2000 Best Practice Awards

2000-1261Metro Portland and Vancouver Bi-State Regional Housing and Community Development Partnership

A voluntary forum of Metro Portland Entitlement communities, Public Housing Authorities, State of Oregon Housing and Community Services, Metro government, and HUD program Managers and Community Builders is emerging an important metropolitan area housing and community development partnership. This partnership crosses city, county lines and state boundaries, with inclusion of Clark County and the City of Vancouver in neighboring Washington State, and also involves the only elected regional government in the United States as an additional partner. Through this forum, and a series of quarterly meetings, partners have identified an agenda of common regional interest and with a solid record of working together, partners have the basis for long term discussions and develop of work products that can be shared regionally.

2000-1437 Homeowner Education Collaborative of Oregon

The Homeowner Education Collaborative of Oregon is a statewide initiative created to support homebuyer education programs through training, technical assistance, and program support to nonprofit and volunteer homebuyer education and counseling organizations.

2000-1918 Woodland Apartments Neighborhood Network Center Gets "Connected with the Community" in Coos Bay, Ore

On September 28, 1999, HUD participated in the grand opening ceremony of the Neighborhood Networks Computer Learning Center at Woodland Apartments, a privately owned, HUD insured/assisted apartment complex in Coos Bay, Oregon. Owned by the Woodland Apartments Preservation, Inc., c/o Coos Curry Housing Authority, Woodland Apartments Neighborhood Networks Computer Learning Center, is the 8th Neighborhood Networks Center to open in the State of Oregon. Of particular significance is the fact that the Woodland Apartment’s Neighborhood Networks Computer Learning Center is a comprehensive, community based program to provide educational opportunities for parents and children to learn together. Its mission is to provide a neighborhood computer lab as an easily accessible, safe, structured, productive learning environment where residents can improve their skills, build community, and develop income opportunities. The focus of the Computer Learning Center includes job skill training/employment, introduction to/familiarization with computers, internet access and access to local services, economic development (microenterprises, small businesses, telecommuting), youth education, and recreation. Woodland Apartments is home to approximately 184 residents. It is a family complex with 72 assisted units. Classes/Training Programs to be offered include computer literacy, word processing, resume writing, homework tutoring and micro business. The Woodland Apartment’s Neighborhood Networks Computer Learning Center is unique for it brings the services right to the resident’s home environment. Woodland Apartment’s Neighborhood Network Center was featured in an article in "Housing on the Move" - November 8, 1999.

2000-1914 Alberta Simmons Plaza: HUD Subsidy in the "Air"

The N/W Alaska, Portland office has successfully created a new type of financing using "Air Rights." Alberta Simons Plaza, a new construction 202 PRAC, houses 73 elderly residents in a four story building with an elevator. The development of this building required innovative financing since HUD’s 202 Grant only encompasses the Air Rights of the top three floors of the Plaza. The first floor consists of commercial space the HUD’s grant does not incorporate, and upper three floors house the residents.

2000-1858 Multifamily Matters - The Northwest/Alaska Multifamily Hub’s Electronic Newsletter (Hubwide-Oregon)

In an effort to develop a better means of communicating within the Northwest/Alaska Multifamily Hub, the concept of an electronic newsletter was born. This newsletter was created in the Spring of 1999 and is maintained by the Operations Team. Each quarter the members the Operations Team contribute articles on the subject including - "Desk of the Director", "What’s Up with the BOP", "Training Window", "Highlights from Manager Meetings", "What’s Happening in the Hub?!", "Best Practices and Other Successes", "News from the Webmaster", "Stars Among Us!", "Computer Tips, Tools, and Upcoming Changes", Your Suggestions and Comments… Dear Dwyer", "What’s Developing", "Hub Rumblings", "Upcoming Events- Mark your Calendar", "Show me the $Money$", and "In the Spotlight". The purpose of this newsletter is not only to share current events in Multifamily, but to also share best practices, development tools and resources, and other information sharing pieces that assist the Multifamily Hub staff in performing their jobs.

