The COVID-19 Emergency Household Stabilization Fund offers limited direct cash assistance to households experiencing a loss of income due to COVID-19 for urgent needs like groceries, utilities, and medical expenses. Households can apply for funds through 211 beginning April 27 at 10am.

Follow this link for details on how to apply and the eligibility criteria:

If you are a renter or homeowner in Portland/Multnomah County who has been financially impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency, and you are unable to pay rent or your mortgage, please see guidance and resources below.

For Renters:

If you can demonstrate a substantial loss in income due to the COVID-19 pandemic you can defer your rent payments. Rent payments are not being forgiven, you will still be obligated to repay missed payments.

The City of Portland and Multnomah County have enacted emergency laws to prevent people from losing their homes due to job and income loss. You are able to defer rent payments for up to 6 months if you can demonstrate a substantial loss of income due to job loss, reduced work hours, business closure, school or childcare closure, missed work to care for oneself or a family member ill with COVID-19, or other similar causes. You must notify and provide documentation to your landlord on or before the day rent is due.

Follow this link for more information:

For Homeowners:

If you can demonstrate a substantial loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic you may be able to defer your mortgage payments. Mortgage payments are not being forgiven, you will still be obligated to repay missed payments.

For loans backed by the Federal Government, Federal Agencies have enacted suspensions or deferrals on mortgage payments. Two-thirds of all mortgages in the United States are backed by the Federal Government. Contact your mortgage servicer to determine whether or not your loan is backed by the Federal Government and to understand additional eligibility requirements. See the resources below for more information.

• www.fanniemae.com
• www.freddiemac.com
• www.fhfa.gov

If your mortgage is not backed by the Federal Government, you may still be eligible to defer mortgage payments. Many banks and mortgage servicers are enacting their own deferment programs – call your mortgage servicer for more information. Other resources on actions by banks in Oregon can be found at: www.oregonbankers.com/coronavirus-response

For Owners of Rental Property:

If you are a landlord who is unable to pay mortgage/loan payments due to a renter deferring rent, please contact your lender about options for payment deferral. The Federal Government has enacted suspensions or deferrals on some mortgage/loan products for owners of rental housing properties.

Fraud Prevention:

Unfortunately, many scams are emerging to take advantage of people and businesses that are looking for assistance or relief. As always, be aware of fraud:

• www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/fraud/
• www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/beware-coronavirus-related-scams/

We at the Portland Housing Bureau wanted to take this moment to reach out to our valued partners, and the community at large, to keep you apprised of the immediate actions we are taking to ensure the continuity of Bureau operations, as well as the housing stability of Portlanders during these uncertain times.

Today Mayor Wheeler announced a local moratorium on residential evictions, in partnership with Multnomah County, for the duration of the State of Emergency. Under the moratorium, no one can be evicted for failure to pay rent who has suffered substantial loss of income due to COVID-19. The moratorium is not a forgiveness of rent; rent owed will continue to accrue with a grace period for repayment following the expiration of the Emergency declaration. Learn more about the new Executive Rule here.

Also, during the Emergency, all non-essential City employees have been directed to telework. PHB’s office downtown will therefore be closed over the next two weeks. In the meantime, our staff will continue to conduct Bureau business remotely via email, phone, and skype/video conferencing.

• For our development partners, keeping to development timelines and ensuring projects are being funded in a timely fashion remain among our top priorities. Therefore, we will be prioritizing keeping all projects under development on track to the best of our abilities.
  
  
• For our contracted service partners, during the State of Emergency we understand that you may need to adjust your service delivery models to protect your staff and community. We want to support you as best we can. To that end we wanted to ensure that you are getting compensated as you too have to shift your service delivery models.
  
  
• We will be working closely with our Affordable Housing partners to make sure we can help support you in your critical work keeping Portlanders housed. 
  
  

Thank you for all you are doing to help our community during this challenging time. Please know we will do our utmost to support you. 

–Shannon Callahan & the PHB Team