FAQs

Check our Service Area map to ensure you start at the correct St. Vincent de Paul location. Our Information Hotline operators also can answer questions about where to apply and how: 503-235-8431 (option 2). Also see our Application Atlas to ensure you have the right documents and information before you seek help. Make sure you contact your landlord or utility company ahead of time to advise them of your difficulty, and request temporary help. Even if they refuse, you're likely to come out better if they heard from you first, rather than being caught off-guard by us calling to verify your balance.

We need clients to be invested in their own recovery. We ask them to take responsibility by finding ways to come up with other funds, or to work down balances on their own. Part of that process is discovering what options your service provider may offer to pay down your balance more slowly. Every utility company and landlord works a little differently. Some may offer options that another one doesn't. Ask your service provider about these kinds of options: For Utility Is there a way I can get put on a low-income discount program? Is there any other program I might qualify for? Do you offer level payment plan options? Can I get an extension of my payment deadline? Is there a way to get a portion of my bill forgiven? Can you put me on a time payment arrangement? If you put me on a time payment plan, how much will I have to pay right now, and what monthly payments will be added to my future bills? For Landlord Can I get an extension of time to pay? Is there some other forbearance I might qualify for? Could you set me up on a temporary payment plan? If we could do a payment plan, how would repayments be structured, and how long will you allow me to pay? Will you forgive the late charge if I get someone else to help me pay the bill this month? Is there anything special I should know if I'm getting payment assistance from an outside source? Can you tell me what agencies have helped other tenants recently, so I have an idea who might be able to help me? What steps will you take if I can't pay my bill this month, and what financial penalties/costs will be associated with that? Also keep in mind that, if you have a medical condition that requires electricity (such as a refrigerator for insulin, or a pump for an oxygen tank), you may be able to get signed up for a medical certificate* with your electric company. This won't keep you from having to pay, or avoid a shut-off. But it can give you more lenient payment terms if you get in a pinch. Learn more by visiting our Application Atlas. * Note: Medical certificates must be periodically renewed, and require certification from a doctor.

Our help is not guaranteed. Your application may be denied. When we do help, we typically pay only part of a bill, and not more than $200 to $500. We might pay a little more, or a little less, depending on many factors we can’t know until after your application is fully processed. It’s important that you not adjust your budget to reflect help from us until we have issued our payment on your behalf.

Our office will only call you back to start the application process if you leave a complete voicemail with at least the following information: Kind of bill you want help with; Full legal name, as it appears on your bill or contract; Full date of birth; Residence address to which the bill applies; Operating phone number with a voicemail box that is set up and not full. The voicemail prompt also will ask for other information, including how much you owe, and how much money you have to put toward the bill. See our Application Atlas for other information to leave in your voicemail.

The application form you sign asks for a range of information from income and expense details to family member names and birthdates, service provider contacts, email address, the reason you need help, and more. You also may be required to show photo ID such as a driver's license, state ID card, passport, or other proof of identity. Some requested information is optional, while other information is required. Health information, language, marital status, and race are examples of information that is optional. You will not be asked for a Social Security Number or tax returns. We also don't verify immigration status. A few applicants may need to give additional information to qualify for special programs that offer extra funding. Such information includes: Highest level of education Last four digits of Social Security Number Dwelling heat source Proof of medical diagnosis Veteran status Disability status Etc. We will independently verify details of your rent or utility account with your service provider. Please note that some companies or landlords require preauthorization from you before they release your information to us. Be sure to contact your utility or landlord ahead of time to give your authorization. If we can't independently verify that information, we will deny your application.

A staff member will confirm whether you meet our basic criteria to complete a full application. If you do, the staff member will contact you to advise of options to submit a written application plus any needed supporting documents. You must answer your phone when we call. If you don't, your application may be denied, and you will have to try again to call our voicemail Application Line. Our application asks you to indicate information about every member of your household―including children―and their financial circumstances. We keep information in confidence, and will not share it with others, except to process your application. If you refuse to provide required information, your application will be denied. Once we receive all of your application materials, our office will contact your utility or landlord to verify your account details and your obligation to pay. We will not make any pledge or payment until your account information has been independently verified. Payments we do send go directly to your service provider. We never allow a client to pick up or receive a payment check.

