Street roots
Julyí2, 2011
Review of housing set aside reveals positive results
The once hotly contested affordable housing set aside moves forward at City Hall
BY JOHN MILLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
John Miller is the Executive
Director of Oregon On
Oregon ON is a nonprofit
trade association that
supports and strengthens
community development
and affordable housing
organizations through
advocacy, communications,
peer learning, and best
practices. Oregon ON works
to ensure that hardworking
families, seniors and people
with disabilities can afford
housing and still have
enough money for other
basic necessities.
As a long time advocate for affordable
homes here in Portland I was very happy to
discover that the city has exceeded its ‘TIF
Set Aside” spending on affordable housing
in urban renewal districts over the past five
years. I am involved in a review panel that’s
looking at the past five years’ performance
and then making recommendations for the
next five years. It’s heartening to see that
the city has made good, at least in large
part, on this critical commitinent.
Without getting too “wonky,” here’s some
background. TIF stands for Tax Increment
Financing, the primary source of funding for
development in urban renewal areas. In
2006 the City of Portland adopted the “TIF
Set Aside” that mandated that 30% of all
TIF funds in urban renewal districts be
spent on affordable housing. Further, the
City defined a set of income guidelines to
make sure that the money was spent to
meet our city’s greatest housing needs.
Lastly, the city mandated that the 30% goal
applied to each district, and not as a city
wide goal (an important distinction — more
on that below).
The projections in 2006 estimated the
TIF Set Aside would raise $121 million
dollars for affordable housing in the city’s
nine eligible urban renewal districts. Five
years later, it now looks as though actual
spending on affordable housing projects in
URAs has been $153 million dollars — about
33% of TIF expenditures overall. That’s very
good news and illustrates the city’s
commitment to help solve our affordable
housing challenges here in Portland.
There are two very important features of
the Set Aside policy that I’d like to
emphasize here. First, the policy states that
the goal is,“by district” rather than as a city
wide goal. Ulis is important because it
ensures that affordable homes are evenly
distributed throughout the city, and not
concentrated in a few areas. One of the
drawbacks of urban renewal in other cities
around the country has been that after the
improvements are made, property values
rise, and low and moderate-income families
can’t afford to live there anymore. This
unintended consequence of urban renewal is
kept in check here by mandating that, in
addition to a host of community
improvements, affordable homes are built
within each district so that people of all
incomes have a chance to live in newly
revitalized areas.
The second important feature of the set
aside policy is the income guidelines that
detail what the money will be spent on (and
more importantly, who will receive the
benefits of the public investment). In most
districts the guidelines mandate that
between a third and a half of the set aside
funds be spent on the development of
homes that are affordable to families making
30% or less of the median family income
(MFI) — seniors, people with disabilities and
working families. The rest of the funds are
targeted toward homes for a variety of
income levels, up to 100% MFI, and it varies
by district.
Dedicating up to half the funds in a
district to homes for very low income
people is critical, because it is very difficult
to develop housing to serve 0-30% MFI
residents. Without this dedicated funding
source, it’s likely that many of these
projects would not be developed, making
our affordable housing shortage even
greater. Overall, the review of the TIF Set
Aside shows that we fell short in meeting
the goal of developing homes for families
making 0 to 30% MFI, and so more work is
needed here in the future.
At this point in time the City and other
partners are conducting a review of the Set
Aside policy, and they’ll make
recommendations for changes to the policy,
if any, going forward. I’m optimistic that
these recommendations will allow the
continued success of the Set Aside as we
strive to meet the varied housing needs of
our city.
"The projections in 2006 estimated the TIF
Set Aside would raise $121 million dollars
for affordable housing in the City's nine
eligible urban renewal districts. Five years
later, it now looks as though actual spending
on affordable housing projects in URAs has
been $ 153 million dollars -about 33% of
TIF expenditures overall. That's very good
news and illustrates the City's commitment to
help solve our affordable housing challenges
here in Portland."
1 applaud the Portland Development j
Commission and the Portland Housing
Bureau for their good work on this policy,
and. Commissioner Nick Fish for his
Steadfast stance in support of the “by
district” aspects of this critical financirig
tool.
