Oregon Opportunity Network, a membership organization for affordable housing and community development nonprofits and partners in Oregon, brings together more than 300 professionals to learn from each other and presenters at the industry support conference in Portland. Attendees value the networking, skill-building and innovative idea sharing that the conference sessions provide. Tracks include sessions on leadership, housing development, property management, homeownership and much more!
Scholarships are available. Apply directly to Oregon Opportunity Network by August 4, 2017, to be considered. Priority will be given to rural organizations, culturally specific organizations and those serving the most vulnerable populations.
I was lucky that everything lined up for me to fulfill a dream of owning a home. This was important to me less because homeownership is part of the “American dream,” but because I had experienced the ups and downs of housing stability and access to rentals that came with being a renter.
I have received rent increases with little notice and have felt like I had to choose between food or health care and rent. Once, I delayed going to the doctor for a fractured wrist because I couldn’t afford the health care co-pay and my rent at the same time. I have pleaded with potential landlords to look over my past credit challenges. I have struggled with feelings of unworthiness when I didn’t sound like a rental listing’s ideal renter — sometimes including attributes that were against Fair Housing law. Anytime I moved from one rental to another, I went into debt. It might take me four months to get out of debt or as much as two years, once I factored in the application fees, deposits, moving costs and first and last month’s rent. I spent years chasing ever more affordable rental homes, which helped my immediate financial need but in the long term did not lead to more stability.
Since I became a homeowner six years ago, rents have increased in Portland by 43 percent, while Oregon incomes have only increased by about 6 percent. Rental vacancy rates were around 9 percent when I bought; although the rental market is seeing higher vacancies overall, rental homes that are affordable to lower income tenants have significantly lower vacancies, making it harder to find a home that is affordable to someone with a lower income. Rates for affordable housing now range from 0.5 percent to 4 percent. Today’s rental market of higher rents and low vacancies has been a hard reality especially for low-income renters and often leaves renters vulnerable to poor rental conditions or homelessness.
The importance of naturally occurring affordable housing
There has been a shortage of subsidized rental housing for a long time, but in recent years, there has also been a shortage of affordable private market rental homes. This is important because, in general, the private market has been housing low-income renters in naturally occurring affordable housing, housing that is offered by the market that is more affordable than the general market without subsidies. Since vacancies are extremely low in naturally occurring affordable private market housing, low-income households are experiencing higher housing uncertainty and becoming rent burdened, while the organizations working to help low-income renters find homes are needing to shift to fast-paced market conditions.
As a program officer working on Meyer’s Housing Opportunities portfolio, almost every community and nonprofit I talk to shares heartbreaking stories of families with children living in tents or cars; seniors and people with disabilities on fixed incomes severely rent-burdened; hard-working people not able to find homes in the same town or county where they work; and families doubled up in rental homes to avoid living on the streets.
This is not just a Portland problem. Hood River, Ashland, Roseburg, Salem, Springfield, Vernonia, Bend and more all share similar stories and need. The challenges of securing a rental home and finding a landlord willing to overlook low income has become infinitely harder for renters escaping domestic abuse, with poor credit histories, coming out of homelessness, who are immigrants, who have criminal histories, with past evictions, and from protected classes.
Meyer’s focus on private market rentals
Meyer’s Private Market Units strategy was developed in response to the rapidly changing housing market and nonprofit community partners’ call for Meyer to identify effective and replicable strategies to expand low-income renters’ access to safe, decent, affordable housing through existing private market units in urban, suburban and rural markets.
In past three years, Meyer has funded 14 demonstration projects, focused on trying a variety of approaches ranging from security deposit loans to landlord outreach and education, renter ready-to-rent classes, and placement and retention support. The demonstration projects tested assumptions about private market landlords’ engagement and risk mitigation, low-income renters’ needs and barriers, and traditional placement strategies. Demonstration projects that have generally been most successful engaged landlords early in the development of projects and made changes to their approach based on landlord feedback. Demonstration projects that were less successful often reached out to landlords late in the process after the project was developed and launched. Also, some grantees struggled working in communities that had extremely low vacancy rates with limited housing stocks. This was true for urban, suburban and rural communities.
