Entries from December 2008
Street Rooters,
Street Roots has raised more than half of its modest goal of 26k for the Winter Fund Drive through the newspaper and the Willamette Give! Guide. (If you’re one of those donors – thank you!)
We ask for your gracious support. The current and future editions of Street Roots aren’t possible without your generous donations.
In a time when newsrooms are shrinking and daily papers are downsizing due to the lack of advertising revenue – Street Roots is growing.
Street Roots relies on you, the reader, to deliver Portland a different and honest perspective. Plus when you support Street Roots, you’re supporting your local, hardworking vendor. Our unique model flips the idea of serving the poor on its head – offering an opportunity for individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness to have a voice and a means to gain an income to survive with hand up, not a hand out.
Through Dec. 31, you can give through the Willamette Week’s Give! Guide. Give $25 dollars or more and get some great incentives in return. Not down with the on-line giving? Send a donation to Street Roots, 211 NW Davis, Portland, Oregon 97209 and get one of Portland’s best independent newspapers.
We can’t do it without you.
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: Street Roots, Willamette Week Give! Guide
Peet’s Coffee and Tea on NE Broadway is giving away free cups of drip and soliciting donations for Street Roots today. A big thank you to the staff at Peet’s. You rock!
Street Roots has been teaming up this week with Peet’s Coffee and Tea on NE Broadway between 14th and 15th Avenue to help the organization through Peet’s Holiday Donation Program. Any donations made to Peet’s will be matched by the coffeehouse up to $1,000.
Store manager Kate Meredith.
Categories: Street Roots
December 24, 2008 · 1 Comment
“Homeless Giant” by Eric Drooker. His graphics have appeared on countless posters, books and CD covers and his paintings are often seen on covers of the New Yorker Magazine. He makes his work available to social-justice nonprofit organizations at no cost.
From the Dec. 12 special affordable housing edition, “In need of a new deal.”
In October of 2006, the Portland City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that created what is known as the 30 percent Urban Renewal Tax Increment Set Aside. The new ordinance mandated that the Portland Development Commission (PDC) redirect 30 percent of all money projected in nine Urban Renewal Areas through a complex bond system to be spent on affordable housing serving people earning below 80 percent median family income over the next five years.
The move by the city was seen as an historic victory for housing advocates who for decades had struggled to correct years of urban renewal-fueled gentrification and displacement that continues to radically change Portland’s demographics, specifically those with little to no income and minority communities.
For years, advocates and loosely built coalitions had worked to create city-sponsored programs to balance affordable housing against higher end development. Despite the creation of unit goals for specific urban renewal areas, the city struggled to create the affordable housing needed due to lack of available funds after competing public priorities for urban renewal dollars — such as transportation, business recruitment and store front improvement — consumed renewal funds.
In response to the lack of units being built, organizers began to explore a California policy in 2002 that mandated set percentages of urban renewal funds to be dedicated to affordable housing. The set aside strategy was chosen because of its proven track record in California and regardless of competing priorities; unmet housing would finally have a dedicated funding stream.
Four years later, that strategy became a reality when the ordinance passed. Today, a little more than two and half years into program’s 5-year projected goals, the city and the PDC find itself struggling to stay above water in a shrinking economy and swimming to find a formula that works for affordable housing in a sea of bureaucracy.
On Tuesday, Dec. 9, the PDC released a two-year status report on the progress being made in the nine urban renewal areas. Updated revenue forecasts for 2009-10 and beyond will be presented to the public later in the month or in January.
Street Roots obtained a draft report of the 5-year projected goals produced by the Portland Development Commission from September of this year. Representatives from Nick Fish’s office, Portland’s Housing Commissioner, chose not to talk about the 5-year projected goals outlined in the draft or the specifics about the nine URAs – choosing rather to wait until a final analysis is released by PDC later this month.
A public meeting is scheduled for Dec. 19 with both Commissioner Fish and a PDC representative co-chairing a work-session with several developers, along with public and private finance partners and advocates to review the up and coming set aside annual report and to brainstorm strategies to assure that the goals that lead to the establishment of the set-aside are met.
