A Message from the President |
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Season’s Greetings to All,
I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season and New Year! I do have some asks of you as we close out 2021 and begin 2022:
2022 PNRC NAHRO Annual Conference
Plans are underway for our 2022 PNRC NAHRO Annual Conference in Renton Washington (Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport). The Conference Planning Committee has been working to offer an informative, dynamic, and educational experience. Stay tuned for more information and registration in the New Year. Let’s make it a goal in the next year to support, attend, and participate in the success of our PNRC Annual Conference!
Promote the 2022 NAHRO Merit College Scholarship Program:
Now Accepting Applications! Deadline is June 12, 2022
- One scholarship applicant to the PNRC will receive a $500 award.
- The winner of the PNRC scholarship, will receive another $1,000 award from NAHRO.
- From the eight recipients from the all regional scholarship contests, a second-place scholarship winner will receive an additional $2,000 award.
- From the eight recipients, a first-place scholarship winner will receive an additional $5,000 award.
NAHRO’s Virtual Classrooms – $10 off Discount Code & Revenue Share
I strongly urge you to take advantage of NAHRO Professional Development offerings. Remember, PNRC has a revenue-sharing agreement with NAHRO so your staff not only gets high quality NAHRO training, but you help the PNRC region! Simply enter code PNRC2020 and hit “apply”. It’s that simple.
Expand PNRC Membership
We are grateful for our membership and want you to know we are actively engaging in issues and opportunities that bring value to you, your staff and your organization. If you are not a member, we want you to consider how we can help you deliver your mission and enhance your capacity through our conference offerings, certified training and national advocacy campaigns. There is POWER in joining voices, COST SAVINGS for local training and OPPORTUNITIES to engage with industry experts!
I believe 2022 will be a year that we can all show how resilient we are, and can adapt to anything in order to fulfill our mission and make our communities stronger. I look forward to seeing each of you this year!
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Jillian Patterson
PNRC President
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VHA Resident
Turned Employee Breaks The Mold
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Damien Wheeler spent first through 12th grade living with his mom, twin brother and sister in a sprawling neighborhood of subsidized duplexes and fourplexes in Vancouver, Wash. A rental voucher, SSI and other public supports kept the family afloat. “My mom, she did the best she could do and we all understood that,” Wheeler said. “She just told us to graduate and all of us did.” The 27-year-old supports himself now, but not in the way one might expect. He has spent most of his career serving families in the same low-income neighborhood he grew up in. Wheeler worked at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington, his alma mater Fort Vancouver High School and most recently served as a liaison at Bridgeview Resource Center. “I just think he’s given back as much as was ever given to him,” said Sharon Linn. Linn, who’s worked for Vancouver Housing Authority for 22 years, was part of a team helping Skyline Crest families like the Wheelers. She made sure they had food for Thanksgiving, gifts for Christmas and other supports needed to succeed. Supports had to be tailored to the family and each person within the family. “Finding out what the person needs is critical. It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing for everyone,” Linn said. Years later, Wheeler and Linn worked on similar projects together as coworkers at Bridgeview: organizing National Night Out, gathering holiday gifts and school supplies for kids and putting together fresh food boxes. Wheeler recently left his role at Bridgeview to work as an EMT with American Medical Response and aims to someday become a local firefighter. He credits much of his success to support and opportunities he was offered as a kid. When he was 10, Wheeler began working with a mentor through the Rise & Stars Community Center. He was paired with VHA employee Shawn Hamburg, who worked in the construction and maintenance office just steps from Wheeler’s home. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do or what I was capable of,” Wheeler said. The pair met after school to talk for hours or – if Wheeler’s homework was done – play basketball or drive around town. “He could share anything with me and he had no fear of me going to Mom,” Hamburg said. “There’s something about having that one-on-one with an adult.” He helped Wheeler navigate first jobs and career changes. Wheeler knew he could pop into Hamburg’s office pretty much any time he had a question or needed advice. Hamburg noted that because Wheeler received help as a child, he went on to help dozens of at-risk youth. He’s worked with teens who were struggling to graduate high school or struggling to envision themselves getting into college. Jodi Freydenfeldt, Bridgeview’s volunteer and engagement supervisor, said Wheeler really started to shine when he worked with teens. “He has a natural gift for working with that population, which can be tricky to work with,” she said. Prudence Zeni, who used to supervise Wheeler, agreed and said some teens went to afterschool programs specifically when Wheeler was there. “He was listening to them, he was around and he was a good influence,” she said. He mentored a couple of youth through the Washington Military Academy, a National Guard Youth Challenge Program in Bremerton, WA. He began working at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington when a clubhouse was built in his childhood neighborhood in 2016. “It was such a cool opportunity for the kids who lived in that neighborhood to do work with Damien,” said his former supervisor, Ashley Davis. “He was someone they had known as a neighbor so Damien had a special connection with them.” Also, while working at the clubhouse he met his wife, Josie. Like many who’ve grown up in subsidized housing, Wheeler’s road to breaking the cycle of poverty was long and filled with jagged peaks and low valleys. Having housing supports and consistent, supportive adults in his life truly made all the difference. The outcome was less reliance on social services. “Despite the challenges that Damien had he’s been able to rise above,” Freydenfeldt said. Sometimes, she said, when people are low income, the bar gets set low. Wheeler set the bar high, always considering his next step – whether that was buying his first home, completing EMT school or joining a nonprofit board.
