A home of their own

Russ Dondero, retired head of the Political Science Department at Pacific University, is senior policy adviser to the Greg Mecklem campaign.  This piece, which appeared on his blog, represents both his and Greg's concerns about affordable housing and homelessness.

The end of the American Dream?

The implosion of Wall Street and the Great Recession has hurt us all. But the most vulnerable among us have lost their piece of the American Dream - home ownership. Others never had that chance because their jobs don't pay enough for them to buy a home but just barely enough to rent.

With unemployment still at 9.5% (and going up today given lost jobs from the government sector) - more and more Americans are "at risk" of being homeless - somewhere around 18 million at least. In Oregon 16,000 families are homeless. So the crisis is not an abstraction.

Below is a link to one part of the problem, the diminished role of the federal government in building affordable housing, a decline that began in the Reagan years. It's now gotten worse with fewer and fewer Section 8 vouchers even in the Obama era. So much for a Democrat being in the Oval Office.

Funding for low-income housing has been falling for years. And nationwide, many public housing units have been torn down. The wait for housing vouchers in some cities can now last a decade, just as the recession has left more Americans struggling to pay the rent.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129233128

All politics is "local"

Here's the scene in Washington County Oregon - the hub of Oregon's "Silcon Forest" economy and the 25th largest agri-business county in the nation.

The face of poverty in Washington County includes families with children, victims of domestic abuse, victims of bank foreclosure, the newly unemployed, elderly living on Social Security, those with disabilities, school aged children couch surfing or on the streets, our farm worker community and veterans from Vietnam to the current conflicts in the Middle East.

The promise we need to reclaim:

1. Hardworking people should be able to afford housing and still have enough money for groceries and other basic necessities.
2. Children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life, which is tied to having a stable home.
3. Housing gives people an opportunity to build better lives. To succeed you need a place to call home.
4. It’s only fair that everyone has a safe, decent place to live. Seniors, people with disabilities and single parents ought to have housing they can afford.

The problem:

When residents of Washington County are paying more than 30% of their monthly income on housing, most often rental housing, then they have less income to cover other basic monthly expenses on –

• Health Care,
• Food,
• Clothing,
• Transportation

Since the early 1990s study after study of Washington County has indicated that the richest county in Oregon, the center of economic growth has an affordable housing crisis:

• Over 5600 families are on the Housing Authority’s waiting list for affordable rental housing;
• They will wait 4-5 years to get assistance for which their current income makes them eligible;

For those in greatest need, the homeless, the challenges we face are even more severe. On any given night we have @ 1400 homeless in Oregon's richest county!

• Our county's 5 homeless shelters can only care for a tiny share of those needing assistance;
• Since the onset of the Great Recession the crisis of homelessness has gotten worse;

It’s documented that over 1300 students in the Beaverton schools are homeless. Smaller numbers of students in Hillsboro, Forest Grove, Cornelius and Tigard also face homelessness – the lack of a permanent residence.

What can we do:

In 2008 the Washington County Board of Commissioners voted to support a county Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. We are now headed into the 3rd year of that plan. However, the funding for that 10 Year Plan has always faced a funding gap of around $35 million dollars. Most of the funds supporting the plan come through federal government pass through dollars via HUD and more recently the Obama administration economic stimulus funds. However, the politics of Washington DC makes the long term continuation of those monies problematic.

We in Washington County need to step up to meeting this challenge:

We can lead the charge locally by creating public/private partnerships to fund affordable housing, combining state, federal and private money to meet this challenge.

We also need to look into alternatives of local funding such as diverting a portion of Washington County’s RETT to affordable housing construction.

Washington County goes to the voters every 4 years to support public safety and libraries and periodically road construction. Why can’t we do the same for affordable housing for low income and homeless residents? When we invest in such projects we are investing in people living and working here and we are creating local jobs.

Finally, if we embrace smart growth we can support the building of sustainable affordable housing by1) using infill land within the current UGB, by 2) adopting inclusionary zoning to locate housing near to existing commercial and employment centers, by 3) working with our business community to lower regulatory barriers for affordable housing and to 4) encourage our larger business partners (Intel, Tek and Nike et al) in the county to collaborate with local officials in the development of "workforce housing" near employment centers which will take the stress and strain off our local transportation corridors.

The hope and the promise:

None of these goals is achievable overnight. This is a long term vision.

It will require people of good faith working with our county commissioners to lobby at the state and federal level to bring back Washington County taxpayer dollars to our county to address this and other challenges we face. As Oregon’s economic and revenue center, it is only fair we get our fair share to combine with local resources.

It will also require public/private partnerships between local government, business and housing providers.

The goal should be to make Washington County a better place to live and to enable ALL people in this county to “have a home of their own.”

Russ Dondero

Russ Dondero is Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics & Government, Pacific University and Senior policy adviser on affordable housing, homelessness and health care disparities. This article is reprinted by permission from his blog at http://russdondero.squarespace.com/