Lessons learned with private landlords
Demonstration projects that responded to real-time challenges in the market and engaged private market landlords early in the project planning process were the most successful because they could ground-truth their assumptions and adjust their projects early in development. The Housing Authority of Jackson County (HAJC) launched a demonstration project offering security deposit loans to its Section 8 voucher renters (Housing Choice voucher) while its market had less than a 1 percent vacancy rate and skyrocketing rents. HAJC tested their assumption that many of their Section 8 voucher holders were struggling to secure rental homes not because they had a voucher but because they lacked the funds to move in once approved. Section 8 voucher holders who received a 0 percent interest security deposit loan with a 12-month repayment schedule could find and secure a rental home faster with less stress about having to return their voucher or where they would pull together the needed funds for their deposit. Landlords also responded positively to the loan recipients knowing that they could repay a loan. HAJC has since replicated its model in two other communities in coordination with the local public housing authorities.
Northwest Pilot Project (NWPP) partnered with Home Forward and Urban League of Portland to respond to immediate challenges low-income seniors were experiencing with displacement. They tested the assumption that private market landlords wouldn’t be willing to participate and that low-income seniors would not be able to stay in high-priced rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Many of the seniors had been living in their rental homes for years and were barely keeping up with rising rents on their fixed incomes. This collaborative developed a demonstration project matching these seniors with Section 8 vouchers. The collaborative partners were able to educate the landlords early in the program about the Section 8 program and the benefits of keeping the renters. As they learned from each landlord experience they adjusted their approach for the next landlord as appropriate. Ultimately, all of the landlords approached through the demonstration project were willing to participate in the project and one-third of the landlords had never participated in the Section 8 program before. On average, seniors had a rent reduction of $663 by participating in this program.
Northwest Housing Alternatives (NHA) partnered with Legal Aid Services of Oregon and Portland Defender to test multiple strategies to increase housing access for low-income renters with barriers including low-level criminal histories. This collaborative tested assumptions about what barriers private market landlords would be willing to overlook and which ones they viewed as high risk and non-negotiable. Their tenant participants are not only low-income but often also have criminal histories, past landlord debts, past eviction rental histories and poor credit histories and lacked an identification card or a driver’s licence, etc. A number of tenants struggle with multiple housing barriers, making it difficult to identify which barrier is most challenging for a landlord. This collaborative worked to overcome several rental barriers through a variety of strategies, including expunging eligible criminal histories, paying past landlord debts, paying for participants to secure identification cards or a driver’s license, offering a landlord guarantee with participation and having eligible past evictions removed from tenants’ records.
Early in the project, NHA found that the barriers landlords were most averse to were past debts and fear of future debt. NHA’s most effective strategies to successfully house renters through this project have been to pay past landlord debts, offering landlord guarantees and to build a trusting relationship as an agency with the landlords. Many of the the landlords they worked with in this project were willing to overlook past criminal histories, limited incomes and past evictions as long as they felt that they could recover debt if the placement wasn’t successful. In the long run, NHA recognizes that removing the other barriers such as eligible criminal histories will be helpful for future long-term stability, but for now they found they were able to find several landlords willing to offer housing opportunities as long as their main concerns were mitigated. NHA’s ability to build relationships with landlords early in the process to understand their concerns and risks with renting to tenants with several barriers was crucial to success.
HAJC, Northwest Pilot Projects and NHA were successful because they engaged private market landlords early in the process to help inform the development of their demonstration projects and to ground-truth their assumptions. Some of the most impactful lessons Meyer learned through this funding strategy were how crucial it is to have buy-in and input from private market landlords in the project development, the need for grantees to be flexible and responsive to landlords concerns and open to their engagement, and to understand the needs and challenges of the specific renter population each group is working with.
