Oregon Balance of State HIV/AIDS Housing & Services Systems ...

Executive Summary—Oregon HIV/AIDS Housing and Services Systems Integration Plan i
Executive Summary
This Executive Summary includes a statement of the purpose behind this systems integration plan,
an overview of the needs assessment and planning process, key findings, and critical issues that
were identified and recommendations that were developed by the Steering Committee.
Many people living with HIV/AIDS, at some point during their illness, find themselves in need of
housing assistance and support services. Stable housing promotes improved health, sobriety or
decreased use of alcohol and illegal drugs, and, for some, a return to paid employment and
productive social activities. As the number of people living with HIV/AIDS continues to grow in
both urban and rural areas throughout the United States, stakeholders must find new ways to
address their needs to promote the health and well-being of these individuals and their families.
Increasingly, maximizing the resources available to people who need them requires partnering
across mainstream housing and human services systems to ensure continuity of care, program
efficiency, and that there is “no wrong door” to assistance for clients at risk.
In order to improve the ability of the State of Oregon to establish and sustain such partnerships, the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funded the development of the Oregon
HIV/AIDS Housing and Services Systems Integration Plan in August 2007. The plan was facilitated
by Building Changes (formerly AIDS Housing of Washington), a national HIV/AIDS housing
technical assistance provider based in Seattle. Building Changes worked closely with the Oregon
Department of Human Services, the grantee for HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with
AIDS (HOPWA) program for Oregon State outside of the five-county Portland metropolitan area.
This area is referred to as the Oregon “balance of state.”
The Oregon Housing Opportunities in Partnership (OHOP) program has been administered by the
Oregon Department of Human Services, Public Health, HIV/STD/TB Section, HIV Care and
Treatment program (HIV Care and Treatment) since 2002. The four OHOP Housing Coordinators
serve four regions of the balance of state.
Figure 1 on the following page shows a map of the four OHOP service regions.