We'll make more than one attempt to reach you, if necessary. But your application will be denied if we don't reach you after multiple attempts. Once we have received your request for help, keep your phone at your side, so you can answer it immediately when we call. Our staff is not able to leave a callback number if you don't pick up. You will have to restart the application process if we have to deny your application.

We contact your landlord or utility company once we receive all of your written documentation. After your vendor has sufficiently confirmed your information directly with us, we will search our available funding sources to see how much we might be able to pay. Following this verification, your specialist pledges funds, if any are available, and turns in a payment sheet for supervisor review. The supervisor ensures the payment sheet meets compliance standards before submitting it to our accounting office. Rejected payment sheets are returned to the specialist for correction before being sent to accounting. The accounting office double checks payment sheets for compliance with agency standards before issuing payment. Payment is made in the form of a check written and mailed directly to the vendor by First Class postal mail. No funds are ever sent or given to a client in any way.

One of our representatives will contact you. Please keep in mind that it's important for you to answer your phone whenever you have an application pending with us. We may not be able to leave a complete message if you share a phone with someone outside your household, or if your voicemail is full, or not set up.

You are not required to tell us your race, but we are required to ask. Some organizations who give us money want to know that we're spending it to help the traditionally underserved populations that they support. Examples of these funders include federal agencies, county governments, and nonprofit foundations. We ask about other basic demographic information for the same reason. However, we never use this information in decisions about whether to help an applicant. Read our full Nondiscrimination Statement.

Generally, no. While we want to help everyone with genuine need, it’s more difficult to assess a client’s true circumstances when the service provider is someone with a close, personal relationship to the applicant. While we won’t pay assistance on your behalf in such case, we may be able to help your friend or family member with a bill if your inability to pay creates a hardship for that person. For example, if you lose your job, and can’t pay rent you owe to your cousin, we won’t help you pay that rent. However, we would pay a utility bill in your cousin’s name, if she qualifies for help, thus reducing her overall financial burden.

That depends. We find that most cases where this occurs involve informal arrangements where the parties have nothing in writing. We will not help in that case. Our goal is to make sure our payment goes only to the person with the legal right to collect rent on the property you’re in. We require proof of a written rental contract, dated and signed by all the parties involved. In the case of a sublease, that means we must see a written contract not only between you and the person who collects your rent, but also between that person and the property owner.

Our aid is focused on maintaining an existing residence or essential utilities. We do not help with fees or costs related to acquiring a new residence or moving out of an existing one. These are the services we commonly pay for: Rent (except first or last month’s rent) Electricity Natural gas Water

No. While we may pay part of a month's rent for a household that rents a motel room on an ongoing basis, we don't have motel vouchers or other arrangements to assist with temporary or overnight lodging. The best resource to locate assistance with overnight lodging in Oregon is the 211 information phone line. Their information also can be found online at 211info.org.

If your regular residence is a motel room or suite where you continuously rent, and have lived more than 30 days, we may be able to help. The motel manager will have to agree to accept our payment by check through the mail, and both you and the manager will be subject to the same verifications as any other rent assistance application. Approval also is subject to other conditions, including that the agreedupon payment must be within our budget and sufficient to keep you housed for at least one week.

No. Our office does not have an account with any fuel retailer, and does not have cash or a credit card to use for fuel payments. For more information about getting help with gasoline, propane, or other services we don't offer, call 211, or visit 211info.org.

Not usually. The vast majority of our local offices, and our main office in Portland, focus on providing aid for food, and for basic, housing-related expenses: rent, electricity, natural gas, and water.

Yes. We focus on essential services. We never pay for any of the following: Bills in collections Fees or penalties for late payment Cable TV Internet Service Charges for property damage or maintenance Student loans

Yes. Much of our funding comes from St. Vincent de Paul volunteers at Catholic churches around northwestern Oregon. These volunteers form separate nonprofit groups called conferences, which set their own guidelines about what kinds of help they give, and how much they pay. The conferences also typically require that their funds be spent on people in their local area. Not all conferences are able to raise the same amount of money, or have the same number of people seeking aid. As a result, different conferences have different amounts of aid available.

