 IHI Financial Skills Training
Innovative Housing is committed to helping our tenants maintain their housing stability and improve their quality of life. We do this by connecting residents to existing community resources and service providers, sponsoring community building activities, and coordinating site-based programming.
IHI's Resident Services staff conduct new tenant orientations and provide eviction prevention services that help tenants maintain their housing stability by connecting them with resources and teaching important financial skills such as household budgeting. IHI sponsors community events, coordinates on-site workshops on topics such as nutrition, parenting skills, and financial education, provides resource referrals, and administers an emergency fund that enables IHI to respond to tenant requests for items such as infant car seats, bus passes, utility assistance, and food. IHI also provides computers with high speed internet access at several sites.
 Summer Lunches
at Kinnaman Townhomes
IHI's Financial Fitness and Asset Building Program
IHI's Financial Fitness and Asset Building Program (FFAB) is targeted at helping low-income tenants improve their job skills, increase their earning potential, and acquire assets. IHI’s FFAB Program Manager meets one-on-one with resident households to offer assistance with budgeting, resource identification, and credit repair. We also provide a limited number of participants with rental assistance that enables them to stop working dead-end jobs and focus on improving their education and/or job skills. In addition, IHI delivers one-on-one financial counseling, household budgeting assistance, career counseling, homeownership education, and credit counseling with the goal of increasing their household earning potential and moving them toward homeownership.
The results of IHI’s work and our residents’ participation in the FFAB program are inspiring and demonstrate that targeted, individualized assistance can help people break cycles of poverty and dependence. Since we started the program, four participants who were enduring domestic violence situations have separated from their abusers, enrolled in college, and are maintaining GPA’s above 3.5. One woman who was addicted to methamphetamines has been clean and sober for over a year and graduated from Mt. Hood Community College’s Transitions Program. Two families whose housing stability was threatened by wage garnishments used 2006 tax refunds to pay off their creditors in full. A single mother of five purchased her first home. These are success stories that can and will be duplicated as IHI continues to offer personalized financial education to our residents.
IHI's Youth Program
At our family properties IHI offers a range of youth programs that include Homework Help, an annual Back-to-School Giveaway, after-school activities, and a Youth Individual Development Account Program that teaches financial skills and matches children' savings toward educational, athletic, or artistic goals. IHI hosts summer lunch programs at all three of our family sites and at two sites in East Multnomah County we partner with Human Solutions to supplement the summer lunch program with daytime activities for resident and neighborhood children. We served 5,807 lunches in 2007!
IHI's comprehensive Youth Program is based at our largest family site in Gresham and is designed to fill the gaps between available resources and opportunities and the skills and experiences that kids need to succeed, both as children and as adults. IHI’s Youth Program provides support, structured programming, and encouragement that will enable young people to acquire skills, experience new things, and make good decisions about their future.
IHI's Youth Program Coordinator:
- coordinates academic support for struggling students;
- helps teens shape immediate and future goals, works with them to formulate realistic plans for achieving their ambitions, and provides assistance in finding and completing applications for work, job training, scholarships and college;
- facilitates workshops that provide children and teens with necessary life skills such as nutrition education, computer literacy, financial education, resume writing, job readiness, how to locate resources, etc.;
- provides weekly activities for school-age children to help them focus their after-school hours in productive and socially engaging ways;
- provides pre-school story-times and activities in English and Spanish designed to engage young children in developmentally appropriate interactions as well as to inform parents about early childhood health and safety issues and community resources for young children; and
- solicits community volunteers and organizations to provide youth workshops, social events, job shadowing, mentoring, and youth volunteer opportunities.
Here is IHI's latest Download file newsletter(1 Mb). Remember, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the newsletter once you download it. Enjoy!
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Payday Loan Alternatives
Many credit unions are currently offering short-term loans with annual interest rates between 12% and 25% rather than the 515% annual interest rate regularly charged by the average payday lending institution. How much money will you save? Individuals taking out two week car title or payday loans routinely pay $60 on a $300 loan. Individuals borrowing that same amount from a credit union charging 14.9% pay $1.71.
Credit unions vary in their qualification criteria, but some, like the Northwest Community Credit Union (1-800-452-9515) make it easy. For a short-term loan between $250 and $500 with an annual interest rate between 14.9% and 19.9% applicants need to apply in person only the first time. Subsequent requests can be made via telephone. NCCU does NOT run a credit check, but requires that applicants have a checking account at any financial institution or are able to have the borrowed amount directly debited from their paycheck.
