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

Oregon HIV/AIDS Housing and Services Systems Integration Plan 43
such input, as well as to prioritize in which meetings and processes their participation will be most
effective and conducive to meeting OHOP goals.
As part of this decision-making, OHOP staff and partners must differentiate among the many
different stages of the affordable housing finance or development processes at different levels of
government. OHOP administrators must also determine the best use of limited OHOP resources,
whether as part of development projects that create a long-term resource to benefit people living
with HIV/AIDS, or in less resource-intense housing subsidies that depend on the availability of
existing stock for which OHOP clients compete with other low-income populations.
OHOP administrators and partners must also consider how to direct resources into relationshipbuilding
among different kinds of potential partners. Stakeholders in the development of this Plan
identified landlords as a particularly critical group. In both planning and day-to-day work, staff
must weigh the advantages of focusing on maintaining and expanding existing relationships or
seeking to create new partnerships. On the administrator level, the competing interests among
regions and between city-centered and rurally dispersed affordable housing planning and
implementation processes must also be considered.
5. Maximizing Access to New Resources for Special Populations
As new resources become available within Oregon for populations that may include people living
with HIV/AIDS, OHOP staff and partners must determine where overlap is significant and how to
allocate resources for developing proposals and applications to leverage these funding streams. For
example, OHOP could consider partnering to apply for some portion of the approximately $4
million in Housing PLUS funds that will be available through the Spring 2008 Consolidated
Funding Cycle.
Steering Committee members noted that affordable housing funders and developers are asked to
prioritize or include a variety of special population definitions and set-asides in their projects or
guidelines. Affordable housing resources are limited across the balance of state, resulting in strong
competition for funding opportunities, and some competitions offer “bonus points” to applications
for projects serving various special populations. While these special population priorities vary, both
funders and developers value partners that can bring new resources into projects, such as through
service matches or rental subsidies.
6. Understanding Affordable Housing System Missions and Cultures
Stakeholders in the affordable housing system have interests and goals that vary from entity to
entity and may not be clear to OHOP stakeholders or consistent with OHOP goals. For example,
Steering Committee members pointed out that affordable housing developers generally seek to
balance high-need tenants with more independent low-income tenants in any housing complex,
feeling that such a mix is needed to promote a sustainable community. This goal of balancing levels
of service need may or may not be consistent with admitting particular proportions of people living
with HIV/AIDS.
Homeless Services
Oregon, in step with numerous state and local jurisdictions nationally, has focused resources and
developed infrastructure to address the needs of people who are homeless, both through the HUD
Continuum of Care process and more recently through state and local 10-Year Plans to End