Homelessness Prevention

Qualifications & Requirements

Path Home’s Homelessness Prevention Program is designed to help bridge gaps that jeopardize long-term family housing. This program is very short-term and is not able to provide ongoing or long-term solutions to housing instability.

Before filling out our Homelessness Prevention Application, please review the requirements below.

To receive assistance from our Homelessness Prevention Program:

A household must reside in the Portland metro area and have at least one child under the age of 18.

This includes a person in their third trimester of pregnancy. Path Home is part of the Family Continuum of Care, which means all of our services require that you have at least one child in your care.

Income requirements:

  • Rent can be no more than two-thirds of total net income (cash & non-cash combined)

  • Net cash income must be at least $300 more than rent

  • Gross income can be no more than 65% area median income (AMI)

  • All income sources must be verifiable

A household must verify that they will be able to resume paying rent, in full, within the time and funding limitations of the program.

The minimum income requirements are intended to ensure that paying rent is possible while allowing for lower-income households to qualify. The gross income gap is intended to ensure that our limited resources are directed to households with the greatest need.

A household must have paid rent for the last 12 months without assistance from an agency such as a nonprofit, charitable organization, government agency, etc.

Path Home’s Homelessness Prevention Program is intended to serve households that have a history of housing stability and are likely to return to stability with a little help; we can help bridge gaps that may exist but are unable to provide longer-term housing support. A recent history of housing stability allows us to be reasonably sure that a household will be able to maintain their housing after receiving help.

The assistance available must be sufficient to prevent a household from losing their housing.

At times, a household may meet all of the previously listed qualifications, but the amount needed to avoid eviction or to pay off a balance is greater than Path Home’s budget allows. In these cases, in order for Path Home to make a payment, both tenant and landlord will need to agree to a payment arrangement for any balance that may remain after Path Home provides assistance. Arrangements should be both agreeable to the landlord and manageable for the tenant. This ensures that a tenant will be able to keep their housing after Path Home has invested in their stability. If desired, Path Home can help negotiate the terms of such an arrangement.

Selection Process

Applications for Path Home’s Homelessness Prevention Program may be submitted at any time. Applications will be processed as quickly as possible upon receipt of all necessary documents. Incomplete applications cannot be processed.

Applications will be selected to receive assistance, at random, from the pool of all qualified applications twice per month. Applicants will be notified whether their application is selected or not.

Selection schedule:

  • Applications submitted the 1st-12th of the month will be selected between the 13th and 15th of the month.

  • Applications submitted the 13th-end of the month will be selected between the 1st and 3rd of the following month.

Applicants not selected in the first round of the month can elect to have their application added to the second round of the month. Applications not selected in the second round cannot be rolled over to a new month.

If your application is selected:

A final review will be conducted to confirm that your household meets all qualifications for the program; Path Home will collect complete household information that will allow us to provide financial assistance at that time.

Prioritizing factors

While applicants are selected at random, we do attempt to prioritize certain household situations:

●      Households that have already received an eviction notice and/or have a court date scheduled or have gone to court

●      Single-income-earner households

●      Number of children in household

After you complete the application, submit it by email, fax, mail, or in person:

  • By email to prevention@path-home.org. Please put “Prevention Application” in the subject line to avoid any delay in processing your application

  • By fax to (503) 662-1862, Attn: Prevention

  • In person or by mail to 6220 SE 92nd Ave., Portland OR 97266