Neighborhood Affordability, An Invitation & Your Impact

Happy summer from everyone at Human Solutions! We hope you are finding some time to enjoy the good weather and long days. We remain busy and focused on completing our 5-year strategic plan and our day-to-day work in the community where the need is greater than ever. Here are some highlights from our work as well as relevant news we think will interest you.

How affordable is YOUR neighborhood?

Every year the National Low Income Housing Coalition issues a report about housing affordability compared to wages called “Out of Reach.” The 2018 report is now available online and we highly recommend it – here’s a link to the Oregon data. In addition to interesting national data to give you a sense of how this issue plays out across our country, there’s an interactive tool (scroll down on this page to find it) where you can enter your own (or someone else’s) zip code to get affordability analysis about your own neighborhood!

A quick overview of the findings for Oregon doesn’t surprise us:

In the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro area, it takes 2.4 full-time minimum wage jobs – or an annual income of $53,000 – to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at fair market rent.
The “housing wage” in our area is the highest in the state at $25.58/hour. (Housing wage = hourly wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at fair market rent)
40% of households in our area are renters.

For those earning less than 30% of the area median income (many of the people we work with), the monthly affordable rent is $611 (for a 2-bedroom unit).

“Thank You” from a Grateful Mom & Dad

We want to share a thank you letter with you. It came to us from parents – with a small but meaningful financial contribution – because two of our amazing staff had worked with their child who was in crisis. You can read the whole letter here. As a parent, this letter really hits home. Here’s an excerpt:

Please let [your staff] know how much we appreciate her being non-judgmental, compassionate, and responsive. It is very difficult for some people to ask for help, to reach out, to expose one’s vulnerability. [Your staff] made a traumatic and somewhat embarrassing situation less difficult to process. She is amazing. Thank you for helping the sons and daughters of worried and helpless moms and dads.

While we’ve blocked the names of our two amazing colleagues mentioned in the letter for privacy, we are not surprised at their incredible and kind work – and we are proud to have them on our team. At Human Solutions, we know when we receive a letter like this that it is supporters like you who make this life-changing work possible!

Give Now: Make a Difference in Someone’s Life Today!

When you give to Human Solutions, you are making a real difference in the lives of people like these parents, paving the way for her to move from homelessness back into stable housing. As I am sure you see every day in the Portland area, too many of our community members are experiencing housing instability and homelessness thanks to our high and rising housing costs. It’s so important for all of us to be part of the solution.

One way you can do that is by making a gift to our work with the most vulnerable in the community. Just click here to be the difference in your community. We’ll put it to work right away providing emergency services for the neediest among us, helping families keep their housing, and supporting those ready to pursue their dreams. Your gift means:

Homeless children and their families have emergency shelter
Families are keeping their housing
Job seekers are going to work
Kids from low-income families are getting homework help
Parents are learning key child rearing skills

Thank you for helping with a gift today to keep this meaningful work going strong. We appreciate your generosity!

Join us at the Oregon Public House!

Big thanks to the Oregon Public House for welcoming Human Solutions as their “Charity of the Day” on Monday, August 20^th. We hope you will save the date to join us for a happy hour where you can grab a bite to eat and connect with our staff experts to learn about issues that are on everyone’s minds: how are we helping people experiencing homelessness find stable housing? How are we helping to solve the housing crisis? What is working to create a community where everyone can afford stable housing? Come at 5 pm for the Happy Hour prices, stay till 6:30 to hear from Human Solutions’ program experts. Invite friends and remind yourself with our Facebook event. I look forward to seeing you there!

Our Ballot Measure Endorsements for November

It’s high summer now, but we’re looking ahead to fall when you’ll be voting on several important ballot measures. Human Solutions has endorsed several and we want you to know which ones and why:

Metro Regional Housing Bond. The Metro Council is asking voters to support a $652.8 million regional affordable housing bond that is expected to construct new low-income homes for up to 12,000 people around the Portland metro region within seven years. That’s about 3,900 homes. We’re pleased that up to 50% of that housing would be for people earning 30% of the region’s median family income, and no more than 10% of homes would be offered to people making 60-80 % of the median family income. Half of the new homes will be large enough for families to comfortably move into, with at least two bedrooms. Learn more.
State Constitutional Amendment. The state legislature referred a constitutional amendment to voters in its 2018 session that would allow bond revenue to fund nongovernmental affordable housing (unlike Portland’s housing bond which is limited to government actors meaning slower application of funds to the problem). This will ease restrictions on spending so the money can go farther, by relying more on nonprofits and the private sector to help build housing. Learn more.
Portland Clean Energy Fund. The Portland Clean Energy Fund is a story about us creating our own clean energy future, where new renewable energy and energy efficiency investments improve our homes, improve our city’s environment, train our workers, and support our businesses. The Portland Clean Energy Fund will lift up a community-led vision that builds resilience and wealth in the face of climate change and federal inaction. Our community can take proactive steps to fight climate change while addressing social and economic inequity by providing major new economic opportunities for low-income Portlanders, including communities of color and women. Learn more.

Thanks, as always, for your interest in our community and support of our work to make it work better for more people. We appreciate you!