Panel predicts rising rents, tighter market
By RICHARD WAGONER
Of the Emerald
Renters can expect an in
creasingly tighter housing mar
ket and rising rental costs, and
that outlook won’t change for
the next few years unless inter
est rates begin to fall soon.
That’s the forecast offered
Monday night by a majority of
local housing experts par
ticipating in a workshop focuss
ing on renter and landlord
problems in the 1980s.
A dwindling supply of affor
dable rental housing caused by
a dearth of rental construction
and a poor economy forcing
many people out of home ow
nership is the crux of the hous
ing problem, panel members
said.
Available rental housing
probably won’t grow in the next
two years because of high fin
ancing costs, inability of renters
to pay for high-priced apart
ments to cover those financing
costs and escalating land prices
within Eugene, according to
real estate consultant Bob Linz.
"It's now not profitable for
entrepreneurs to produce profi
table housing units — that’s the
bad news," Linz said. "The
good news is that in most of
your lifetimes that situation
should change."
And Linz said only a reces
sion — or possibly a depression
— that would bring interest rates
down to between 7 and 10 per
cent will spur private rental
housing development.
Mike Hibbard, a University
community service and public
affairs professor, painted an
even more dismal housing pic
ture.
"My very strong belief is that if
something doesn't happen (to
make interest rates fall) in the
next 12 months, we will see
things in the banking industry
that will make the Chrysler col
lapse look like a cakewalk,”
Hibbard said.
Hibbard rejected subsidized
low income housing programs
as solutions to the growing na
uassicai music Denetit
slated for Sunday night
World-renowned classical
pianist Adam Kapuscinski will
give a concert in the Alumni
Lounge in Gerlinger Hall at 8
p.m. Sunday.
The concert will be a benefit
for OXFAM-AMERICA, which
was established in 1970 to re
spond to the famine in Bang
ladesh and now has programs in
Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Tickets for the concert will be
sold for $3 at the door.
A native of Poland, Kapus
cinski has performed in many
European concert halls and on
European radio and television.
y
He came to the United States in
1960 and now lives in New York
City.
A refugee from the Nazi oc
cupation of Poland during
World War II, Kapuscinski
previously has given benefit
concerts for the World Refugee
Year and the International Year
of the Child, both of which were
organized by the United Na
tions.
OXFAM-AMERICA is an in
dependent associate of the Bri
tish Oxford Committee for
Famine Relief
1
8 pm
til?
Tuesdays
REMEMBER
B’S FAMOUS
HAMBURGERS
Come and enjoy sporting events
on our BIG SCREEN
3355 E. Amazon Dr., Eugene
342-3575
tionwide housing crunch. The
subsidies only increase the
demand for affordable rental
housing and thus push housing
prices even higher.
“We need to expand ways for
people to own (their homes)
rather than make it easier to stay
renters,” he said.
But at least one panel
member said the ease of owning
a home has created the current
housing shortfall.
Existing tax laws and the ease
of borrowing money have
r
created an excessive demand
for home ownership, according
to Mark Lindberg, a Eugene City
Council member and University
CSPA professor
This ownership demand has
resulted in the conversion of
many apartments to
condominiums and revamping
of older homes that once
provided low-income rental un
its, Lindberg said.
Renters should work to
promote housing preservation
laws that would protect current
rental housing, secure guaran
tees from landlords that a
renter’s existing housing will
continue to be available at a
reasonable price and develop
new housing opportunities for
low and middle-income people,
he said.
"But unless renters begin to
organize — pull together as a
class with similar problems and
concerns — the possibility of
achieving any of these policy
goals is very, very slim," Lind
berg said.
PETER SELLERS
BEING
THERE
CRITIC S CHOICE™
WAA _1U
LIVE FROM NEW YORK
THE LATEST FASHION
Dressed
TO KILL
. •>
BROADWAY ON SHOWTIME 'v
/^the/^
oinoame
mamr*"
FOR THE WHOLE
^IdcK^idlliOh
24 HOUR WEEKEND SERVICE
APRIL ON SHOWTIME
SHOWTIME is a whole new dimension in pay TV. The blockbuster
movies everybody's looking for. Uncut and uninterrupted by
commercials. Plus adult movies loaded with action and romance.
Original series too hot for the networks to handle Broadway hits.
Las Wsgas revues, nightclub acts, concerts. All taped live just for
SHOWTIME. Classic and foreign films. Movies for children and the
whole family. SHOWTIME. It’s more choices, more variety, more
entertainment seven days a ==?■ A
week. It’s like nothing else on M = lEv===y
pay TV. Call now to order. America s most original pay tv v,«^'
lELEPROmPTER
of Oregor
Q/f\[I][L@ T_r\X7
484-3006