Affordable housing is an area of high need and one in which Meyer Memorial Trust has substantial expertise. In 2005, 74% of Oregon’s very-low-income households were cost burdened by housing, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Oregon’s rate of homelessness is 50% higher than the national average. MMT staff and trustees have substantive experience funding housing-related projects, and MMT is unique in using PRIs to support housing organizations. The Trust is one of the leading private funders of affordable housing efforts in Oregon. External advisers identified two critical needs the Trust could help fulfill:
MMT believes we can leverage its philanthropic resources, leadership abilities, convening power, and credibility to make a significant impact in affordable housing in Oregon.
In pursuit of these goals, MMT has focused on strategies that feature the following attributes:
The status of this MMT initiative is summarized below (as of July 2008)
MMT staff has worked with project partners to develop the Oregon Housing Acquisition Project (OHAP) as a means of promoting Goal One. In November 2007, MMT trustees approved investment of approximately $5.775 million to support this effort.
The Goal One strategy includes capitalization of a Housing Acquisition Fund (Fund) administered by Network for Oregon Affordable Housing (NOAH). The Fund, which has a funding goal of $50 million, will provide interim financing to support preservation of affordable rental housing, purchase of sites for new construction of homeownership and rental housing, and acquisition of existing developments, including manufactured home parks, for operation as affordable housing. The Fund will make investments throughout Oregon and will give enhanced consideration to acquisitions near public transit and essential community services. OHAP includes a green building incentive program, administered by Enterprise Community Partners, intended to reduce the green building gap and upgrade existing rental units to make them more energy efficient.
In July 2008, the trustees completed approval of a $2.42 million investment in the Building Strength project to promote Goal Two. Building Strength includes strategies designed to improve rural providers’ financial position; provide growth capital so a number of strong, geographically dispersed nonprofit housing organizations can operate more units; increase access to training and peer support for rural providers; and create capacity within the sector to convert manufactured home parks – a key source of affordable housing in rural Oregon – to resident owned cooperatives.
This strategy, which is under development, will support efforts to make delivery of resident services more financially sustainable for nonprofit housing providers. MMT expects to make funding decisions for this strategy by the end of the first quarter of 2009. Funding awards to implement this goal could include support for the following:
MMT anticipates that one strategy to implement Goal Three may be to build from the outcomes of three investments MMT made in 2006. These investments included support for the Neighborhood Partnership Fund’s resident services program (evaluation of which is intended to prove that resident services decrease some operating costs and should be allowed as an above-the-line expense), Bridges to Housing (intended to show that service enriched housing decreases costs elsewhere in the social service system and thereby encourage redirection of public funds to finance this housing model), and the Washington Families Fund (sharing the goals of Bridges to Housing).
MMT welcomes Initial Inquiries submitted by August 25, 2008, setting forth proposals to promote Goal Three. MMT anticipates it will make awards (in the form of grants and PRIs) ranging in size from $100,000 - $300,000 in support of the Goal Three strategy.
To date, MMT has approved $8.145 million in expenditures to support the Affordable Housing Initiative (including $4.5 million in PRI funds). MMT anticipates total expenditures will reach approximately $10 million, including costs associated with Goal Three, project management, and possible follow-on investments.
MMT envisions that the Housing Initiative strategies will supplement, rather than replace, other MMT investments in the affordable housing field, which typically total $2 million annually. MMT will continue to be interested in worthwhile projects outside the scope of its Housing Initiative. For example, MMT recently approved a capacity building investment in the urban housing provider Native American Youth Association. Other housing investment areas might include construction-related PRIs or grants, urban capacity building requests, or proposals catalyzed by the Housing Initiative to improve the affordable housing system statewide. In the event a Housing Initiative strategy already fully occupies a program area, it would be unlikely for MMT to invest outside the strategy in the same programmatic field.
Given that funding recipients within Housing Initiative strategies are strong affordable housing providers, MMT anticipates these groups would retain the opportunity to approach MMT with proposals for innovative work that is not already funded in one of the Housing Initiative strategies.
