Members of the Housing Alliance believe that hard-working people should be able to afford housing and still have money left for food and basic necessities.

This isn't the case today.

We know that one in five people in Oregon can't afford the cost of their housing. People are going hungry and doing without medicine for themselves and their kids in order to keep a roof over their heads.

Let's give all Oregonians the opportunity to build better lives. To succeed, we all need a place to call home.

Our Goal:

We must take significant steps towards meeting housing needs in the State of Oregon. To begin addressing these needs, the Legislature can act in two ways

1. Substantially Increase Funding for Housing Development and Support Programs, with a long-term goal of increasing to $100 million per biennium. Current expenditures are approximately $40 million per biennium.

2. Use Policy Tools to increase housing availability or stability.

Recapping the 2009 Session:

With the Oregon Legislature now adjourned after a session of very hard financial decisions, housing advocates have a lot to be pleased about, in spite of the budget shortfall and many cuts.

To summarize our wins:

• HB 2436, the Housing Opportunity Bill creates a dedicated revenue source for affordable housing. An estimated $15 million will be generated in the 2009-2011 biennium.
• SB 5535 passed, providing $19.4 million in Lottery Backed Bonds to support preservation of existing affordable housing. $16.3 is for multi-family housing with federal rent assistance, and $3.1 million is for manufactured home parks.
• SB 952 -- Tenants living in foreclosed properties gained some protections. 
  
• Funding for the Emergency Housing Account was cut in the General Fund budget - the cuts will be offset by the EHA portion of the document recording fee. While this hardly seems a victory, it was indeed a victory to maintain level funding this session.
• The State Homeless Assistance Program was maintained at level funding - cuts proposed early in the session were restored in the last hours.

We were not successful with SB 199, which would have expanded the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit cap. If development activity increases, we may approach the Emergency Board about reconsidering the cap increase.

We also lost funds for homeownership. These funds will be more than offset by the document recording fee, but the loss in funding is problematic as our communities work to recover from the loss of housing stability.

Read the full recap of the 2009 Session!