2000-1846 Citizen Participation for Consolidated Plan 2000

As a citizen participation component in developing a new five-year HUD Consolidated Plan 2000, the Cities of Eugene and Springfield, Oregon used several techniques that reached into the heart of the community to gain citizen input on housing, social services and community development priorities for low-income individuals. One of the most effective tools was the use of community survey comment boards. These boards, which provided survey forms and return boxes, were placed at over seventy locations in the community. Placement locations included centers that provide services for low-income individuals and other community locations, such as laundromats and grocery stores, in areas that have a higher population of low-income individuals and families.

2000-1648 Wood Park Terrace Apartments

Wood Park Terrace Apartments is one of the first affordable family housing projects in the nation to provide an on-site learning center with kindergarten, Head Start and play areas. The sponsor also coordinates referrals for job training and plans other programs that will promote family self-sufficiency for its residents. Wood Park Terrace Apartments is located in Woodburn, which is an agricultural based community in the Willamette Valley. The project consists of 52 units of rental housing for low-income families and farmworkers. The project is comprised of nine buildings and three playgrounds. Six buildings provide living space with 28 two bedroom and 24 three-bedroom units. One building contains a community room and laundry facility where residents can plan social events, hold meetings or just do family wash. There is also another laundry building on site to provide convenient access for more families. There is a Learning Center building, designed as the typical "little red school house", that is providing a kindergarten classroom and a Head Start classroom for preschool training and child development for the lowest income families. The Woodburn school district is providing a classroom teacher for the kindergarten as part of a cooperative lease agreement with the project owners. This creative solution hopes to meet the overwhelming demand for elementary classrooms near multifamily housing sites.

2000-1922 Housing Opportunities Workshop 2000!

Four years ago, the Housing Services Workshop was developed as an annual forum to provide a large-scale opportunity for this networking and also a venue of training for line staff benefiting from a large network and referral base. The Housing Services Workshop was expanded this year to include initial contact personnel and volunteers from the faith community. As the gap between low wages and housing affordability increases many families who never struggled before, find themselves needing housing assistance to avoid facing homelessness. Many of these families first seek assistance from the local faith community. The expanded emphasis workshop was renamed the Housing Opportunities Workshop. The workshop included two tracks of training: Programs offered by the Housing Authority and Non-Authority Housing Opportunities.

2000-594 Shared Housing Program

Program provides home-share matching services to elderly homeowners who need someone living in their home, either to provide income or services, and very low income tenants for whom even many affordable housing programs are too expensive. Homeowners and tenants complete application forms regarding their needs and preferences and this information is input into a computer system which offers potential matches. The Program then assists the parties through interviews and lease agreements.

2000-360 Community Residential Siting Resolutions

The Fair Housing Council of Oregon nominates the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Commissioners for their leadership in passing Community Residential Siting Resolutions which will affect the location of special needs housing. In December 1999 the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners passed similar resolutions accepting the "Community Residential Siting Proposals" which address neighborhood concerns about the placement of special needs housing, sometimes referred to as group homes. The final proposals incorporate fair housing concerns into the location of special needs housing for the City and County as well as addressing neighborhood concerns. It is an example of a good collaborative effort and shows public support for the Fair Housing Act. Establishing protocols for what information will be provided to the public for specific facilities is being worked out.

2000-2769 Housing Authority of the City of Salem's Outstation Staff Laison with Adult & Family Services

Stable housing is a predonimant factor in the stailization of families and employment of adults. The Housing Authority placed a Housing Assistance Representative in the Adult & Family Services (AFS) offices to act as a liaison providing current housing opportunities.

2000-2742 Family Self-Sufficiency ABC'S of Homebuying Club

The program seeks to provide encouragement, support, information and training to Housing Authority residents interested in homeownership. Housing Authority residents making inquiries are encouraged to join the Family Self-Sufficiency program and work specifically towards the home ownership goal. FSS Program Coordinators organize Homebuyers' Clubs, lead workshops in the Homeowner Education Collaborative of Oregon's curriculum "The ABC's of Homebuying", promote special programs with lenders for FSS homebuyers, and work intensively with families who set the goal of homeownership, as well as make referrals to community agencies to help participants prepare to meet the various requirements.

