Neighborhood Partnerships

In August 2010, NP Staff Janet Byrd and Alison McIntosh traveled to Seattle to attend the 2010 Strategies to End Poverty (STEP) Conference, sponsored by STEP and Northwest Area Foundation.  In addition to taking in a Mariner’s game, we learned a lot about coalition building, revenue coalitions, and what’s new in terms of TANF reauthorization and improving unemployment insurance.  We got to spend time with some great Oregon partners, which is sometimes hard to do with our busy schedules. And, Janet moderated a panel featuring Rey Espana of NAYA and Kalima Rose of Policy Link, on the Sustainable Communities Initiative and other system integration efforts.

Revenue Coalitions

States all across the Country are facing extreme budget shortfalls for both the current year and coming year, and Oregon is certainly no exception.  With little prospect for additional federal stimulus dollars, and no appetite for raising taxes, advocates for human services and housing are faced with fighting draconian budget cuts to services for low income families, children, disabled, and the elderly.  One strategy that worked last year in Washington State was to create a Revenue Coalition—Rebuilding our Economic Future—aimed at increasing state revenues through the closing of tax loopholes and sunsetting tax credits.  Oregon advocates will be considering similar approaches—e-mail us if you’re interested in hearing more about what’s going on.

TANF Reauthorization

Legislation which governs TANF, or welfare, is due to expire in September, 2010.  However it is unlikely that TANF will be reauthorized in 2010, and we will likely instead see a series of ‘continuing resolutions’—which just extend spending authority temporarily—for the next one to three years.  Liz Schott from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities presented on the prospects for reauthorization as well as the possibility of an extension for the Emergency Contingency Fund to increase TANF funds due to the recession.

Re-Employment Strategies

We also heard Deborah Schlick of the Affirmative Options Coalition give a great presentation about how, as a result of unequal access to unemployment benefits, TANF has essentially become unemployment insurance for thousands of low wage workers or workers in industries with high turnover such as service industries, retail, and even health care jobs.  As a group, we discussed ways to improve unemployment insurance to make it work for low-wage workers—including extending benefits to temporary workers, part-time workers, low-wage workers, and families.

Overall, it was a great conference filled with interesting presentations, information and connections. We’re looking forward to exploring some of the things we learned, and putting new information into practice here in Oregon.

Since November 2009, Neighborhood Partnerships has had the pleasure of working with Patrick Bresette of Demos. We’ve been learning about the public’s images of government and the economy, and ways to foster more collaborative attitudes among citizens.

Now, we’re working on a very exciting project with Patrick and Larry Wallack, Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University to create an Emerging Leaders Advocacy and Messaging Training.  (Larry was instrumental in helping the Housing Alliance create messages to better communicate the importance of affordable housing.)

The goal of this training, first and foremost 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.

And third, we intend to improve communications across issue silos. We will 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. By working across silos 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.

This training will be based in large part on the research done by Demos on how to communicate the role that government can and should play in the lives of our communities. Demos’ work is grounded in theories of effective communications from cognitive science, cultural anthropology, linguistics and other “framing” studies. Key elements of this theory and practice will shape the training curriculum.

The trainings will be conducted primarily by Patrick Bresette of Demos and Larry Wallack, Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University. Other trainers and speakers will be announced in September.  Applicants must commit to attend all sessions of the training, to be held once per month into the spring of 2011.

Interested in applying to attend the trainings? E-mail us today!  Applications are due August 15, 2010.

Interested in more Demos research? Check out a recent publication from Demos: “Government, The Economy, and We, The People: Creating Public Will to Shape an Economy that Works for All.“

Federal spending on affordable housing and preventing and ending homelessness continues to improve!  We are very pleased that on Thursday, July 1, 2010 the House Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its Fiscal Year 2011 spending bill.  This subcommittee oversees funding for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and sets spending levels for federal housing programs.

Some highlights of the appropriations bill include: A 10% increase to $2.055 billion in funding for HUD’s McKinney-Vento programs which serve homeless families and individuals.  While this is great news, estimates indicate that to fully implement the Hearth Act will require $2.4 billion.  The Hearth Act was the 2009 reauthorization of the McKinney Vento act, and it expanded the definition of homelessness; expanded homelessness prevention activities; and increases efforts to serve homeless families and children, among other things.  (Read a summary here.)

The bill also requested $75 million for additional VA Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers to serve homeless veterans, continued funding for housing programs for seniors and people with disabilities; and increased funding for the tenant based rental assistance program renewals.

