The Affordable Housing Thread

[maccoinnich]

Portland considers $9 million revenue bond for affordable housing



When the city of Portland legalized short-term rentals in 2014, the resulting tax revenue was directed toward an affordable housing investment fund. Now that the account has a $1 million balance — and Portland is desperately seeking solutions to its housing crisis — the city council wants to cash in.

At its March 15 council meeting, an ordinance was introduced to do just that.

“This is one example where short-term accommodations within the city are actually helping to pay some of the freight toward providing affordability,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said.

Wheeler was referring to a 2016 Portland Housing Bureau study, which found that short-term rentals did indeed exacerbate the housing crisis.

...continues at Oregon Business.

[maccoinnich]

Portland's Nick Fish questions whether affordable housing projects go far enough



The Portland City Council on Wednesday granted 10-year property tax exemptions to seven new apartment buildings in exchange for developers agreeing to make one-fifth of the units affordable.

The council unanimously approved the developments, but Commissioner Nick Fish questioned whether they go far enough in serving Portlanders most in need of housing. Commissioner Chloe Eudaly was absent.

"I will support it even though it doesn't address our crushing need and it isn't the most efficient way to get there," Fish said.


Five of the seven will be luxury apartment complexes with studios renting for upwards of $1,400. Those properties are only required to make their subsidized units affordable to individuals or families who earn 80 percent or less of median family income. In 2016, that was $41,000 for one person or $47,000 for a couple or a single parent with one child.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[cab]

Where is PDX's Inclusionary Housing?

Before the inclusionary zoning policy went into effect, developers ramped up permits submitted directly, saying they didn't think it would pencil out for them. However, the City has hope the slowdown is temporary.

http://pamplinmedia.com/but/239-news...ionary-housing

[mhays]

It's pretty simple. Market-rate rents have to rise enough to cover the added cost. Plus overcome any other cost fluctuation that happens in the mean time.

This should happen, eventually, because the lack of supply will cause lower vacancies.

[maccoinnich]

Blowing Past a Deadline, Portland’s Housing Bond is Beset by Delays and Doubts
Mayor Ted Wheeler defends the process. But two former housing commissioners are frustrated.



Ted Wheeler entered the Portland mayor's office saying housing was his priority.

It sure doesn't look that way.

The mayor has blown past a deadline his own office set for starting to spend a $258 million bond approved by voters last November to build and rehab affordable housing units.

Funds have been available since July 1. But a growing number of critics are complaining Mayor Wheeler is taking too long to buy land and address the city's shortage of affordable housing.

...continues at the Willamette Week.

[MarkDaMan]

Portland developers try to ease homeless crisis that they helped create
Updated on July 24, 2017 at 10:33 AM Posted on July 23, 2017 at 7:00 AM
By Molly Harbarger mharbarger@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/i...kes_bigge.html

Developer Tom Cody lost all the ground-floor retail tenants of his building on the Northwest Park Blocks and he thinks he knows why.

Customers avoided the tents, tarps and backpacks that filled the leafy corridor north of Burnside. In turn, his tenants looked for shops without dozens of people sleeping or hanging out in front at all hours of the day.

It's not the first time Cody saw his business jeopardized by the city's 4,000-and-growing homeless population.

His firm has developed 33 projects, some up to $300 million – some in neighborhoods where tensions with the homeless population run high. He opposed a preliminary plan for a homeless shelter campus near another one of his Northwest Portland properties, a 300,000-square-foot creative office development.

But now he's part of a business-led movement to do more than complain to City Hall or file lawsuits. He and two other high-profile real estate families have donated empty buildings they own for use as temporary shelter space.

So far, Cody, Brad and Jonathan Malsin and Jordan Menashe have collectively hosted five shelters in their buildings – with possibly more planned. City and county officials are trying to harness the momentum to create a permanent network of business owners who can carry some of the burden of the city's homeless crisis.

Cody and the others readily acknowledge that they need to protect their investments and are getting pressure from city and county leaders to alleviate an affordable housing crisis created by the hot market that they have fanned.

"It's having a very adverse effect on us personally and the city, and that's why we're so committed to working with the Joint Office of Homeless Services," Cody said.

...(continues)...

[cityscapes]

I don't get why blame is always placed on developers when they add new housing stock when there is demand. Who else does this? People don't commonly build their own homes, and the state through HUD has long withdrawn from an active role of providing housing for lower incomes.

Planners adding on a slew of unnecessary requirements and fees to projects definitely make costs go up and slow down the delivery of new housing. The only thing you can really fault developers for is building new housing that skews toward the luxury market. Not everyone needs granite countertops and stainless steel appliances in a 450 sq ft unit that they're never going to cook in anyway.

Older properties in Portland have gone up in value too so it's not like a bunch of new apartments magically caused the homeless problem in Portland.

[maccoinnich]

That headline makes no sense, and isn't supported by the text of the article at all.

[maccoinnich]

Portland considers affordable housing tax breaks

The city of Portland is considering offering developers up to $50 million in tax breaks to include affordable housing in their multifamily properties.

The tax breaks are targeted at the flood of projects that were submitted to the city’s Bureau of Development Services ahead of the Feb. 1 effective date for inclusionary housing rules. Projects submitted before that date do not have to include affordably priced apartments.

This accumulation of projects submitted under the city’s old rules means it could be two to three years before Portland sees any meaningful affordable housing supply.

