When you look at FHDC’s operating budget from 2019 to 2021, a funder might ponder how they look so different. Typically, our annual operating budget falls between $1.5-$2.5M based on our current programs and housing development activities. In 2020 and 2021, it appeared that we had increased our operational activities and expenses by an additional $35 million each year! While this would be a huge growth trajectory for any organization to sustain, we knew that our commitment to managing the Oregon Worker Relief Fund (OWRF) and Quarantine Fund (QF) would be temporary and a great lesson in organizational capacity, fiscal responsibility, and community leadership for a cause that mattered to everyone in organization and communities across Oregon.

During 2020 and 2021, FHDC served as a fiscal administrator for the OWRF and the QF, distributing tens of millions of dollars in resources to more than 37,000 individuals who do not qualify for State or Federal relief funds and social services.  We were honored to join over 100 other community organizations to support Oregonians who were excluded from relief funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, an effort that is ongoing. This project required immense internal effort to coordinate and we shifted our priorities to financial support services for the community most impacted and in need during the pandemic. The millions of dollars helped to keep FHDC residents and other community members in their homes and their basic needs met.

FHDC is grateful for the internal fiscal expertise and organizing from the following folks, many of whom volunteered their skills, worked overtime and on weekends, distributing hundreds of checks every week to make sure the community was supported:

• FHDC’s Finance Advisory Committee: Kay Sohl, Margaret Mahoney, Larry Kleinman, Sheila Greenlaw-Fink;
• FHDC’s Staff: Tonya Kenyon and Maria Elena Guerra and Resident Services team Fabiola Camacho, Anabel Hernandez-Mejia and Promotores Resident Leaders for spreading the word throughout our communities;
• FHDC partners: Impact CFO Services, Melody Snow and Kelly Lynch

It’s important for FHDC to recognize the impact this had on our own understanding of the deep needs and the opportunities brought about by managing a fund of this magnitude. FHDC’s Leadership Team was able to pivot to manage the OWRF and QF, all while planning and constructing 130 units in Lebanon at Colonia Paz, rehabilitating Colonia Amistad in Independence and Cipriano Ferrel Education Center in Woodburn, and seeking out land acquisition and purchase opportunities to build more affordable housing for Latinx communities throughout the state.

Out of this effort grew our internal capacity to better manage our fiscal responsibilities and seek out federal funding to support our Asset Building department, new affordable housing and rehabilitation projects, and Evolve’s capacity to formalize its TEACH workforce development into an accredited program able to compete for and manage government funding opportunities.

Thank you to all who supported this effort, including our key partner organizations of the Alianza Poder and many other community-based organizations throughout the state! The fund is ongoing, even though our tenure managing the fiscal distribution shifted at the end of 2021.

To read the latest report on the Oregon Worker Relief Fund click here

To read the latest report on the Oregon Worker Quarantine Fund