The bill does not provide funding for two new HUD initiatives, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, or PETRA (Preservation, Enhancement and Transformation of Rental Assistance). Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is a HUD proposal to replace HOPE VI, a program which was designed to rehabilitate and replace distressed public housing properties.  PETRA is a proposal by HUD to transform its current programs.  The proposed changes would: streamline its current subsidy programs, change the way public housing is rehabilitated and preserved in the future, and promote resident choice.  Advocates for affordable housing and their residents are concerned about some components of PETRA, while HUD asserts that PETRA will be both beneficial and critical to the future of affordable housing.

Funding for the National Housing Trust Fund was not included in this appropriations bill.  Advocates are still hopeful that the Senate will again consider legislation to fund the Trust Fund through the Tax Extenders Bill (HR 4213).  A $1 billion investment into the Trust Fund would bring over $15 million to Oregon.

What’s next?

The Senate Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee will also markup its Fiscal Year 2011 spending bill.

Want to know more?

If you’re interested in learning more, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition are both tracking this issue.  Download the NLIHC summary of spending since FY 2005 and proposed FY 2011 levels.

On Thursday, June 24, Neighborhood Partnerships staff attended the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Interfaith Summit on Homeless Children, Youth, and Families. Over 200 people from across Oregon also attended, including many from the faith community, non-profits, and government.

After an opening interfaith devotional the first panel on Childhood, Youth, and Family Homelessness in Oregon began. Members of this panel gave participants background on the current state of homelessness in Oregon and some of the efforts underway to help those in need. After a short break, the group moved right into an overview of the four small group topics for the afternoon. They included: Shelter and Services; Preventing, Reducing, and Ending Family Homelessness; Education of Homeless Children; and Homeless and Runaway Youth.

The group moved outside to enjoy the sunny weather and hold a walking vigil late morning. We heard a bit about the history of churches marching for social justice. Over lunch keynote speaker Barbara Duffield of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth spoke about why it’s so critical to ensure homeless children have access to education.

Afternoon breakout groups filled the afternoon, with Neighborhood Partnership’s Executive Director Janet Byrd helping to lead the panel on Preventing, Reducing, and Ending Family Homelessness. We talked in our session about the various responses to homelessness, how to contact the folks in your community working on 10 Year Plans, and how churches can and are playing important roles in this effort.

The day ended with a call to action and a discussion about next steps. Neighborhood Partnerships is excited to meet so many folks from across the state who are interested in and committed to ending homelessness in Oregon. We’re looking forward to taking the next steps with our faith-based partners!

If you’re interested in hearing more about the day, or want to get involved moving forward, contact us or Kevin Finney from Ecumenical Ministries.

On June 16, a rainy Wednesday in Salem Oregon, 50 people from across the state joined Neighborhood Partnerships, Oregon Housing and Community Services, JP Morgan Chase, and others in a thoughtful and provocative conversation about minority homeownership.  Victor Merced began the day by calling on all of us to look carefully at what we are doing now that works, and to think about how to do more to close the minority homeownership gap.

A review of available data shows us that we need to create 30,000 or more new homeowners from communities of color to close Oregon’s homeownership gap.  This task will require the hard work of all existing partners, and some creative work to improve our impact, increase the tools we have at our disposal, and increase the resources available to us.

The good news, though, is that partners now hard at work in Oregon know how to accomplish this.  We heard from several speakers about the barriers that we need to overcome in various communities across the state, and reviewed materials gathered from the City of Portland’s Operation Home efforts.  Then, we heard from a diverse panel about a sampling of the successful efforts now underway.  Strategies shared included a tribal-sponsored down payment initiative, maintaining a multi-cultural staff, focus groups and homebuyer clubs, and land trusts to increase affordability.  Creative partnerships, efficient use of resources, and genuine commitment to reaching people in their communities were evident in all the examples shared by the panel and participants.  And we know we just scratched the surface and did not have time to acknowledge all of the expertise in the room.

Regrettably we couldn’t hear from everyone, and we only touched on key strategies. But our goal was to highlight possibility and commit to taking the next steps together to increase resources and political will to close the gap.

Several next steps were identified.

Best practices sharing through practitioner networks. Oregon Opportunity Network will discuss possible next steps for peer learning and sharing.

State funding decisions for use of the document recording fee. Roberto Franco shared timelines for the five program areas to be funded through the document recording fee. Neighborhood Partnerships will track these timelines and processes and facilitate comments on priorities and processes.

Our Oregon plans to continue discussing legislation that would tie financial education to some loan products. Neighborhood Partnerships will track development and facilitate Housing Alliance consideration of proposals.

There was lots of interest in improving our data—on historical trends in homeownership rates, on the impacts of foreclosures, and on lending practices. Neighborhood Partnerships will follow up on these ideas in the coming months.