When strategies no longer work in current market conditions
Some of the funded projects that were less successful taught us that strategies that were once effective when vacancy rates were higher are less effective now either because they no longer offered landlords a meaningful incentive in this market or they don’t meet the interests or needs of renters. For example, strategies such as a housing navigator were largely unsuccessful if the navigator was not able to offer immediate incentives to landlords, such as higher deposits or having an immediate rental start date. Also, renter readiness classes often did not seem to match to the needs of renters or landlords and proved less successful in getting placements. Projects that were a closer match to renters’ barriers and immediate needs had higher participation and project compliance.
Through this funding strategy, we noticed that projects were less impacted by geographical conditions than strategy and early buy-in from the local landlord community. In suburban and rural communities especially, engaging landlords early and and building an agency relationship was crucial to success. Landlords in many communities were open and interested in participating in these demonstration projects but were clear about needing to have their real concerns heard and addressed.
For plenty of folks, getting access to stable and affordable housing in the private market is a good step toward stability. Through Meyer’s Private Market Strategy, we have seen solid success for our partners that engage with and learn from landlords and renters, test assumptions and forge a wide circle of partners. And as funders, we can help renters increase housing access and stability by funding groups to test new strategies and being flexible when our partners need to adapt their projects to emerging landlord and renter needs. We are encouraged that private market strategies can help address Oregon’s housing crisis.
AHI program Officer Elisa Harrigan at home, in front of her "Latin wall," filled with ceramic home models, a nod to tradition in her home country of El Salvador.
Our partners have consistently emphasized to Meyer the urgent need for better coordination and alignment between affordable housing providers and services that help people stay housed and thrive. We are once again offering a Request for Proposals from innovative and impactful efforts working to overcome barriers to collaborating across systems.
Lessons from 2015 Projects
Projects funded in 2015 illustrate the breadth of systems that benefit from a stronger connection with affordable housing.
Catholic Community Services of the Mid Willamette (Marion County) linked housing assistance and foster care diversion, along with the local Early Learning Hub.
Columbia Gorge Health Council (Hood River and Wasco counties) piloted a “Pathways” model of paying for outcomes including housing, health care and other social services.
Community Action Partnership of Oregon, in partnership with ACCESS and Klamath-Lake Community Action Services (Statewide, with a focus on Jackson, Klamath and Lake counties) created better coordination between housing resources and the Department of Human Services, with a focus on foster care diversion and child welfare.
Enterprise Community Partners (Portland Metro) piloted a fund mirroring Medicaid flexible benefits for housing-related costs to show housing and health benefits.
REACH/Housing With Services (Multnomah County) incorporated health, nutrition and other social services in affordable housing buildings downtown.
United Way of Lane County (Lane County) integrated housing issues in the local Early Learning Hub and brought early learning and health programs to affordable housing.
Worksystems Inc. (Multnomah and Washington counties) linked housing and employment support.
Each of these projects reinforced the growing mountain of evidence for the connections between housing stability and other issues that make the difference between thriving and not: strong families, good health, and success in education and employment. We also learned quite a bit about the barriers to effective collaboration from talking with these grantees and reflecting on their progress and challenges — barriers such as legal and privacy challenges around data sharing, overcoming inertia and turf issues, and misaligned incentives and basic risk-aversion.
The New RFP
As in 2015, Meyer is taking a broad approach to the challenge of systems alignment, welcoming proposals from both new coalitions and more established collaborative efforts, aiming to improve the connection between affordable housing and other systems, especially for populations with specific and difficult housing challenges (including survivors of domestic violence, young adults aging out of foster care and ex-offenders re-entering society).
These grants are not meant for fairly straightforward work bringing a specific service to an affordable housing project (important as that work can be, it’s a better fit under our annual Housing Opportunities funding round). Rather, by supporting focused collaborative efforts engaging specific issues across multiple systems, Meyer expects to assist the broader fields of affordable housing and supportive services by:
Highlighting replicable models of successful collaboration, identifying specific strategies to promote effective cooperation across systems or service providers
Identifying and addressing significant policy or systems barriers to better coordination
Documenting the potential to deliver better outcomes (including cost savings or other opportunities to better leverage scarce resources) through effective collaboration
More detailed information on the RFP is available here: mmt.org/rfp
Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI) identifies housing advocacy as a key strategy for advancing a broader agenda around improving access to safe, decent and affordable housing around the state. Whether in the form of grass-roots organizing, policy research and analysis, coalition-building, or well-designed messaging, advocacy can help to draw attention to urgent housing challenges and elevate the conversation statewide and in local communities.
