Policy
NOAH has played a leading role in shaping affordable housing policy in Oregon. Its staff regularly participate in think tanks, working groups, and policy forums to help develop solutions to the state’s housing challenges.
Key examples of NOAH’s policy and preservation leadership include:
- Collaborating with Oregon Housing and Community Services and the Oregon Legislature on financial structuring and regulatory issues related funding and programs serving affordable housing, such as the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit.
- Helping build support for preservation efforts through the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive database of at-risk affordable housing.
- Establishing an acquisition fund that enables nonprofit owners to act quickly to preserve properties at risk.
- Forming and facilitating Inter-Agency Preservation Working Groups to promote policy changes that support more efficient preservation transactions.
- Supporting the City of Portland’s 11x13 Campaign, which helped preserve 11 Section 8 properties at risk of losing their affordability.
- Advancing preservation of Rural Development properties, including proposing a state law requiring one year’s notice before Rural Development mortgage maturity, which passed in 2014.
- Participating in the White House Domestic Policy Rental Housing Alignment Convening.
Looking ahead, NOAH will continue to apply its housing finance expertise and broad network of partners to advance policies that preserve and expand affordable housing across Oregon.