City officials estimate there are 19,000 housing units vested according to the old rules. If those projects had been submitted after the inclusionary housing deadline, they could theoretically yield 3,000 to 4,000 affordable units.

...continues at the DJC (temporarily unlocked).

[mhays]

Theoretically...many would be harder to pencil if they had the added expense. You'd get some "affordable" units but fewer overall units, meaning net higher pricing due to lower supply.

I'll say it again...there are lots of ways to produce low-income housing and mid-low-income housing that don't make everyone else's housing more expensive. A shared property tax(*), easing accessory units, upzoning more areas so land is cheaper, allowing true micros, and so on.

*But that would require asking voters to share the burden more directly!

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by mhays

Theoretically...many would be harder to pencil if they had the added expense. You'd get some "affordable" units but fewer overall units, meaning net higher pricing due to lower supply.

I'll say it again...there are lots of ways to produce low-income housing and mid-low-income housing that don't make everyone else's housing more expensive. A shared property tax(*), easing accessory units, upzoning more areas so land is cheaper, allowing true micros, and so on.

*But that would require asking voters to share the burden more directly!

Such as?

Portland's $258.4 million housing bond wins (election results)
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/i...n_housing.html

[mhays]

Sure, my city does that too. But we could go way higher with that, and not disincentivize market-rate housing.

[eric cantona]

I have some issues with the presentation of information in this WW article, but will give others an opportunity to digest it before commenting:

These 6 Cities Are Smarter Than Portland About Housing
If Portland wants to fix its housing crisis, these towns show the way.

In Portland, housing costs are like the weather: Everybody complains, but nobody does anything about it.

Nearly a year ago, Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly entered City Hall on platforms promising to tackle Portland's affordable housing shortage. Soon, the City Council will wade into its latest plan.

It looks like treating a heart attack with a Band-Aid.

The article is here: http://www.wweek.com/news/city/2017/...about-housing/

[2oh1]

Such leadership!

In summary: How effective is the current plan?
"It's a small number. It will not solve the problem."
...so... that's a nope.

How about allowing more row houses?
Paraphrasing: "No. Not until we've let our housing problems escalate out of control for another 50 years, which we're doing."

How about allowing more height?
"Maybe, sort of, wait and see."

How about changing taxes to encourage developing under-utilized land?
"It's probably a good idea somewhere else, but we lack the leadership to get it done here."

Ban AirBnB?
"No, but maybe someday renegotiate, or something, someday, once we've waited too long and done too little."

Cut red tape?
"I'm for that."
...right, but are you DOING that?

Sigh. Portland needs leadership. Where's the next Vera Katz?

[maccoinnich]

Apartment construction is drying up. Is affordable housing measure to blame?



Portland’s apartment-building binge appears to be headed off a cliff.

Applications for new housing developments have nearly ground to a halt over the past year, and there are plenty of reasons for that. Construction costs have ballooned, as have land prices. The glut of new construction, meanwhile, has taken the wind out of rising rents, at least at the high end.

But Portland officials are increasingly worried the city’s inclusionary zoning policy, which compels developers to set aside rent-restricted units in large apartment and condo projects, might be playing a role, too. And if home construction dries up, it could ultimately push housing costs even higher.

Only 12 privately financed developments large enough to trigger the mandate, totaling 654 units, have sought building permits since the policy took effect last year. A more typical year in the recent housing boom has seen thousands of new apartments proposed.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[Mr. Walch]

I'm a former Portland resident living up in Seattle now where we probably going to pass IZ (though here it's called MHA - Mandatory Housing Affordability). I'm a designer at an architecture firm and am alos involved in the affordability discussion here. Do people think the drop in permits is primarily driven by the IZ rules or do they think that it also has to do with the softening rental market and the vast backlog of projects that got in before the rules take effect? Curious for people's thought, especially those in the biz.

[2oh1]

Are new apartments filling up? Sky3 still looks mostly vacant to me. Has The Yard leased up yet? The affordable units were leased long before the building opened, but the rest sure didn't go fast.

There's a glut of $1,700/month 1 bedroom apartments, but that's the price developers want to start at. Prices have shot up to the point where what's being built doesn't meet where the market overall has demand.

[urbanlife]

I think we are seeing a dip due to the number of buildings pushed through before the zoning policy change went into effect. Combine that with the fact that all the new buildings seem to be going for a high priced market rent that has a limited number of available renters, while ignoring the lower market rates that much of Portland exists in.

[BrG]

The Portland Housing Bureau seems to now be acknowledging that they may have missed the mark with the specifics of the IH regulations.

Memo from PHB:

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/672661"

DJC Article - Paywall "UPDATED: BPS recommends changing inclusionary housing rules"

http://djcoregon.com/news/2018/02/09...housing-rules/

an article quote or two:

"The bureau’s report comes shortly after the one-year anniversary of the policy’s Feb. 1, 2017, effective date. It was quietly posted on the bureau’s website on Friday."

"Mayor Ted Wheeler is considering changes to the inclusionary housing program, spokesman Michael Cox said. “The mayor is concerned about the slowdown in new development permit filings, and it does warrant BPS and PHB exploration of potential adjustments to make the program more effective,” Cox said."

The city of Portland would “need to start seeing significant increases in land use review and building permit applications over the next six to 12 months to replace development pipeline units that will be delivered to market over the next 18 (to) 24 months,” according to the BPS report.

[hat]

Portland's displacement assistance got written up in the Guardian.