Meyer’s housing team recognizes that there is special urgency around housing issues across the state right now. The steep climb in housing costs has elected officials, community leaders and housing advocates scrambling for tools and solutions to ease the burden on low-income Oregonians, and the issue was front-and-center at the Legislature last session like never before.
This spring, Meyer announced the AHI’s third Request for Proposals to support community-driven public policy advocacy and community organizing aimed at expanding the availability of affordable housing to low-income Oregonians. We again invited proposals for up to two years, with eligibility broadly defined to include projects that increase the number and diversity of voices engaged in housing advocacy and that promote concrete policy and systems changes at both the local and statewide levels.
The Meyer housing team reviewed the 22 proposals received from across Oregon in response to the RFP, totaling almost $1.4 million in requests. Altogether, 12 grants totaling $717,000 over the next two years were approved.
This RFP allowed proposals under two categories:
“Campaign Leader” grants of up to $60,000 per year for 1-2 years for focused and targeted efforts with a clear policy or systems change goal led by a strong coalition of partners with a credible plan to succeed
“Advocacy Mobilizer” grants of up to $30,000 per year for 1-2 years, to support community organizing at an earlier stage of organizing than Campaign Leaders, or work focused on broader base-building, issue identification, etc.
The intent of the RFP was summarized in five specific outcomes:
More effective and strategic housing advocacy and organizing in communities around the state and in the Oregon Legislature
Increased support for affordable housing by policy-makers and the general public
Measurable progress on local and/or state-level policies or systems changes that increase resources for affordable housing and/or reduce barriers to affordable housing access and development
An expansion in the number and diversity of stakeholders and constituencies engaged in affordable housing advocacy across the state
Effective, replicable models and strategies for organizations seeking to improve the effectiveness of their advocacy efforts
Consistent with Meyer’s focus on equity, the RFP criteria emphasized benefiting communities of color, culturally specific organizations, and underserved rural communities in both expected outcomes and in the design and implementation of projects.
Meyer is pleased to support these 12 projects:
CAMPAIGN LEADERS
1000 Friends of Oregon (Multnomah County)
Portland for Everyone - $65,000
To support Portland for Everyone in mobilizing a coalition of advocates, community-based organizations, neighborhoods and local businesses that will urge Portland City Council to make inclusive and equitable land-use policy decisions that expand housing choice and availability
To expand and support a broad-based, progressive coalition, led by Oregon Opportunity Network and Oregon Center for Public Policy, to reform Oregon's mortgage interest deduction and investment in affordable housing statewide
ADVOCACY MOBILIZERS
CASA of Oregon (10 counties in eastern Oregon)
Eastern Oregon Housing & Asset Building Network - $60,000
To establish a network of housing and asset-building providers in rural eastern Oregon to create a common agenda, shared measurements, continuous communication, mutually reinforcing activities and backbone support
Habitat for Humanity of Oregon (Statewide)
Empower and Mobilize Oregon Affiliates for Successful Local Advocacy -$40,000
To empower all 29 Oregon Habitat for Humanity affiliates to conduct successful local advocacy efforts
MACG Vision (Clackamas and Marion counties)
Clackamas Mobilization - $60,000
To mobilize members of faith organizations and other housing advocates in Clackamas County and northern Marion County, including individuals directly impacted by the area’s housing crisis, to advocate for more resources and policies to support affordable housing
OPAL (Portland Metro)
Southwest Corridor Coalition - $60,000
To build a lasting coalition led by low-income residents focused on equitable housing and community investments without displacement as the Portland region plans new high-capacity transit along the Southwest Corridor
Oregon Center for Public Policy (Statewide)
A Rent Assistance Program for Oregon - $50,000
To analyze and develop policy concepts for state-funded rent assistance to address the plight of Oregon families most at risk of becoming homeless
Oregon Food Bank (Statewide)
Engaging New Housing Advocacy Voices from the Food Assistance World - $46,000
To increase the number and diversity of housing advocates by bringing the voices of clients, organizations and volunteers involved in food assistance throughout Oregon into the movement for affordable housing