No. Not every community has a Catholic church, and not every Catholic church has a St. Vincent de Paul conference. It's up to local Catholics to decide how they want to be involved in their communities, and what kinds of work they're capable of doing. Even if your local community doesn’t have a St. Vincent de Paul conference, our regional Portland Council office may be able to provide help. And, even if our council staff doesn’t have aid available, we may be able to direct you to another resource. Call our Information Hotline if you have questions: 503-235-8431.

No. Our council office takes aid requests for more than half of our conferences, most of them in Clackamas and Multnomah counties. Most of our conferences in Washington County take their own applications directly from clients, as do our conferences in Clatsop and Columbia counties. Rarely, our Portland office may get special, unexpected funding to fill a need outside our usual service area. When that happens, we may be able to work with an applicant where a St. Vincent de Paul conference already provides help. But most times, when people call from one of those areas, we must refer them to the local conference to apply. Call our Information Hotline if you have questions: 503-235-8431.

You may have to wait until a later month to get help. Some conferences run out of funds occasionally. Others run out more often. Wherever you live, there will be times that the demand for our assistance exceeds available funding. Sometimes we can lessen the blow by arranging a small amount from our Portland main office to tide you over until other help is available. Most often, we will to tell you redirect you to your local conference, or tell you to try us back at a later date. No matter what the case, we will do our best to advise you.

It depends. Most of our aid comes with time restrictions, meaning you can get help every so many months or years. If the time has not run out since your last aid, you will not be able to get help again until it does. On the other hand, if you move into an area where the local conference has a shorter restriction on the time between applications, you might be able to qualify. The best way to find out is to call us.

We collect household member information for three main reasons: (a) to get a fuller picture of your household’s collective circumstances, (b) to satisfy funders who require aggregated demographic information about the clients they pay for, and (c) to lessen the incidence of fraud. However, we will never ask for financial information, such as social security numbers, bank account numbers, passwords or PINs. All of our staff and volunteers specifically commit to nondisclosure of your information to third parties, except as authorized to process your application. We keep your information private, and our database system employs advanced security protection that is fully HIPAA-compliant.

Generally, yes. St. Vincent de Paul does not deny help based solely on whether you’ve recently gotten aid elsewhere. We are interested in your complete financial picture. While we want to use our funds judiciously, we don’t want to turn away someone in need just to satisfy a data point. That said, some of our funders include recent prior aid as a criterion to decide how much to award. We also typically limit aid based on how recently you received prior assistance from St. Vincent de Paul, or one of our affiliates.

Maybe. Each agency sets its own policies, so we can’t answer for another organization. However, we know that there are some agencies that will deny assistance if you’ve received charitable aid from another organization. If your need is so great that you think you might have to apply to multiple agencies, it’s important that you contact each agency to ask about their policies and restrictions.

In accordance with St. Vincent de Paul policies on Safeguarding and Nondiscrimination, any person who has been the victim of abuse, exploitation or discrimination should file a complaint. We take seriously our obligation to safeguard the people we work with and serve. Read our Safeguarding Policy. If you want to file a complaint and don’t know whom to contact at your local conference, use our Contact form to reach our Council office. Depending on the nature of your complaint, you may also want to contact another agency, such as the Oregon Food Bank, local law enforcement, or federal authorities. Learn more by reading our Nondiscrimination Statement.

We only assist when the amount we pay is sufficient to avoid or stop a utility shut-off, reconnect service, or stop an eviction process. If our funds aren't enough to do that for you, we would be spending money to no effect on your account when we could be using that money to keep service going for someone else. Regrettably, our available funds are limited, just like with most other charitable organizations. To ensure our funds aren't wasted, we often require clients to show proof that they have the rest of the money needed to make up the difference between their minimum due and the amount that we can pay. When proof of funds is needed, you must provide it to us before we will make a pledge or pay funds. Proof will need to be in one of the following forms: Receipt showing payment made, payee name, and date of payment Direct verbal confirmation of payment from vendor's customer service department Money order made out to the name of the payee