Because YOU and others helped me raise such a large donation to NWPP last year (over $15,000), I asked NWPP Executive Director Laura Golino de Lovato whether there was a way to leverage that amount of money to meet heretofore unmet needs of NWPP’s clients. In response, NWPP is creating the Medium-Term Rent Assistance Fund.
What is Medium Term Rent Assistance?
The older adults served by NWPP are some of the most vulnerable people in our community. They are extremely low-income, medically fragile, and often have no support systems. NWPP provides a pathway to stable housing for these older adults by providing rent subsidies, aka rent assistance, for apartments that are “market rate.” However, almost all rent assistance is only available for a maximum of 24 months. And while there are subsidized apartments in Portland, there aren’t enough. The wait time for a subsidized apartment is 3 - 5 years. And long-term rent assistance isn’t as available as it should be. So what happens when the short term rent assistance runs out? Rather than see someone become homeless it is so much more effective, compassionate and healthier to keep them in housing. “Medium Term Rent Aassistance” covers that gap.
Your contribution this year will help fill the gap for an additional 2 - 3 years of rent assistance while a senior waits for a permanent subsidy.
The money we raise will be used exclusively for medium term rent assistance rather than short term assistance sas is the case with the Emergency Fund. We can sleep better knowing that we helped a senior stay in a dry, safe apartment until their permanent subsidy becomes available.