The TIF Set Aside helps to ensure that
decent, quality affordable homes are built
throughout the city and helps to ensure that
Portlanders are not unintentionally forced
out of their neighborhoods as a result of
urban renewal-
An overview of housing from the past session in Salem
Two steps forward, two steps back on the affordable housing front in Oregon
BY ALISON MCINTOSH
•
Alison McIntosh is a Policy
Manager with
Neighborhood Partnerships.
The Housing Alliance
brings together advocates,
local governments, housing
authorities, community
development corporations,
environmentalists, service
providers, business interests
and all others dedicated to
increasing the resources ;
available to meet our
housing needs to support a
common statewide
legislative and policy
agenda.
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Looking ahead to February 2012 — our
voices can create housing opportunity.
The State Legislature has been adjourned
for over two weeks now, and we’re a little
more than two weeks into the new state
budget. The dust is settling, but the full
impact erf the work of the Legislature on
Oregonians struggling to make ends meet
won’t be known for many months.
We all need a safe, stable place to call
home. Our state and our communities are
stronger and better when everyone has
access to opportunity, which comes from
having a place to call home. The Oregon
Housing Alliance — a coalition of
organizations from across the state
concerned about the lack of affordable
housing — has worked along with other
housing advocates since 2004 to secure: the r-
resources we need to create strong
communities across Oregon.
The Oregon Housing Alliance made
progress this past legislative Session, but it
was not nearly enough. Our victories were
important: we secured funding to help
preserve existing affordable housing across
Oregon; protected tools such as the Oregon
Affordable Housing Tax Credit and others to
help build new affordable housing; we
protected funds for emergency rent,
assistance; we helped pass protections for
tenants living in foreclosed properties; and
we worked in coalition with partners to
prevent the worst of the cuts to the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) program.
Despite these small gains, this Legislative
session was a disaster for low income
Oregonians. The prolonged recession and
the continuing shortage of affordable housing
have left too many of our neighbors at risk of
or experiencing homelessness. Too many of
our families and neighbors are struggling to
keep both a roof over their head and food on
the table. Devastating cuts were made to
essential services and supports^ and we
know that the impacts of these choices will
hit hardest and be hardest felt by those who
are already hurting. While we made progress
on many fronts, overall we have stepped
backwards this session.
Protecting the most vulnerable among us
and maintaining a strong safety net is one of
the core functions of our government. The
Legislature should make decisions that
uphold and advance this purpose. Instead,
the Legislature made a choice in the 2011
session to pass a budget for human services.
and housing that will barely keep emergency
services afloat dining the next two years.
The decisions made will have far reaching
and very real consequences that will include
thousands of Oregonians unable to access
emergency rent assistance or affordable
housing, or the supportive services they
need to get back topwork.
. When the-Legislature returns in 2012 and
2013, we need them to be ready to make -
choices that will put all of our options —
including new revenue — on the table, and
we need them to make the best choices for
our state. We need your voice and your help
in the coming months to ensure that this
happens. We know how to solve the crisis of
homelessness and the lack of affordable
housing. The solution begins when housing
advocates begin to speak louder. We must
do everything we can to build up our voices,
to work across issues, and to help legislators
understand the impacts of their decisions on
the men, women, and children in their
districts who need the opportunity that
stable housing provides in order to fully
engage in their life and their community.
Over the next year, three years and five
years, we must work to expand the voices of '
those concerned about the lack of safe,
stable and affordable housing for all
Oregonians. We must document the effects
of the economic récession, and the effects of
the 2011-2013 budget on our neighbors
"When the Legislature returns in 2012
and 2013r we need them to be ready to
make choices that will put all of our
options - including new revenue on
the table, and we need them to make
the best choices for our state. We need
your voice and your help in the coming
months to ensure that this happens. We
know how to solve the crisis of
homelessness and the lack of
affordable housing. The solution
begins when housing advocates begin
to speak louder.
passed by the Legislature this session, and
share what’s happening with decision
makers.
Housing advocates must speak louder and
do more to ensure everyone has a place to
call home. If we’re going to build a
movement across Oregon that speaks out for
our communities and our neighbors, we have
to shift the conversation in our state from
“we can’t” to “we must”, and we need to talk
to our neighbors and communities about our
vision of what we want our home towns and
our state to be, rather than about the budget
and the deficit We can solve the problems
we face. We can make sure everyone has a
safe, stable place to call home, and the
opportunity that comes with it.