Email Janet with your thoughts, or let us know what you’d like to be part of in the comments section of the blog!

The Housing Alliance is in the process of setting its 2011 legislative priorities.  While the budget picture for both the remainder of this biennium and next biennium is bleak, the continuing recession and high unemployment mean the need for affordable housing and other safety net services remains critical.

In 2011, we’re considering the following priorities:

Maintain Document Recording Fee Resources for Affordable Housing—Use proceeds of the fee to support development, preservation, homeownership, ending and preventing homelessness, and building capacity of non-profit partners.

Increase the Emergency Housing Account—This is our most flexible resource to end and prevent homelessness. This resource has not been increased since it was created, while the need is growing at an alarming pace.

Preserve Existing Affordable Housing—Existing housing with federal rent subsidies are at risk of loss to market rate, as is housing built and owned by non-profit partners statewide. We cannot afford to lose this precious resource.

Maintain current tools to keep affordable housing affordable—among others, we need to re-structure the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit so that it works in the current financial climate, and maintain state enabling legislation for local property tax abatement programs.

Increase resources to end homelessness through permanent supportive housing construction.

Improve the financial stability and resiliency of Oregon’s minority communities by increasing resources to support minority homeownership.

Continue and expand protections for tenants in foreclosed properties.

Support resident purchases of manufactured home parks.

Support land trusts as an option for affordable home ownership.

The Housing Alliance may also vote to support other proposals that improve the financial well-being of low income Oregonians, who are the residents of affordable housing.  Stay tuned this summer and in early fall as we finalize our agenda.

On Friday, February 12 constituents gathered in Salem for Oregon Thrives’ “Have a Heart Day” in honor of Oregon’s 151st birthday and Valentine’s Day.  Oregon Thrivesis an emerging coalition of advocacy and service organizations in Oregon, and Neighborhood Partnerships is a founding member and participates in the steering committee.  NP staff went to Salem to participate in the event and encourage legislators to have a heart and remember Oregon’s most vulnerable citizens during this special legislative session and these difficult economic times.

After a brief discussion of the day’s issues and schedule, close to 100 constituents left to talk with 65 of their Senators and Representatives.  We spoke to our elected representatives about critical issues facing hard working Oregonians such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Employment Related Day Care (ERDC), and the Emergency Housing Account.  Constituents also passed out Valentine messages thanking legislators for remembering hard working Oregonians during this special legislative session.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon led an interfaith prayer vigil on the steps of the Capitol, drawing attention to the many homeless school children and families.  The vigil was preceded by a conversation focusing on ways to work with schools to serve their homeless students, as well as policy and funding issues.  Janet Byrd lent her expertise to the discussion, focusing on policy and NP’s extensive experience with the issue of family homelessness as a result of its involvement with Bridges to Housing. This discussion was spurred by the 18,000 school-aged children who were homeless for at least some part of the 2008-2009 school year.  The group is planning an interfaith summit on child and family homelessness in late spring.

The afternoon ended with a legislative hearing on increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  Oregon is one of the few states where income tax is still applied to low-income families.  Multiple testimonies cited the ways in which EITC eases the burden on those in Oregon’s lowest tax brackets.  Expanding Oregon’s EITC was the first recommendation made by the Corporation for Enterprise Development in their Assets for Opportunity Scorecard suggesting how Oregon could improve its climate for its most financially vulnerable citizens.  Increasing the EITC from six percent of the federal credit by three points each year until it reaches 18% in 2014 would benefit over 220,000 households throughout Oregon.  It would also help to boost the local economy as EITC dollars are often spent locally and quickly.

Have a Heart Day was a great success!  Together with Oregon Thrives and their other partners we were able to thank many members of the Oregon State Legislature, reminding them to have a heart during the remainder of the February session to ensure that all Oregonians have an opportunity to thrive.

On February 12^th, people from across Oregon will travel to Salem for three important events to support our hardworking neighbors, families, and their children.   We will ask our legislators to “Have a Heart,” with Oregon Thrives; we will join faith leaders for an interfaith prayer vigil for homeless children and families; and we will attend a hearing on the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tool which helps low and moderate income families build assets.

First, we will join with Oregon Thrives and meet in Salem at the State Capitol to support our legislators in continuing to “Have A Heart.”  We will ask our Legislators to continue to work their hardest to find resources to meet the needs of vulnerable Oregonians in our midst.

We’ll convene at 8 am for check in and coffee.  We will begin promptly at 8:30 with a legislative briefing in the Public Services Building, 255 Capitol Street NE, Basement Room A.

