional details about the conference.

We look forward to seeing you in November!