Wyden, Merkley: Oregon to Receive More than $66 Million for Affordable Housing

Press Release

Oregon's U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today announced that Oregon will receive more than $66 million in federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for affordable housing to help low-income Oregonians in the cities of Corvallis, Salem, Portland and Eugene as well as Clackamas, Marion and Washington counties.
"Housing is a human right, period, and the economic fallout of this public health crisis has underlined just how badly Oregonians need more affordable housing," Wyden said. "The American Rescue Plan has thrown our state and our nation a vital lifeline to weather the remainder of this pandemic, and these grants will ensure more Oregonians can have an affordable and accessible roof over their heads."
"Oregon was already grappling with a housing crisis before the pandemic came along and made it even more difficult for people to keep roofs over their heads," said Merkley. "This is an all-hands-on-deck problem, and I'm doing everything I can to address it, including fighting for the construction of more affordable housing. I'm grateful that this funding is headed to our rural and coastal communities to support that effort, and will keep working to secure similar resources for all of our communities."
COVID-19 has exacerbated our nation's already severe housing affordability crisis. Today, one in five American renters is behind on rent and more than 10 million homeowners are behind on mortgage payments. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides $5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program to help create housing and services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The HOME Investments Partnerships program helps to expand the supply of decent, affordable housing to low- and very low-income families by providing grants to States and local governments to fund housing programs that meet local needs and priorities.
The American Rescue Plan allocations from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Services (HUD) are below.
About half of the $66 million -- $32.89 million -- will be distributed by the State to cities with fewer than 50,000 residents and counties with fewer than 200,000 residents.

American Rescue Plan Act HOME Supplemental Allocations
Name
Amount
Corvallis
$1,164,563
Salem
$2,349,371
Clackamas County
$3,649,508
Marion County
$2,251,172
OR Non Entitlement
$32,894,168
Portland
$13,567,782
Eugene
$4,728,637
Washington County
$6,101,728

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