After a legislative briefing, participants will move to the state capitol and deliver Valentine messages to their legislators.  Please join us for this special event! RSVP today. (Link to: Claudette@caporegon.org)  Download the invitation here.

Next up, we will participate in an Interfaith Briefing and Dialogue on Homeless Children and Families and Prayer Vigil.  This important event will bring faith leaders from across the state to help draw attention to the growing number of homeless families statewide and the increasing number of homeless children in our public schools.

The interfaith briefing and dialogue, sponsored by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and the Interfaith Project on Homeless Children and Families begins at 10:00 am.  Briefings and discussion will focus on education of homeless children and youth, and on programs that prevent and reduce homelessness.  We’ll meet across the street from the Capitol at the Public Service Building, 255 Capitol Street NE, Basement Room A.

At noon, join us as we move across the street to the capitol steps for a rally and prayer vigil in support of homeless children and families.  Find out more about the Briefing or Prayer Vigil by contacting Kevin Finney or Rev. Chuck Currie.

Last up, at 1:00 pm we will join an important legislative hearing on reducing taxes on low‐income working families by increasing the state Earned Income Tax Credit.  The Earned Income Tax Credit is an important tool which helps low and moderate income families build savings and assets.  Help us show the legislature that we care about our hardworking families and their children in Oregon.  This is a hearing of the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee on SB 1044 in Hearing Room A. Please join us! Questions, please contact us.

If you only come to Salem once in 2010, please come on February 12^th.  Let’s thank our State Legislators for continuing to Have a Heart, and show them how important it is that everyone has a safe place to call home.

Efforts are underway at the national level to fund the National Housing Trust Fund.  The House of Representatives recently passed the “Jobs for Main Street Act” (HR 2847) which would provide $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund, as well as $65 million for project-based housing voucher programs.  However, whether these funds will be included in the Senate version of the bill is still unclear.

A National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) would provide significant benefit to Oregon.  As the bill stands currently, the bill would provide $15 million to Oregon per $1 billion allocated to the trust fund.  These funds would be used to provide housing to those at the lowest incomes – 30% of area median income or lower.   We here in Oregon know that housing gives people an opportunity to build better lives, and we believe that funding the NHTF would provide much needed resources to Oregon.

We want to thank our Senators, especially Senator Jeff Merkley, who recently initiated a letter to President Obama asking that $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund be included in the President’s budget that he will submit to Congress on February 1. Senator Merkley has asked fellow Senators to sign the letter with him. Senator Wyden of Oregon has signed on as well.

Other efforts are moving forward to ensure the Senate provides funding for the National Housing Trust Fund, including a letter by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) which asks fellow Senators to request that the Senate also provide $1 billion for the NHTF and $65 million in housing vouchers.  Read the letter here.

Want to help? Be sure to contact Senator Merkley and thank him for his work to date to make funding for the NHTF a reality. You can also ask whether Senator Merkley is planning to sign onto the letter from Senator Reed.  Senator Wyden has already signed on to this letter.

Want to learn more? Check out the Center for Community Change website or listen to the audio of a call hosted on Tuesday, 1/19/2010 by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in which their President, Sheila Crowley brings us up to date on the latest news.

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Neighborhood Partnerships, along with Oregon Thrives, the Oregon Center for Public Policy and the Oregon Hunger Task Force were fortunate to be able to collaborate and bring Patrick Bresette of the Public Works project of Demos to Portland the week of November 9^th.

Mr. Bresette presented a lecture, “A Case for Government,” In it, he presented Demos’ research  on Americans’ current views of government and strategies to help people think about the often invisible roles of government and a more involved, “citizen – manager” role for themselves.

The lecture was well attended – over 100 people braved the downpour to hear Patrick speak about the public’s images of government and their declining trust in government. Research conducted by Demos indicates that all too often people think about government as partisan bickering and political theater.  He spoke about how to help people rediscover the important functions of government and how everyone can and should play a role in managing those functions. You can download the powerpoint from Tuesday night’s lecture, as well as a two-page handout summarizing the research findings of Demos on this subject.

Thanks are also due to NW Natural for their assistance in hosting a small reception following the training and their generous donation of space for the event.

While in Oregon, Patrick also led two day-long trainings. The first training focused on talking about financial asset building, drawing on his background developing the IDA program for the state of Texas.   This session focused on how to communicate the importance of asset building as tools to expand economic opportunity. Download the powerpoint from this training.

The second training focused on talking about state and local revenue needs.  This training was an extended and more in-depth version of Tuesday’s nights lecture.  Download the powerpoint from this training here.