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OHCS Director's Message

Director's Message
October 9, 2009


To:       Employees and Partners of Oregon Housing and Community Services

From:   Victor Merced

Re:       Director’s Bulletin

      • HUD’s Donovan and Oregon’s Blumenauer Tour the Pearl

      • Foreclosure Counseling Receives Nearly a Million Dollars
        in Support from Two Sources

      • Medford Home Preservation Event: October 17

      • Housing Opportunity Forum: Today in Salem

      • Workforce Housing in Yachats Opened


Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD’s Donovan and Oregon’s Blumenauer Tour the Pearl
Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, came to Portland last Saturday (October 3), in the company of Oregon 3rd District Congressman Earl Blumenauer, to check out affordable housing in Portland’s Pearl District, as well as view how the city integrates livability and sustainability practices in a local neighborhood setting. I had the honor of playing host at the request of Governor Ted Kulongoski.

It’s important to note the location of this tour. The dynamic Pearl is an eclectic mix of high-rise housing and small businesses. It includes many newly established restaurants and shops that appeal to Portland’s creative class and to prosperous professionals.

What you don’t expect to readily see in the Pearl is “affordable housing.” And you don’t – see it, that is. But it’s there.

Three major developments, financed through the auspices of Oregon Housing and Community Services in the Pearl are:

  • 181 units of affordable family housing at Lovejoy Station,
    1040 NW 10th Ave.

  • 176 units of affordable senior housing at Station Place Tower,
    1020 NW 9th Ave.

  • 203 units of affordable family housing at the Sitka Apartments,
    1230 NW 12th Ave., which is also home to the OHCS office in Portland.

This successful blend in the Pearl of low-cost accommodations with market-rate housing has been a model that keeps the community vibrant and livable and architecturally homogeneous; so much so, in fact, you can’t tell the difference between affordable and market housing.

I think it’s safe to say that HUD Secretary Donovan was impressed. He showed great interest in the successful partnership between state and federal governments as demonstrated by affordable housing projects in the world-class Pearl.


Foreclosure Counseling Resources Foreclosure Counseling Continued by $457,390
Oregon Housing and Community Services last week received $457,390 in federal funds to continue foreclosure counseling to help homeowners in arrears on their mortgages save their homes. See the news release.

This is round three of federal funding that flows through NeighborWorks to pay for the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program. It will cover counseling in Oregon from mid-2009 through mid-2010 and is done in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.

Single Family Programs Manager Dona Lanterman explains: “This provides a vital service for homebuyers in financial trouble. The counselors engage directly with the lenders on behalf of the buyers with the aim of modifying mortgages and saving homes.”

The organization providing the counseling is certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to give foreclosure mitigation guidance.

 

Foreclosure Counseling Garners Another $425,000
This $425,000 in foreclosure counseling money comes to OHCS by way of the Oregon Department of Justice from its settlement with Countrywide Financial Corporation.

This money will go for support of the HUD-certified counseling organization, supported by the NeighborWorks funding.

Countrywide settled with a number of states, including Oregon, for allegedly making risky and inappropriate loans, commonly referred to as subprime loans.

The Department of Justice is contributing the money for foreclosure counseling in accordance with Oregon Senate Bill 628. In addition, the money helps support the SafeNet referral phone line (1-800-723-3638).

The bill requires lenders to meet with borrowers facing foreclosure, either in person or by phone, and evaluate whether they qualify for loan modification. This could result in reduced mortgage payments allowing buyers to keep
their homes.


Medford Home Preservation Event: October 17
Here’s an important reminder. The free, daylong Home Ownership Preservation Event is scheduled for Saturday, October 17, at the Higher Education Center, 101 South Bartlett in Medford.

At-risk homeowners will be able to meet one-on-one with HUD-approved counselors. And they may attend a workshop to learn how to avert foreclosure and avoid foreclosure scams.


North Mall Office Building, Salem Oregon Housing Opportunity Forum: Today in Salem
OHCS has held four forums – in Roseburg, Bend, Pendleton and Portland – and the notes are available here.

With the conclusion of today’s Salem meeting, the department will write administrative rules to implement the Housing Opportunity Bill, which supports affordable housing for vulnerable Oregonians. Broadly speaking, they are people experiencing homelessness, persons buying a home for the first time and those needing subsidized, multifamily housing.

It provides a dedicated source of revenue to our agency, some $15 million over the remainder of this biennium, from a fee on real estate transactions.

Please feel free to give your views in writing to:
Lisa Joyce, Policy and Communication Manager
Re: Housing Opportunity Implementation Forum
Oregon Housing and Community Services
725 Summer St. NE, Suite B
Salem, OR 97301
Lisa.Joyce@state.or.us
503-986-0951

Thank you in advance for your input.


Creekside Opening House Creekside Opening House Workforce Housing in Yachats Opened
Yachats is an unspoiled Oregon beach town that has drawn generations of vacationers. It’s all the more attractive now with 25 units of affordable housing to accommodate working families.

Fisterra Gardens Apartments was introduced to the community on Wednesday (October 7) of this week with a ceremonial ribbon cutting. It’s the first affordable housing in the community.

Yachats survives on tourism and many local employees will no longer have to drive from distant, more affordable towns to get to work.

Volunteering is an act of heroism on a grand scale. And it matters profoundly. It does more than help people beat the odds; it changes
the odds.
~ President Bill Clinton

 

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

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OHCS Director's Message