According to Chief of Staff Sam Chase, “The key will be to bring the right partners together and focus on specific solutions that ensure the set aside dollars get out the door.”
The Nine Urban Renewal Areas
(more…)
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: 30 percent set aside, Israel Bayer, Nick Fish, PDC, Portland Development Commission
From the Dec. 12 special affordable housing edition, “In need of a new deal.”
In 1986, while the Reagan administration was busy slashing and burning its federal housing resources, Congress created the affordable-housing tax credit program. The program shifted funding for the nation’s housing needs to the balance sheets of bankers and corporations who offset profits with tax credits. In the process, it turned the Internal Revenue Service – not the Department of Housing of Urban Development, or the homeless assistance programs under the McKinney-Vento Act – into the single largest affordable-housing generator in the federal government.
For many in the business, it worked well: banks and corporations invested in affordable housing by buying the credits, which, for the investors, cut their tax obligation. But it only worked as long as the investors had profits that needed offsetting, which they did in spades during the ’80s, ’90s – right up until 2008.
What a difference a financial meltdown makes.
The profits are gone. The tax credit market is in the toilet. And as the pink slips and foreclosures pile up, the number of people who need affordable housing is one of the few rising economic indicators you can bank on. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, once 40 percent to 50 percent of the tax credit market, have all but dropped out of the game.
“Homeless Giant” by Eric Drooker. His graphics have appeared on countless posters, books and CD covers and his paintings are often seen on covers of the New Yorker Magazine. He makes his work available to social-justice nonprofit organizations at no cost.
(more…)
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: affordable housing, Dee Walsh, Joanne Zuhl, Mary Li, Robin Boyce, tax credits
December 24, 2008 · 1 Comment
From the Dec. 12 special affordable housing edition, “In need of a new deal.”
Portland’s efforts to build a net gain of affordable housing for its lowest income residents have failed more than the city bureau charged with creating that housing would like you to know.
In 1978, 5,183 units in Portland’s downtown core were affordable to people living at 0 to 30 percent of median family income (MFI), considered low-income. In 1984, the city’s Central City Plan mandated that at least that number would always be affordable downtown.
In an effort to get back to that number, the Portland City Council approved a No Net Loss Policy in 2001 calling for rehabilitating, preserving, and creating affordable housing in the central city through regulation and additional financial resources.
Since 1994, the non-profit Northwest Pilot Project, which serves the elderly homeless and low-income, has inventoried downtown affordable housing. The last inventory was published in 2007, and counted 3,330 affordable units in the downtown area, well below the 5,183 units the City has committed to retain. (more…)
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: affordable housing, Amanda Waldroupe, Beth Kaye, BHCD, Bobby Weinstock, Martha McLennan, Micky Ryan, Northwest Pilot Project, Oregon Law Center, PDC
December 24, 2008 · 1 Comment
From the Dec. 12 special affordable housing edition, “In need of a new deal.”
The Housing Authority of Portland has a perennial problem: thousands of people in need of subsidized housing scramble to join a waiting list, patiently await their turn, and finally – sometimes years later – they receive rental assistance vouchers. Then, vouchers in hand, many of them discover they still have nowhere to go.
Section 8 vouchers, which are funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by HAP, allow low-income tenants to rent privately-owned units in the area of their choice. Tenants with vouchers pay a third of their income toward rent, and the federal subsidy covers the rest. HAP pulls participants from a waiting list, but vouchers expire after 120 days if they cannot find a place to lease.
In March, Street Roots reported that an unusually low number of Section 8 clients were finding rental units before their vouchers expired (See “Sectioned Out,” March 7, 2008). Between November 2007 and late February 2008, less than a third of voucher recipients successfully signed leases. HAP surveyed unsuccessful participants and found that many of them encountered landlords unwilling to accept Section 8 tenants. (more…)
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: HAP, Mara Grunbaum, Nick Fish, Section 8, Street Roots
Warming centers and shelters are open for people in our region who are experiencing homelessness. Weather conditions have been severe for the last eight nights and are expected to last through the end of this week.
