Alison McIntosh, Contributing Columnist
In a few weeks, the Oregon Legislature will convene for the
2013 Legislative Session. The Housing Alliance and our members see an Oregon
where everyone has the safety, security and opportunity that having a stable
home provides. We know that having a home that’s affordable and stable means
parents and adults can work and help provide for their families and kids can
succeed in school. It means that our seniors can live with dignity and grow
older in the communities they helped to build, and it means our veterans can
find stability after serving our country.
We also know that today, this vision is just a dream for too
many Oregonians. Too many of our families and neighbors have to choose between
paying rent and putting food on the table or buying medicine. Too many of our
neighbors don’t have the security and stability that home provides, and too
many of our veterans sleep in doorways.
The Housing Alliance and its members are hard at work to
make our vision of an Oregon where everyone has a safe place to call home a
reality. Our 2013 Housing Opportunity Agenda is wide ranging and ambitious, and
we know it will help make sure more Oregonians have a place to call home. Here
are three of our local efforts this legislative session.
First, we are committed to ensuring that there are funds to
help prevent or end homelessness. We have two successful and effective
approaches — the Emergency Housing Account and the State Homeless Assistance
Program -— that provide funding across the state. Using existing networks of
partners in our communities, they are the first line against homelessness.
These funds help people stay in their homes with emergency rent assistance;
they help people return home through assistance with application fees,
deposits, and a few months of help paying the rent; and they provide emergency
shelter for people seeking safety from a violent situation. These programs have been cut the past few
years as a result of the recession’s impact on the state budget, in spite of
growing need. The Housing Alliance wants to see this funding restored to help
end or prevent homelessness across the state.
Next, we’re working with the Speaker of the House, Rep. Tina
Kotek, on her effort to ensure that tenants with Section 8 vouchers can find a
place to call home. There are a wide range of partners helping to craft an
approach that will make vouchers easier to use for both landlords and tenants.
Section 8 vouchers, which provide rent assistance for thousands of Oregonians
with very low incomes, are an essential tool to keep our neighbors in housing.
We need all of our tools to work as intended.
And finally, we’re making sure we honor our commitments to
our veterans. Too many Oregonians have served their Country, prepared to make
the ultimate sacrifice, and have then come home only to find they can’t get
work or find a stable place to call home.
There are many efforts at the federal level to provide additional
vouchers and end veteran homelessness by 2015. We know we can end homelessness
among veterans, and small amounts of additional state resources will help us
accomplish this goal.
Our request is simple — we want to increase the existing
document recording fee which funds affordable housing by $5 per document to
honor our commitment to veterans. These funds will help us remove barriers that
veterans face in three areas. First, to prevent or end homelessness for
veterans through emergency rent assistance, we need to be able to offer help
with application fees or help with moving into a new apartment. Second, we need
to build housing specifically for veterans who need a little bit of extra
support; and we need to be able to remove barriers by helping with down payment
assistance for veterans who are ready to buy a home. We need to honor our
commitment to veterans by helping to make sure they all have a place to call
home.
We have a lot we’re asking of our State Legislature, and we
need your help to accomplish our goals. We’ll need all of us and our partners
and people that know how important housing is to lend their voices and their
time. So we’re asking you to get
involved in a few ways:
• Join
us. Consider joining the Housing
Alliance as an organization or individual.
Come work along side us this session and help us share the stories about
your community with Legislators.
• Come
down to Salem for Housing Opportunity Lobby Day April 4. We’ll spend the day visiting legislators and
talking about how important it is that everyone have a place to call home.
• Talk
to your legislator about how you believe in an Oregon where everyone has a
place to call home.
We can live in a state where everyone has access to
opportunity and a safe, stable place to call home. We know how to solve homelessness. Together,
we can create an Oregon where we are harnessing the energy, talent and creative
spirit of all of our residents to create a better future for all of us.
The Housing Alliance brings together advocates, local
governments, housing authorities, community development corporations,
environmentalists, service providers, business interests and all others
dedicated to increasing the resources available to meet our housing needs to
support a common statewide legislative and policy agenda. Alison McIntosh is a
policy manager with Neighborhood Partnerships.
This article appears in 2013-01-18.