FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MISSOULA, MT., July 24, 2018 – The Missoula Housing Authority (MHA) will host a meeting with the Taiwan Minister of Labor at the MHA offices on July 26, 2018. Visitors include Hsu Ming-chun, the Minister of Labor and Taiwan’s Vice Minister of Labor, Senior Executive Officer, and Senior Officer of Labor Affairs, as well as Montana state officials. Missoula is one stop on a tour with the U.S. Labor Secretary. This meeting provides an unprecedented opportunity for MHA to showcase their many housing projects, innovative employment, and asset building programs and community collaboration efforts with the visiting officials.
MHA’s Rebecca Stancil, who serves as the International Relations Chair for the International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP), arranged the meeting between MHA and the Taiwan Labor Officials. The Taiwanese officials are interested in housing and MHA’s Family Self Sufficiency Program (FSS), Resident Opportunity Self-Sufficiency Program (ROSS), and also to learn about MHA’s collaboration with partners to create housing opportunities.
The Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program is an employment and asset building program that assists families receiving rental assistance from MHA to become more self-sufficient and even move off of federal assistance. FSS coordinators assist the program participants in creating a training plan that focuses on gaining employment or higher-paying employment, completing education or specialized training, repairing credit, addressing legal issues, and homeownership counseling. A savings account is created for the participant when their rent increases due to earned income to promote saving for the future.
The Resident Opportunity Self-Sufficiency Program (ROSS) is a federally funded program through HUD (The Department of Housing and Urban Development) and administered through MHA. This program supports Public Housing residents by connecting them with valuable community resources so they can obtain economic self-sufficiency, independence, improved quality of life, and in some cases, maintain stable housing as they age.
“This is an amazing opportunity to share with the international community how MHA has created affordable housing options for our Missoula community and to show how these efforts have enabled our residents to gain stability and can in turn focus on improving their lives by gaining access to employment and other services,” Stancil says.
About MHA: Through creative partnerships and innovative development, the Missoula Housing Authority provides quality housing solutions for low and middle-income households in Missoula and the surrounding area.
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Contact:
Jim McGrath, Director of HUD Programs
jmcgrath@missoulahousing.org / (406) 549-4113