Oregon Opportunity Network/Welcome Home Coalition (Portland Metro)
Welcome Home Coalition - $60,000
To mobilize advocates, volunteers and partner organizations to establish reliable, dedicated revenue sources in the Portland region to fund homelessness prevention, affordable housing and homeownership programs
ROSE Community Development (Multnomah County)
97266 Housing Leadership Team - $60,000
To bring together diverse community members, to build leadership and power to fight against displacement in Portland’s Lents neighborhood, and to support and lead local housing advocacy initiatives
Street Roots (Statewide)
Street Roots Rural Housing Reporting Project - $36,000
To develop dedicated reporting on rural housing issues to help bridge the rural/urban divide in Oregon and promote better understanding of issues communities across the state face and the common ground that all can rally around
Housing Advocacy in Corvallis and Benton County - $60,000
To support a housing advocacy campaign that will engage diverse and underrepresented people in securing the resources needed to improve housing resources in Corvallis and throughout Linn and Benton counties
This slate of grants represents a diverse range of approaches from public policy research and analysis to grass-roots organizing to sophisticated and strategic efforts to influence statewide priorities and resources. Geographically, these grants include projects focused on some of Oregon’s most under-resourced and isolated counties, areas where activism and energy are really blossoming like Corvallis and Clackamas County, and statewide projects focused on bringing more of what Israel Bayer of Street Roots calls “unexpected messengers” — people speaking to housing issues whom one might not expect — to inform discussions around affordable housing needs and solutions.
As part of our emphasis on shared learning and informing the field, Meyer will convene a gathering of advocacy grantees in late summer/early fall to build connections, compare notes and forge alliances.
Tillamook County Housing Task Force recently completed a housing assessment to identify short-term solutions to address the extreme housing crisis in Tillamook County.
Here is a preview of what Erin Skaar, Executive Director of CARE, had to say:
Ask anyone in the county what the most critical issues facing the county are, and housing will be in the top three,” said Skaar.
Unscientific opinion polls last year showed that 80 percent of those answering the poll agreed – housing, especially affordable housing, is a serious problem in Tillamook County.
“What makes this such an important issue for Tillamook County is that it is not just low income housing that is not available, it is all types of housing,” Skaar said.
The Tillamook Headlight Herald dives deeper into the story and report here.
Meyer grantee Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare scored a big win in New Markets Tax credits to build a 52-unit apartment complex for low-income individuals, homeless veterans and people with mental illness. The building will also house an on-site medical team coupled with mental health and addiction services.
Portland Business Journal covers the $28M investment in Northeast Portland here:
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, a nonprofit that provides housing and health care services to people living with mental health and addiction issues, has secured $4.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits for its Garlington Center. The investment, a partnership with National Community Fund, a Community Development Entity affiliated with United Fund Advisors, will help fund the $28 million project, which is currently under construction at 3034 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
“We are striving to create a valued space where being mindful and treating the whole body is easy and accessible for our community,” –Dr. Derald Walker, President and CEO of Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.
As Portland rents relentlessly rise, seniors can face an impossible choice: pay rent or buy groceries? The situation, a familiar one in cities and towns across Oregon, leaves elders at risk of losing their homes when Social Security or disability payments no longer come close to covering the rent.
The Oregonian reported about the rent hikes and evictions that threaten some of the city's lowest income residents:
Over the past 12 years, Social Security payments have lagged significantly behind the rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Portland. They were about equal in 2005. Now, the same apartment is upwards of $1,000 a month while Social Security payments have increased to only about $733 a month, according to federal and county data.
