Director's Message
June 18, 2009

• OHCS budget standing
• Thank you staff and partners
• Homelessness challenge
• Housing Division reorganization
  

The Legislature has almost completed handling bills that support the work of Oregon Housing and Community Services. Our department’s budget passed the House by a huge margin of more than 50 (of 60) votes this week and is headed for the Senate.

I cannot thank you all enough – staff and partners – for the enormous outpouring of support you have dedicated to OHCS throughout this legislative session to secure affordable housing and community services for deserving Oregonians.

My accolades extend to you who backed the department in moving through the recently completed Consolidated Funding Cycle and all who gave input on the new federal stimulus policy.

I would name names but fear that I would leave someone off the list, as there are so many of you who have committed yourselves to the cause.

We do important work, and your support demonstrates the value of our purpose, everyday. I am proud to be associated with the women and men of OHCS and our devoted partners in the housing and community services sectors.

Together, we can bring important change and, even during the current economic downturn, improve the lives of deserving Oregonians who need a boost.

We hope to see that improvement achieved most poignantly, given the recent passage of a key piece of legislation – Senate Bill 200, which guides the fight against homelessness. It has passed both Senate and House, and the governor says he will sign it.

SB 200 ties together OHCS and the Department of Human Services (DHS) in administering homelessness policies. The Interagency Council on Hunger and Homelessness, which I chair, “shall advise the departments in carrying out the policy,” according to the bill.

The bill calls for the redesign of homelessness systems to focus on permanent housing. Don’t think for a moment this will be easy. Supplying permanent housing for men and women and families who have been forced onto the streets is not an easy task.

But studies prove that permanent housing in combination with community-based treatment for mental illness and addiction saves money in the long run. And I, along with colleagues at both OHCS and DHS, are prepared to push this policy hard in the coming years. The need is great and growing.

The number of homeless persons in Oregon, as I recently reported, shot up by 37 percent during the year that ended this past January, the month the annual count is done. The increase was dramatic and troubling for many reasons. Among them, there was:

• A doubling in the number of homeless veterans.

• A 100 percent increase in the number of childless couples experiencing homelessness.

• A 150 percent increase in the number of people tallied in the street count.

Here are more facts on Oregon’s homelessness. The unfortunate supposition is that the numbers have risen since this data was recorded in January.

Housing Division reorganization. Continuous improvement. It’s what we aim to achieve as Oregon Housing and Community Services enters the 2009-11 budget cycle. And we will do it through some important reorganization moves.

Budget constraints are all too real at OHCS in spite of the good news deriving from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Yes, OHCS is receiving stimulus money. And yes, the Legislature granted us authority to hire people to manage the stimulus programs.

But those additions only help a little in offsetting reductions to current staffing the department had to make in order to balance its budget in the biennium ahead. See Deputy Director Rick Crager’s message from two weeks ago.

In order to effectively manage the reduction in its workforce, and provide a structure that maintains programs and continues to provide quality services, OHCS is reorganizing its Housing Division. 

First, Betty Markey’s role has changed to reflect the fluctuating dynamics of the marketplace and the agency. We need a strong policy analyst to meet head-on the challenges that financing affordable housing has thrown in our path.

OHCS and other housing finance agencies across the nation are confronted with enormous hurdles, and Betty is perfect to be on the front line here in Oregon.

As a long-time manager with deep knowledge and capacity to operate outside the scope of day-to-day operations, she is assigned to pursue affordable housing initiatives and policies on behalf of the department.

The newly reorganized division will have two sections – a Single Family Section and a Multifamily Section. Within Multifamily, we’ve merged duplicated elements from the old Housing Finance and Housing Resources Section in order to streamline the organization.

Dave Summers will manage the new Multifamily Section.

Prior to the reorganization, key employees in both the Housing Finance and Housing Resources Section handled a variety of both multifamily programs and projects. This structure needed improvement: Too much overlap existed.

So, we created clearer lines of employee duties, establishing on one side of the Multifamily Section two units: an affordable housing resource management unit to handle programs, processes, reporting, and procedures related to all housing programs; and an affordable housing underwriting unit to package the financing and monitor the development of each project award through completion.

On the other side of the Multifamily Section, we’ve added an additional two units to provide support to the housing development process and conduct quality assurance: The affordable housing development process unit handles key support work, employing the appraiser (whose job includes liaison to the Asset and Property Management Division), the architect and the data support assistant.

The other unit, loan closing and quality assurance, provides for a focus on the closing of all loans and grants, and ensures that the Asset and Property Management Division is delivered with files that are in order and have been thoroughly reviewed.  

The newly reconstituted Single Family Section is managed by Dona Lanterman and includes oversight of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

The residential loan and homeownership programs remain much the same as they were before the reorganization in Single Family, which has limited activity of late because of the housing market downturn.

The Housing Division reorganization is one of several new organizational restructurings we are instituting at OHCS, including my own Director’s Office. We will keep you apprised as we move forward.

Yes, we’re in an economic rough patch. But there’s good news out there too. Some experts say the recession is starting to relinquish its grip. The Oregon legislative session is reportedly coming to a close. And we’re all working in support of a great mission: enabling “Oregonians to gain housing, become self-sufficient, and achieve prosperity.” It’s a good thing.

As always, your thoughts, comments and suggestions are very much welcomed.

In each of these dramatic, remarkable, good-to-great corporate transformations, we found the same thing: There was no miracle moment. Instead, a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process—a framework—kept each company, its leaders, and its people on track for the long haul.
~ Jim Collins, commenting on his book Good to Great

Victor Merced, Director
Oregon Housing & Community Services
725 Summer St NE, Suite B
Salem, OR 97301-1266
Phone 503.986.2005
Fax 503.986.2132
Email: victor.merced@hcs.state.or.us
www.ohcs.oregon.gov

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