Other credit unions offering short-term loans are:
Rivermark Community Credit Union (503-666-6600), Unitus Community Credit Union (503-227-5571) and On Point Credit Union, formerly Portland Teachers Credit Union (503-228-7077). Call for information about their payday loans.
Health Insurance
The Family Health Insurance Assistance Program (FHIAP) is an Oregon state program that helps uninsured individuals and families purchase health insurance by paying between 50% and 95% of their monthly premium. If your household is eligible for insurance through an employer but can’t afford it, call FHIAP at 1-888-564-9669 for more information on the Group Insurance program. If your family doesn’t get insurance through an employer you may qualify for the Individual Insurance program. There is currently a waiting list for Individual Insurance, but call today to add your name.
To qualify for FHIAP you must meet income guidelines, someone in your household must have been uninsured for the past 6 months (unless leaving OHP) and you cannot be eligible to receive Medicare. However, if you enrolled in your employer’s plan less than 90 days ago you may still be able to apply.
Oregon Tradeswomen
The Oregon Tradeswomen’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career (TAC) Class prepares low-income women for careers in the trades and helps them find apprenticeships. This is a FREE program. Participants will:
*Gain 30 hours of hands-on experience working alongside skilled female instructors at Habitat for Humanity.
*Explore topics like safety, construction culture, apprenticeship, communication.
*Learn basic trades math and measurement.
*Try out the tools of various trades through visits to apprenticeship training centers and hand-on activities led by trades people.
To qualify for the program you must:
1. Be 18 years or older
2. Have a GED or High School Diploma
3. Be able to get a driver’s license
4. Be physically able to do the work
5. Be 6 months clean and sober
6. Be able to pass a drug test
7. Speak basic English
Call 503-335-8200 x21 to find out upcoming dates and to sign up for a Trades Career Information Session.
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Ways to Work
Are you a working parent in need of transportation assistance? Ways to Work might be able to help! Ways to Work, operated locally by Metropolitan Family Service (MFS), provides working parents with a low-interest loan of up to $4000 to purchase a car when other transit options are impractical. If you qualify, MFS staff will help you find a quality vehicle and work with you to fit the loan payments into your household budget. This program can also assist with refinancing high-interest rate loans or paying for a car repair.
To be eligible for Ways to Work you must:
1. Be a parent.
2. Live in Multnomah, Washington or Clackamas county.
3. Work for at least 20 hours a week.
4. Have an income LESS than 80% of Area Median Income ($54,300 a year for a family of four).
For more information, please contact the MFS Ways to Work Coordinator, Shawn Shultz, at 503-232-0007, ext. 350.
Start Your Own Small Business
Do you have an idea for your own small business? Are you scared you lack the business know-how to succeed? Do you need money to get started? Maybe you don’t even know where to begin. MercyCorps Northwest may be able to help!
If you work for pay, make LESS than 80% of Area Median Income ($38,000 a year for a one-person household and $54,300 a year for a family of four), have a net worth of less than $20,000 and are 18 years of age or older you might qualify for the MercyCorps Individual Development Account (IDA) program. The MercyCorps IDA’s will match the money you save towards starting or expanding your own small business 2:1 up to $900. This means that if you save $900, MercyCorps will match your savings with $1800 and you’ll have $2700 in capital to purchase necessary materials for your business.
Plus, while you are saving you get to take the MercyCorps business courses. These classes offer valuable information about starting and running a small business. MercyCorps will also help you develop your own business plan. If you would like to learn more about MercyCorps Northwest you can visit them on the web at www.mercycorpsnw.org or call 503-236-1580, ext. 205.
Women's Health
Planned Parenthood offers women of childbearing age a FREE annual gynecological exam, a FREE one year supply of the birth control of their choice and FREE emergency contraceptives. Other reproductive services are offered at discounted prices and most insurances, including OHP are accepted.
Locations and Phone Numbers:
Beaverton– 503-646-8222
12220 SW 1st St. #200 Beaverton, OR 97005
NE Portland– 503-288-8826
3531 NE 15th Ave. Suite B Portland, OR 97212
SE Portland– 503-775-0861
3231 SE 50th Ave. Portland, OR 97214
Gresham– 503-666-6680
501 NE Hood Suite 100 Gresham, OR 97030
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