That leaves many seniors finding that they just aren't going to earn enough to bridge the gap between what they make and what they owe until Portland's housing crisis wanes. Even those who live in tax-credit subsidized housing, which means the units rent at 60 percent of median area income, are struggling to stay in their homes.
There also are no shelters in Multnomah County specifically for senior citizens, though they and people with disabilities get priority in some shelters -- and are using them more than ever. In fiscal 2015, 885 seniors were housed in shelters. In the first three quarters of fiscal 2016, the number rose to 948 seniors.
Partly that's because the number of shelter beds across the county increased. Partly it's because more seniors are becoming homeless. Between 2013 and 2015, there was a 23 percent jump, according to the 2015 county survey of homeless people.
The article references a $90,000 two-year advocacy grant awarded by Meyer's Affordable Housing Initiative in 2015 to the Urban League of Portland to improve access to affordable, accessible, culturally-appropriate and safe housing Oregon's African American communities.
You can read the full story by reporter Molly Harbarger here.
Multnomah county’s new idea to fight homelessness idea: Build tiny houses in people's backyards and rent them out to families with children now living on the streets.
The Oregonian wrote about the four tiny houses scheduled to launch June 2017:
Once in the tiny houses, the families will plug into existing county services, including a mobile team that helps people stay in their homes after experiencing homelessness. That includes resolving disputes with landlords, helping manage unexpected expenses and job help.
A family of four costs $32,000 a year to house and help in a shelter. That same family could be supported in one of the pilot project's tiny houses for $15,000 a year during the five-year contract.
A recent interview with Hispanics in Philanthropy shone a spotlight on Affordable Housing Initiative program officer Elisa Harrigan and the work Meyer has been doing around defending the rights and safety of immigrants.
The dialogue with Elisa begins with grantmaking sparked by immigration executive orders in early 2017:
After the recent immigration executive orders by the U.S. president, Meyer’s CEO Doug Stamm responded swiftly. In a post, Stamm called the orders “hateful and inexcusable and counter to the principles of our republic,” and said the foundation group “must stand for the rights of all people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community.” As a symbol matching its pocketbook to its principles, the trust has announced $190,000 in grants to organizations on the front lines of immigration battles.This included $20,000 each to the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Oregon and Unite Oregon, a local organization focused on racial justice.
The grants are only the latest Meyer moves dedicated to improving cultural outreach. According to Elisa Harrigan, a Latina leader and officer at Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative, the organization has worked hard to become more responsive to the needs of underserved Oregonians. Her presence is one example of that change.
It’s an exciting time of year for us at Meyer — our Annual Funding Opportunity is now open! We relish the chance to learn about the interesting and passionate work our partners are doing to strengthen communities and ensure every Oregonian has a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.
Details of our application process are available on our website, and general updates regarding the Annual Funding Opportunity are outlined in this blog by Candy Solovjovs, Meyer’s Director of Programs.
Since we announced the first group of awards under the new Housing Opportunities portfolio, the Meyer housing team has been taking time to reflect on the process. We had a plan for how the process would go, and on the whole, it panned out as we expected. Where we saw reality diverging from our expectations, we knew there was room for simplification, clarification or both.
We’ve also weighed the survey feedback from the 2016 applicants, who were frank in their assessments of what worked smoothly and, even more importantly, of what areas needed attention.
As a result, we have made changes to this year’s Annual Funding Opportunity. The changes are fine-tuning, rather than sweeping. Here are some answers to questions you might have about the changes:
Will Meyer’s goals for the Housing Annual Funding Opportunity change?
No. The core funding goals of Housing Opportunities remain the same:
Preserve and increase the number of affordable housing rental units.
Support the housing stability and success of Oregonians living on low incomes.
Strengthen the housing sector by building capacity, diversity, equity and inclusion, and collaboration.
You’ll see some refinements in the wording of the funding goals. We hope these will add emphasis and clarity about the types of proposals we are hoping to fund. Everything else from last year’s funding call stands.
