Financial Assistance Program Expansion FY 2018-2019 Corbett White - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Financial Assistance Program Expansion FY 2018-2019 Corbett White Portland Water Bureau 1/7/2020

Five Goals for Expansion  Increase crisis vouchers from $150.00 to $500.00.  Expand income guidelines and add a 2 nd Tier for our extremely low income qualified customers.  Partner with Home Forward to administer assistance to multi-family customers under threat of eviction.  Increase outreach to underserved communities  Creation of the Financial Assistance Team Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Goal One: Crisis Vouchers  Increase from $150.00 to $500.00 extremely helpful in addressing overall account balances.  FY 17-18 2,533 crisis vouchers were issued. FY 18-19 there was a 36% increase and 3,972 vouchers were issued. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Goal Two: Income Guideline Expansion  Income guidelines expanded to reflect increasing cost of living in Portland.  Participation totals increased, adding 812 customers in one fiscal year.  Of the 7,431 customers, 3,371 were receiving the Tier 1 discount and 4,060 were receiving the extreme discount (Tier 2). Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Goal Three: Partnership with Home Forward’s Short-Term Rent Assistance (STRA) Program  IGA with Home Forward to utilize their STRA program for multi-family housing assistance.  Acknowledged the housing crisis in Portland and that rent is impacted by utilities. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

STRA Partnership  We fund up to $500.00 in crisis assistance for customers to avoid eviction.  $600,000.00 was budgeted (400k BES/200k Water) $207,689.65 was utilized.  Initial training period caused a delay with most agencies on board by the end of September.  STRA program primarily services their case management clients.  Prevented eviction for 407 families. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Outreach  Continued outreach to our agency partners. They include: SEI, IRCO (Asian Family Center and Africa House), Latino Network, Impact NW, El Programma Catolico and Human Solutions.  Held bi-annual meetings with our agency partners where we introduced them to the Water Efficiency program and BES’ Clean River Rewards program.  Emphasized additional city resources available to their clients. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Outreach (cont’d)  Expanded our outreach by developing relationships with new community organizations and networks.  Special focus on those providing culturally specific programs/or serving neighborhoods with a strong presence of communities of color and low-income communities.  Some of the networks include: Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN), Neighborhood Prosperity Initiatives (NPIs), and HUD Housing Counseling Agencies. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Outreach (cont’d)  Anti-Displacement and housing advocacy groups.  Prioritized culturally specific community events such as; Portland Muslim Festival, PCRI Resident Appreciation Night, Jade Night Market, Oxbow Park Medicine Gathering, SUN Resource Fairs, African-American, Latino and NAYA Homeownership Fairs. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Goal Five: Creation of Financial Assistance Team  Replaced Program Manager in February of 2019.  Hired two Coordinator I employees.  Team was complete as of April of 2019. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Bill Help Line (503-823-HELP)  Went live May 23, 2019.  Dedicated phone line which allows customers direct contact with the financial assistance staff.  During the past 6 months, we connected with over 1300 customers.  Average 200 calls per month. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Collaborations  Continued to work closely with Water Efficiency and Water Quality.  Water Efficiency began managing the Fixture Repair program in 2018.  Worked closely with BES (Clean River Rewards) and the Revenue Bureau (Arts Tax).  Contacted customers who identify as low income. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Program Improvements  Allowing residents of subsidized properties to be eligible for the multi-family program with Home Forward. This should result in a 15% increase in participant totals.  Developing an initiative to provide targeted outreach to urban Native Americans.  Ensuring that other city bureaus that participate in outreach are aware of our program. Financial Assistance Program Expansion

Program Improvements (cont’d)  Targeted outreach to outer SE residents, including those serviced by Rockwood Water District.  Developing relationships with property managers of subsidized complexes to educate their residents on the multi-family program.  Rebranding of the program to remove the word “assistance”. Our agency partners shared that to many customers this may mean that we always pay the entire bill. Financial Assistance Program Expansion