Warming centers are in dire need of donated cold weather gear for those living on the streets. While city officials are not encouraging people to drive on the treacherous roads in this weather, donations or financial contributions are strongly encouraged. Centers are experiencing a shortage of the following items:
* Blankets
* Socks
* Coats
* Tarps
* Gloves
Blankets and socks are most needed.
Please take donations to Transition Projects Glisan Shelter (435 NW Glisan – drop-off 24-hrs), JOIN (3338 SE 17th Ave – drop-off only between 9AM and
5PM, closing at 3PM on Christmas Eve) or the Union Gospel Mission (15 NW 3rd Ave – drop-off between 9AM and 9PM).
Categories: Street Roots
Vicki getting ready to go out and sell today.
Sleeping on the street
One place to another
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: sleeping in doorway, snow, Street Roots, vendors
Power to the people and happy holidays!
Photo: some of the early birds at the SRs holiday party today.
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: Street Roots
Street Rooters,
Street Roots has raised more than half of its modest goal of 26k for the Winter Fund Drive through the newspaper and the Willamette Give! Guide. (If you’re one of those donors – thank you!)
We ask for your gracious support. The current special affordable housing edition and future editions of Street Roots aren’t possible without your generous donations.
In a time when newsrooms are shrinking and daily papers are downsizing due to the lack of advertising revenue – Street Roots is growing.
Street Roots relies on you, the reader, to deliver Portland a different and honest perspective. Plus when you support Street Roots, you’re supporting your local, hardworking vendor. Our unique model flips the idea of serving the poor on its head – offering an opportunity for individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness to have a voice and a means to gain an income to survive with hand up, not a hand out.
Through Dec. 31, you can give through the Willamette Week’s Give! Guide. Give $25 dollars or more and get some great incentives in return. Not down with the on-line giving? Send a donation to Street Roots, 211 NW Davis, Portland, Oregon 97209 and get one of Portland’s best independent newspapers.
We can’t do it without you.
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: Street Roots, Willamette Week Give! Guide
Street Roots is starting a new median as a way to involve readers and supporters in the lives of our vendors. We will be doing a monthly podcast with a vendor on the streets with the hope of educating the general public on the lives of Street Roots vendors and their customers. In our first installment of the Street Roots podcast, John Thompson talks with Kendall Taggart. Let us know what you think. (A special thanks to Ample Branches for letting use their music.)
Street Roots podcast with John Thompson
Categories: Where to buy Street Roots
Tagged: John Thompson, Street Roots podcast, vendors, Where to buy Street Roots
Dec. 16, 2008
Via Nick Fish’s office…
To the Staff and Stakeholders of PDC and BHCD:
We are pleased to announce the formation of a new City of Portland bureau, focused on housing, that will replace the current Bureau of Housing and Community Development, and will take over its initiatives to increase affordable housing choice and end homelessness.
The new bureau will also incorporate the housing development and finance functions currently at the Portland Development Commission. We are charging this new housing bureau with the mission of meeting the housing needs of the current and future residents of our City, and we are vesting it with all of the tools, talent, and accountability to get the work done.
Mayor-Elect Adams has asked Commissioner Fish to lead this new bureau, and oversee the transition. (more…)
Categories: Where to buy Street Roots
Tagged: 30 percent set aside, BHCD, Housing Bureau, Nick Fish, PDC
Have your morning cup at Peet’s Coffee and Tea? Starting tomorrow Street Roots is teaming up with Peet’s on NE Broadway between 14th and 15th Avenue to help the organization through Peet’s Holiday Donation Program. Between Dec. 17 and 24 any donations made to Peet’s will be matched by the coffeehouse up to $1,000.
Look for the Street Roots donation box or ask an employee. They will be glad to help.
Street Roots is proud to be working with Peet’s coffee. Local Peet’s Coffee and Tea houses have donated more than 1,200 hundred pounds of coffee to Street Roots Vendor Program in 2008 – that’s right, 1,200 pounds.
Show your support of both Peet’s and Street Roots over the next week (NE Broadway and 15th) and your coffee karma will be rewarded!
Categories: Street Roots
Tagged: Peet's Coffee and Tea, Street Roots, vendors
Street Rooters,