What did we learn from last year’s Annual Funding Opportunity?
We funded 39 exciting projects in the 2016 annual funding call. In my November blog, I noted that the batch of proposals was extremely diverse, encompassing both solid and proven approaches and new, innovative efforts to address affordable housing needs across our three funding goal areas. The slate of awards reached many corners of the state, and over 20 percent of awards were made to organizations that were new to Meyer or had never been funded before.
We also learned of some challenges in our process, leading us this year to reconsider our process and seek clarification. Some observations from the Housing Opportunities team:
We seemed out of sync with the state’s Local Innovation and Fast Track (LIFT) Housing Program. Many of the potential LIFT projects that applied to Meyer were early in the process, not quite fleshed out, and did not fare well in our funding.
Several proposals under Goal 2 were challenged to show how they would, beyond an indirect way, lead to greater housing stability and success. For example, we saw proposals that would help people gain more income. This could translate into housing stability but only if the project was intentional in helping participants to overcome other housing barriers — and if it measured housing stability.
It was challenging to align a project with complicated financing — especially those using tax credits — with our annual funding call. Some projects came in quite late and asked Meyer for “top off” funding, while others were quite early in the process.
Our process did not take into account some of the more complicated mixed-use housing developments.
Although many proposals included specific diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI) activities, few proposals were focused overall on DEI.
Incorporating what we’ve learned, what has changed in this year’s Annual Funding Opportunity?
Goal 1: Preserve + Increase the Number of Affordable Housing Rental Units
At a basic level, we know Oregon has a chronic shortage of affordable housing, making support of both preservation and new development a crucial part of the portfolio’s goals.
Because the initial batch of LIFT awards has been announced, we expect to see applications that are farther along and likely more competitive. Projects that were eligible for LIFT but were turned down last year are encouraged to apply again if their project has secured LIFT funding and they meet Meyer guidelines.
We expect the uncertainty of potential federal tax reform to continue to have an effect on tax credits and to challenge current developments in the pipeline. To the extent possible, applicants to this goal area should anticipate and consider other plans for pulling together the necessary financing.
We gave guidance last year that any mixed-use projects should seek Meyer’s support for just the affordable housing portion of a project. We will be more flexible this year and are willing to fund other aspects of a mixed-use project when crucial to project completion. If this situation applies to your project, you’ll want to have a conversation with our housing team staff.
Goal 2: Support the Housing Stability + Success of Oregonians Living on Low Incomes
The description of Goal 2 was modified to focus on housing stability and success. To be most competitive here, projects should not be structured to help people succeed generally, but rather to have a more direct connection to housing. We expect to see projects that propose to track or measure the actual experience of people to access or retain housing, advance toward housing stability or mitigate displacement pressures.
Goal 3: Strengthen the Housing Sector by Building Capacity, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Collaboration
We described this goal last year as strengthening the housing sector by building capacity and long-term health. Yet the outcomes we were hoping to see focused on building capacity, fostering collaboration and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion across the sector. The phrasing of the goal now better aligns with the outcomes here.
Meyer supported several projects with some DEI-focused technical assistance, but we also want to consider longer and deeper equity work. We will, therefore, be offering general operating support grants to organizations that do the majority of their work in affordable housing and have DEI strategies as a meaningful part of their work plans for the grant period. These grants are expected to be more competitive, and if you are interested, please carefully read the guidelines on general operating grants.
Once again, Meyer will be offering a series of general information sessions around the state. In addition, three Housing Opportunities Information Sessions will be conducted by phone March 24, March 31 and April 6. You can sign up for the Housing Information Sessions on our website. If you have questions around your specific project, feel free to contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) or 503-228-5512. We’ll route the questions to our team members for a prompt reply.
We were thrilled last year to receive a range of interesting, complex and creative proposals, and we have no doubt that this year’s proposals will be equally impressive. Know that your partnership is invaluable: Meyer couldn’t do its work if we didn’t have front-line practitioners sharing their experience, learning and perspectives.
We look forward to another opportunity to work with you in the coming year.