He wasn’t waiting for some big break. Rather, he slowly, methodically moved forward by asking questions, making mistakes and learning from experience. After a stint working at a local bank, Wheeler leveraged that connection to get a scholarship for low-income youth. “I think he has a belief in his own resilience,” Zeni said. “It’s just the way that he is.”
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Executive Director of the King County Housing Authority, will retire on Dec. 31 |
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Stephen Norman, the long-serving executive director of the King County Housing Authority (KCHA), will retire on Dec. 31, he announced today. Mr. Norman assumed the leadership of the Housing Authority in 1997 and has played an influential role in furthering affordable housing efforts both nationally and in the Puget Sound region. The Pacific Northwest’s largest affordable housing provider, KCHA currently helps house over 23,000 households on a daily basis. This number has more than doubled during Mr. Norman’s tenure.
“It has been a joy and a privilege to work with the team here at KCHA,” Mr. Norman said. “They truly care. This is an organization filled with enormously capable and dedicated individuals. What they are accomplishing every day in supporting our community is truly extraordinary.”
“Stephen has done a phenomenal job as executive director of KCHA. His leadership and experiences will be deeply missed,” said KCHA Board Chair Doug Barnes. “In a region where housing has become increasingly unaffordable, his impact can be seen in the tens of thousands of families who are stably housed, the children who have a real chance to rise above the probabilities of intergenerational poverty as a result of KCHA’s innovative programs, and the elderly and disabled households who are living with dignity. We are grateful for Stephen’s tireless efforts and the healthy, viable, diverse communities he and the team at KCHA have created and sustained. The Board extends its best wishes to Stephen for a well-deserved retirement and the very best in future endeavors.” Read More.....
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As we gear up for the 2022 PNRC NAHRO Conferences, we want your help & input to make it the best conference year ever!!
Please take a few moments to let us know what sessions and trainings you would like to see provided by taking the survey below.
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City in Oregon approves "Inclusionary Zoning" Housing Advances |
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An aldermanic committee unanimously recommended approval of a plan to require developers to set aside affordable apartments in new and rehabbed complexes — bringing one of the Elicker Administration’s long-in-the-works legislative priorities closer to a final vote.
That was the outcome of Tuesday night’s Board of Alders Legislation Committee meeting, which was held online via Zoom and YouTube Live.
The committee voted unanimously in support of the Elicker Administration’s proposed “inclusionary zoning” (aka “IZ”) law. If approved by the full Board of Alders, the local zoning change would require new and significantly rehabbed apartment buildings citywide to set aside a certain percentage of units at rents affordable to tenants earning no more than 50 percent of the area median income (AMI). The proposal has sparked heated debate across two Legislation Committee hearings, a City Plan Commission hearing, and amongst the city’s Affordable Housing Commission about whether it is one of the most progressive land-use updates in the nation, or too generous to developers and too stingy to low-income renters, or a marginal bill that will likely have little impact on New Haven’s housing market, or a potentially catastrophic example of bureaucratic overreach. Ultimately, the committee alders on Tuesday night sided with the Elicker Administration and the roughly dozen people who spoke up in support of the bill as a key tool in the city’s affordable-housing toolbox. “I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Dwight Alder Frank Douglass said before the committee voted unanimously in support. He said discussions about affordable housing in the city have been pretty “bleak” in recent years. Proposals like provide some cause for hope, he said. Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity/Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow agreed: “We’re making a very bold step.” Read More....