2000-1514 Asian Community Home Buying Fair

The focus of this project is to provide home buying information to limited-English speaking members of the Portland/Metropolitan Asian community and to develop a network of bi-lingual Asian professionals involved in the home buying process. The Asian community is not a monolithic group and includes various cultures and languages. This home buying fair to be held on June 3, 2000 in Portland, Oregon will be presented in five different Asian languages-Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), and Tagalog, in addition to English. It is a special effort to better educate limited English speaking Asian communities through a newly established group of Asian professionals binding together for this special effort.

2000-2447 Central Park Place: A Housing Authority - Veterans Administration Partnership

With McKinney Homeless Assistance Program, HUD HOME funds, Washington State Housing trust Funds, Clark County Veterans Fund, Federal Houme Loan Bank grant, federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, tax-exempt bonds, deferred developers' fee, combined to develop new housing modeled on the old Single Room Occupancy hotels that were once a part of every city. Located on the eastern edge of the Vancouver campus of the Veterans Administration, Central Park Place is not a traditional apartment building. It is designed to provide modest but well designed housing.

2000-1934 RISING Expectations’ Community Policing Center Models Partnerships and Persistence!

The center was developed by the Housing Authority of the City of Salem and funded, in part, through HUD’s Safe Neighborhood Grant Program. The Safe Neighborhood Grant was awarded to the Housing Authority of the City of Salem, as lead applicant, in 1997, and activities began in August 1998 for a term of two years. Additional activities approved for this grant program include: Hiring a Law Enforcement Community Services Officer and a Family Stabilization Program Housing Assistance Representative to provide security services, implement and coordinate the plan. Focusing on family stabilization, RISING Expectation’s goal is to reduce crime and increase positive lifestyles modeled in Salem’s now troubled Northgate Neighborhood. RISING Expectation is a program designed to couple high standards of lease and law enforcement with supportive services.

2000-896 A Data System: HUD Funding in Oregon

The Oregon HUD Office has accumulated data and created a data base of HUD funding activities. The data base is the core of a series of interactive reports, which provides a quick and easy way to determine the amount and type of HUD funding in any of the two-state, 39-county area of the Oregon Office jurisdiction. The reports provide readily accessible funding and housing unit information by state, county, program office, program type and subtype, and recipient type. Information is geocoded which makes possible linkages to Community 2020 mapping. It has been an important tool in HUD outreach efforts as CBs are able to demonstrate the impacts of recent HUD funding down to the county-level.

2000-1055 Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber Of Commerce Latino Home Buying Fair

This initiative is an effort on the part of the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to reach out to the Latino community and provide them with information and assistance that will enable more members of the community to become home owners. The first fair was held on October 3, 1999 at the Centro Cultural of Cornelius in Cornelius Oregon. At this fair there were 19 exhibitors comprised of Realtors, Lenders, FHA/HUD, and others involved in the local Real Estate community. The fair included various homebuying seminars presented in Spanish, Spanish language pamphlets and brochures, a raffle drawing for items donated by various sponsors and activities for children. A second fair is planned for April 30, 2000, to be held at the Gresham Armory in Gresham, Oregon. It is expected that, based on the success of the first event, there will be about 30 exhibitors participating in the April fair.

2000-592 Community Initiatives Small Grant Program

Program makes small ($12,000 or less) one-time-only grants to neighborhood organizations and community-based non-profit agencies to carry out community-based and innovative program models to address the needs of low/moderate income individuals or neighborhoods. Projects are selected twice each year through an open application process and funding decisions are made by a citizen selection committee. Types of projects funded include community-based planning processes, development of community gardens and planting of street trees, and a variety of public services (e.g. summer youth enrichment activities, ESL classes, culturally specific domestic violence support groups).

Content Archived: April 20, 2011