PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Portland organization has paused a rental assistance program due to a lack of funding.
In an email, Home Forward’s Chief Operating Officer Ian Davie confirmed that it is not currently administering its Housing Choice Vouchers. The program helps low-income residents by covering a portion of their rent.
But the public corporation relies on federal entities like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the funding that backs assistance programs. According to Home Forward, the department recently informed leaders that they cannot cover HCV at its current level of funding.
Although Davie said the federal agency is able to dole out “additional shortfall funds” in instances like these, he revealed that his organization can no longer issue vouchers while in the application process.
He also noted that Congress approved “flat funding” for the voucher program earlier this spring, but rental costs have continued to increase for housing authorities nationwide — including those in Portland.
“In the Portland region, we’ve seen the costs of housing and utilities increase dramatically for families, and have seen similar increases in Home Forward’s rent subsidy costs,” Davie said. “On top of this, families need assistance for longer periods of time to achieve stability, so we have fewer vouchers becoming available to new households. Unfortunately, Home Forward had already notified around a dozen families that they would soon be issued a voucher, so we immediately made them aware of this new restriction.”
The impacted families were not already receiving housing assistance from Home Forward, according to Davie. He told KOIN 6 that they will remain at the top of the organization’s waitlists.
Davie added that the HCV pause will not affect residents of Home Forward’s properties or other properties that benefit from federal voucher subsidies.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is pushing Congress to approve additional HCV funding for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins on Oct. 1.
Jashayla Pettigrew
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