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Alaska’s Infrastructure Innovation Can Lead by Example & Break New Ground |
Alaska’s infrastructure has been built to withstand challenges: from earthquakes to temperatures far below zero, we build everything with the knowledge that it will need to endure some of the harshest conditions on Earth. However, as our climate changes, those conditions change too, and the way we build must adjust accordingly. Reflecting the urgency of the challenges we face, President Joe Biden recently signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law after it passed the House and Senate with strong bipartisan support. Alaskans are innovators — there’s no doubt about that — and our state is certainly up for this challenge. Across Alaska, there are already several efforts in progress to ensure the places we live, work, learn and recreate can withstand the conditions we’ll face in the future — and are already facing today.
The Denali Commission, as an independent federal agency aimed at providing critical utilities, infrastructure and economic support across the state, particularly in rural areas, is supporting communities especially vulnerable to environmental change. The Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC), now part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), works to advance the development of climate-appropriate shelter, especially in Arctic environments. Pt Capital, an Alaskan investment firm, has supported remote housing endeavors, specifically on the North Slope. All three of these organizations, though they employ a diverse array of approaches, recognize that better, more resilient infrastructure usually means more energy efficient infrastructure — resulting in infrastructure upgrades that are a win-win for people and the planet. Read More....
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What Home Means to Me Calendars on Sale Now! |
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NAHRO is now offering pre-sales for the 2022 Housing America “What Home Means to Me” calendar. The calendar contest is part of the Housing America public awareness campaign, which seeks to raise national awareness of the need for and importance of safe, quality, affordable housing through education, advocacy, & empowerment. As the country & world continues to grapple with the impacts of the coronavirus, the importance of having a home gained renewed recognition. |
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Canyon County nonprofit works to build its own affordable housing |
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Besides providing support and services to people who have experienced domestic or sexual abuse, a Canyon County nonprofit is also helping to provide affordable housing.
Kim Dugan, executive director of Advocates Against Family Violence, said a 32-unit development recently broke ground on its 10-acre campus.
“I think that when someone is coming from trauma, the worst thing you want them doing is living in a car or sleeping on somebody’s sofa. They need a safe place they need a place to call home, and we are able to provide them that helps them on their journey to freedom much sooner,” Dugan said.
Dugan said she first started working with AAFV as a housing coordinator and helped with finding funding for their first affordable housing units.
“To do our first 48 units, and then we were able to purchase 15 units in the community. We had 15 homes in the community that we were able to place survivors in. Last year, we just finished another set of 30 units,” Dugan said.
The campus located on Hope Lane in Caldwell is also where the nonprofit have their administration building, daycare, and other resources, Dugan said.
Dugan said the apartments are income-based and also include transitional housing units. Read More....
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Give the Gift of Professional Development! |
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This holiday season, consider the gift of training!
NAHRO Professional Development has a variety of quality trainings upcoming in 2022. Gift a friend, colleague, or even yourself the opportunity to learn something new or sharpen your skills this holiday season!
How does it work?
When registering, please use code: PNRC2020 (All CAPS)
and your $10 discount will automatically be applied, it’s that simple!
Please note: this code must be used when registering!
It cannot be retroactively applied.
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Available Virtual Classrooms:
For more information, contact NAHRO Professional Development at
202 580 7211 or
OR;
PNRC NAHRO Regional Service Officer 202.580.7203
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The Boise City / Ada County Housing Authorities has administered the local Emergency Rental Assistance program for Boise and Ada County since February 2021. To date, the HA has expended all allotted ERAP1 funds for the City of Boise and has nearly exhausted the ERAP1 funds for Ada County as well. And, we recently have signed contracts with both the city and county to administer the ERAP 2 funds. We are proud of our team that enabled us to provide this new resource to our communities in Ada County.
To date we have administered over $19 Million in rental and utility assistance to nearly 3,000
households in the city/county.
To stand up the program rapidly and efficiently, we combined efforts with current staff and a team of temporary employees in a new call center. Working with our IT department and web site design consultant, we launched a new website that provided as few obstacles as possible for applicants. The accounting department developed processes alongside the claim processors and internal auditors to pay landlords, property managers and local utility companies in a timely manner.
Local media interest has helped to promote the program on local TV news programs and printed materials. However, we greatly stepped up our marketing efforts by working with a local media consultant who provided guidance on social network ads, and alternative forms of outreach. We send monthly updates to all local legislators, county commissioners, and the various city councils and mayors in our county. This all helps to keep the program as a front-and-center resource in the fight against evictions and housing instability in our area, a fight that has intensified due to the COVID pandemic.
As we move into the next phase of ERA2 funding, we anticipate new opportunities to enhance program operations and further our mission to provide individuals and families with a foundation for stability and resiliency in a vibrant living environment.
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Send your pictures and articles to pnrc@nahro.org by January 13th to be featured in next month's newsletter!!
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