The Housing Authority of Portland (HAP) is moving forward with a pilot program to provide Fairview Oaks residents with public housing rental assistance and self-sufficiency services.
Forty of HAP's 328 units at Fairview Oaks apartments will be converted from affordable rental housing to public housing. Residents of these units will receive the help that public housing provides for a fixed period of time. The major components of this initiative include rent subsidies, supportive services, and self-sufficiency programming. Eligible households that volunteer for the program will pay just 30 percent of their income in rent, with an opportunity to redirect the amount over $350 per month into an individual escrow account. After five years, the household receives the full escrow savings and exits the program to allow other tenants to participate.
"It is our experience that lessening the rent burden, coupled with services and a 
means of saving and building assets, helps households establish a stronger and more stable financial footing," said Steve Rudman, HAP's executive director. The agency is in the process of selecting a service provider for the program.
Fairview is one of several pilot projects under HAP's Opportunity Housing 
Initiative (OHI), an expansion of the agency's successful GOALS family self-
sufficiency program. HAP's objective is to increase the number of households 
working toward economic independence with a goal of leaving housing 
assistance.