Street Roots • April 15-21, 2016
Editorial
The chorus rises: Act on housing now!
ousing and homelessness have
become staples in Portland’s recent
election cycles. But this year it has
reached a fever pitch.
Renters rights, affordable housing and
ending homelessness are rightfully the
center planks to nearly all the candidates
seeking election to
local office. But the
discourse is nearing a
boiling point among
the voters and the
residents feeling the
pain. People are losing their homes to
exorbitant rent gouging. People are losing
their neighborhoods, their schools and their
city. They’re mad as hell and taking their
message to the halls of government, saying
that this is an emergency in more than name
only. Let’s treat it like one.
Demonstrations and public actions have
made headlines and started tongues wagging
- unfortunately it’s often more for the
spectacle than the solutions that are called
for. But regardless of what you think of the
protestors’ tactics of disruption, the anger is
real and their message sincere. And they
represent many, many more than those able
to carry a sign on a sunny afternoon.
The fact is, what is needed isn’t
sensational at aU. We need more protections
for renters, and there’s a slew of options that
can do that We should be adopting policies
used in other cities to cap or at least stabilize
rents, and replace no-cause evictions with
just-cause evictions. Enact a rent freeze to
halt the runaway pricing that is pushing
families, small businesses and nonprofits out
of this city. This isn’t the time to
contemplate 20-year plans or grand visions
about our region’s livability. This is the time
to take drastic action to save people’s
housing - right now. The best way to end
homelessness is to prevent it from happening
to another man, woman or child.
This week, the City Club of Portland’s
Committee on Housing released its report,
Housing Affordability in Portland - its 2016
version. It’s not the first housing report
produced by the City Club - the organization
has been monitoring the city’s housing needs
since before World War II. In each
incarnation of the study, the lack of
affordable housing is a major problem up
against the influx of new arrivals to the city.
In 1942, the report touts avoiding the
“shanty towns” that were appearing in other
cities. Many years later, in 2002, the
committee called for new policies focusing
on low-income renters and the poorest
H
EDITORIAL
among us.
Today, in 2016, we have those shanty
towns. And the friction in our neighborhoods
surrounding homelessness is also reaching a
fever pitch.
Today we have middle-income, working
class families being priced out of the city.
Today we have entire buildings being cleared
out of long-time residents to replace them
with renters with deeper pockets.
And while the market frenzy drives costs
skyward, wages among middle-income
workers remain stagnant. Rents are not just
high, they are at unhealthy economic levels
for many people, with rent too often
consuming 50 percent or more of a person’s
income.
This is no longer a fringe issue. It’s a
widening fracture undermining our
socioeconomic stability. Sure there is
construction - but it’s not for the people who
live here now. It’s for those who will move
here in the coming decade. Last year,
Portland had a 2 percent vacancy rate in our
rental market - well below the national
average of 7 percent
But we’re not going to be able to build
ourselves out of this problem on the open
market. Street Roots is hoping that a possible
November ballot measure can help create
several thousand new affordable housing
units in Portland. Still, the solution has to be
more comprehensive, spanning local and
state government and private entities.
The City Club committee recommends
multiple solutions to change course. They
include securing dedicated federal funding to
create more affordable housing. The
recommendations also call on the city to set
aside funds to purchase foreclosed and
discounted properties during economic
downturns, and updating the city’s zoning
code to foster more infill development
But among the most immediately impactful
is the committee’s call for lifting the state
preemption of rent control. Rent control and
similar stabilization measures are banned in
Oregon, while no cause evictions that clear
buildings are allowed. But there is room to
make changes, even at the local level, and
this emergency demands real changes be
made.
At the end of the day we are talking about
people’s lives. Creating smart and fair
housing policies will help support residents
throughout our county and state. We’re
looking of our leaders to lead and find any
possible means necessary to make sure poor
and hard working Oregonians are not left
behind. The moment is now. Let’s seize it.
Page 3
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