Director's Message
September 18, 2009

To:       Employees and Partners of Oregon Housing and Community Services

From:   Victor Merced

Re:       Director’s Bulletin —

• Housing Opportunity Bill meetings
• It's time to give

Housing Opportunity Bill meetings

Monday Oregon Housing and Community Services begins its series of meetings on implementation of the Housing Opportunity Bill with a visit to Roseburg.

A team of the department’s leaders will present our thinking on how best to achieve the legislative intent of the bill and how to address the housing needs across the state. We look forward to hearing the perspective of our partners who deliver affordable housing and services to people experiencing homelessness and people seeking to become homeowners.
Click here for more information.

We hope to see you there. Next week, I hope to share with you some of the feedback that we have received.

It’s time to give

According to the experts, the recession is over; the downward spiral has stopped for the overall economy. However, the effects of the recession will continue to reverberate into the future.

In a typical recession, Oregon is one of the last states to recover. The hardship continues for families and individuals in communities everywhere.

In fact, researchers at the Brookings Institute forecast that the poverty rate will continue to rise, even as the recovery begins. In their study, Simulating the Effect of the “Great Recession” on Poverty, Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill conclude that an additional eight million more people will fall into poverty by 2011.

Most troubling, Monea and Sawhill’s work indicates that “Poverty rates would increase even more for the most disadvantaged groups, potentially reaching nearly 25 percent for children, 31 percent for African Americans, and over 45 percent for single-mother families.”

Folks who live on the margins are not well positioned to take advantage of the improving economy. For those of us in a position to give, we must.

Just a little more than a week ago, the Oregon Food Bank reported that it saw record distribution of food boxes. Driven by the recession, many families had to ask for help to meet their most basic needs.

According to the Food Bank, “Distribution of emergency food boxes increased more than 13 percent from 792,000 in 2007-08 to 897,000 in 2008-09 – an annual increase of 105,000 additional emergency food boxes.”

If the Brookings Institute projections hold true, the demand for food and other social supports will only continue to increase in the coming year.

I encourage all of you to consider making a contribution to your local food pantry or to the Oregon Food Bank. The need is great and ongoing.

Charity looks at the need and not at the cause.
~German proverb

Victor Merced, Director
Phone 503.986.2005
Email: victor.merced@hcs.state.or.us
www.ohcs.oregon.gov

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