In the coming months, Portland’s future as an affordable home for all will play out at the doorstep of the Portland Development Commission. In a series of hearings, they will be considering a request by affordable housing advocates and the Portland City Council to dedicate 30 percent of urban renewal funds toward affordable housing. Urban renewal funds come from tax increment financing generated from the city’s 11 urban renewal areas.
This is an increase from the historical 15 percent, and one the PDC would be wise to accommodate, if they want to be true to the Portland at the head of their moniker.
Endorsing this proposal, as approved by the Portland City Council, would restore the rung in the ladder that links us all to a good home, a diverse community and sustainable neighborhoods. It would be specifically to build housing for households with incomes below 80 percent of the median family income. At the top end, that’s $38,000 for a single person or $54,300 for a family of four. These are the apartments that can set people up for stability and success; that lead to the first homes that build equity and mobility.
The fact is that many of Portland’s working residents can’t afford a good home in the city they love, which drives them further away from the city’s core, from business, schools and their community. For those who stay, rising housing and rental prices in this city are leaving people to either languish in sub-par facilities or to pay more than they can afford in rent. That’s neither a healthy nor a sustainable community, qualities the PDC says it works to promote. It will take tens of millions of dollars to meet that 30 percent, but the cost of not doing it is far greater, both for the families economically driven from their community, and the community itself. The market is on its way to turning Portland into a rich man’s town, with modest houses drawing half a million dollars at sale. The rest of us shouldn’t be relegated to second-class citizenship just because we don’t draw a six-figure income.
One year ago, we watched as Hurricane Katrina laid bare the economic segregation in New Orleans, and the division between the classes resonates to this day. People around the world woke up to the fact that poverty is real, it hurts and it traps. It can’t just be kicked to the curb. Portland, like Seattle before it, now has an opportunity to be proactive and shore up that division and create an integrated community open to all income levels, colors and creeds. If it doesn’t become more affordable, it risks becoming a gated community falsely posturing itself as a utopia of tolerance and diversity.
You can support this effort by attending the PDC’s public hearings scheduled for the coming months. You can get involved by contacting Affordable Housing NOW!, which is organizing around the 30 percent set aside. You can write and call the mayor and city commissioners, who will have the final say on the request, and urge them to push the matter to fruition. Eric Sten, Sam Adams and Randy Leonard have all come out in favor of the 30 percent: Mayor Tom Potter and Dan Saltzman, not so much. The City Council has scheduled a vote on the 30 percent for its Oct. 4 meeting. You have a stake in this.
Then again, maybe you think the money would be better spent on another tram to Pill Hill.