On July 1st, 285 families and individuals in the Northwest part of Oregon will be turned out of their homes.

Columbia County, where most of those evictions will take place, has an unemployment rate of 15.4%. As the economic crisis deepens, it becomes clear that what we need is more support for our neighbors that have been hardest hit, not less. We need a way to ensure a basic standard of living for everybody in our community, and that includes the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.

But how will we afford it in this economy? The Oregon Center for Public Policy has just released a fact sheet that shows us that it is necessary to raise more revenue in order to avoid even more cuts. House Bills 2649 and 3405 , coming before the legislature very soon, will allow us to avoid some cuts by raising taxes on the most wealthy and on corporations. (Call your representatives now to support these bills!)

But one cut – for HUD-subsidized housing assistance in northwest Oregon – seems to have already been implemented. Last week, Rural Organizing Project (ROP) got a call from Mike Cook of Tillamook County. Mike works with the NeahCasa community housing trust out of Manzanita, Oregon, and called to inform us that dozens of his clients had started to come in with distressing letters from the NW Housing Authority, informing them that their housing assistance would end on July 1st. (more…)