Street Roots • Dec 1-7, 2017
News
Page 7
RURAL, fro m page 4
norm through the 60s and 70s. By the
1980s, however, government was retreating
wholesale from public housing, and instead
encouraged the private market to invest
more in housing through tax credits and
bonds - subsequently increasing long-term
debt obligations.
Today, every state in the country has a
shortage of housing for extremely low-
income renters, according to the 2017
Affordable Housing Gap Analysis by the
National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Oregon ranks third in the nation for the size
of this gap - behind Nevada and California
and tied with Arizona - with only 26 units
for every 100 extreme low-income renter
households.
But on the higher end of the economic
spectrum is the “missing middle,” as
reported in multiple communities, where
people make good money but still can’t
afford to live where they work.
“Employers are having difficulty finding
people,” Wooden said. “You see these
wanted posters all over the place; they were
nonexistent five years ago. Boat and RV
dealership can’t hire techs. That’s what we
hear from employers. They’re struggling -
your nurse, your police officers, your
firefighter. It’s really hard to hire because
the housing is so difficult.”
Oregon Housing and Community
Services, the state’s housing bureau, is in
the process of developing its next five-year
statewide housing plan. The bureau is
working with Gov. Kate Brown’s office on a
new initiative, the Workforce Housing Pilot,
to develop creative strategies to overcome
barriers to building affordable housing in
rural Oregon. Those barriers include the
fact that - the cost of construction being
equal - developers will gravitate to the more
profitable market in Portland and other large
cities. The economies of scale simply don’t
exist in small towns like they do in
metropolitan areas. Nor do small towns have
the heft to implement local funding
mechanisms, such tax increment financing,
to further incentivize development.
OHCS Executive Director Margaret
Salazar said they anticipate having
communities selected for the pilot by
February. Meanwhile, all eyes are on the
actions of Congress, a tax reform proposal
that threatens housing funding mechanisms,
and the future of the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
In 2015, the Oregon Legislature created
the LIFT program to fund housing for
underserved populations, specifically in rural
communities and communities of color. It
approved $40 million in 2015, and a historic
$80 million for 2017. For rural communities,
which lack the economies of scale and the
funding mechanisms dense urban areas can
tap, the financial infusion is a vital resource.
Yet even that could be unraveled by
proposed changes in the tax reform bills in
Washington, D.C. The state funding simply
isn’t enough to cover the gap in rural
housing needs without the federal tax credit
support, Salazar said.
“The federal climate,” she said, pausing
for words, “it’s really hard right now.”
This is the first report in our Housing
Rural Oregon series. Look for more
articles in upcoming editions of Street
Roots, and visit news.streetroots.org to
learn more.
Portland's rental commission begins
The advisory panel will
make landlord-tenant
policy recommendations
and serve as a forum for
public discussion
BY A M A N D A WALDROUPE
S T A F F W R IT E R
ortland’s Rental Services
Commission held its inaugural
meeting Nov. 22, breaking ground
on the city’s first permanent public body
tasked with making policy
recommendations on rental housing
regulations.
But it will be some time before anyone
can say whether the advisory commission
will have a meaningful impact on policy
related to rising rental costs and renters’
rights.
The Portland City Council created the
commission in October, at the same time
it extended a housing state of emergency,
first declared in 2015. The council also
and extended the sunset date for an
ordinance mandating relocation assistance,
including moving costs and security
deposits, for tenants who face rent
increases above 10 percent a year.
When the City Council created the
commission, Mayor Ted Wheeler said the
city is taking an “increasing role in tenant-
landlord affairs.”
“We needed to create a setting for the
public to discuss these regulations and for
a body to advise the city on these
regulations,” Wheeler said in October.
City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who
has championed renters’ rights, expressed
hope that the commission will balance the
power between landlords and renters and
address the housing instability many
renters face.
The committee is made up of tenants’
rights advocates, Portland Housing Bureau
staff, developers, property managers and
other representatives of the rental
housing sector. In addition to advising on
landlord-tenant housing regulations and
programs, the commission is
charged with providing a
P
forum for public input on the rental
housing market.
Katrina Holland, a member of the
commission and the executive director of
the advocacy organization Community
Alliance of Tenants, said she hopes the
commission can “delve deep into the
nuances of local tenant protections law
and to craft a really solid, equitable
policy.”
Nearly half of Portlanders are renters.
More than half of those renters are
considered rent burdened, meaning they
spend more than 30 percent of their
income on rent.
Rental housing prices are unregulated
in Oregon. A person’s monthly rent can
increase at any amount, at any time.
Oregon also allows no-cause evictions,
which give landlords the right to evict a
tenant without giving a reason for the
eviction. Tenants’ rights advocates say
such evictions are an unfair practice and
disproportionately affect individuals and
families who are lower-income or racial or
ethnic minorities.
House Bill 2004, a high-profile and
controversial piece of legislation that
would have banned no-cause evictions and
allowed for capping rent increases, died
when it failed to gain enough support in
the Oregon Senate.
And there is little data about Oregon’s
rental housing stock. Landlords are not
required to register their rental units with
the city of Portland and many other cities
in Oregon. Such information would include
how many rental units exist and where,
and possibly even how much rent is
charged for the unit.
The cities of Milwaukie and Gresham
require all rental units to be registered.
The registries are the basis for how each
city conducts random housing inspections.
“They have a solid picture of (their)
rental (market) through their inspections
program,” Holland said. “That’s something
Portland could learn from. We have that
data for homeownership rates, right? You
can look it up on Portland Maps. We
should have that data for the rental
market.”
There is no shortage of work the
commission can take on, but it remains to
be seen how meaningful the work the
body does will be. The commission has no
legislative or decision-making authority; its
only role is advisory.
The commission has also been designed
so that consensus is not required to make
decisions or recommendations. It’s
expected that the commission will
produce majority and minority reports, an
indication that there will be contentious
debates on some topics. The commission
will decide at future meetings how
testimony will be given, which may include
submitting anonymous testimony, written
testimony or video-taped testimony that
masks a person’s voice.
The pressure between landlord and
property owner groups and tenants’ rights
advocates has been building for years. A
committee at the state level - made up of
landlords, property managers and owners,
and tenants’ rights groups - existed for
many years to develop consensus
legislation related to landlord-tenant law
and rental housing. The committee fell
apart earlier this year over House Bill
2004, just as the 2017 legislative session
was to begin. The group has not met
since.
“Housing is an emotionally charged
issue,” Holland said. “It undergirds our
entire livelihood.”
There were hints of contention during
the Nov. 22 commission meeting,
especially regarding how public testimony
will be given. Concerns had been raised
prior to the meeting that tenants may stop
themselves from publicly testifying out of
fear or retaliation from their landlords.
Christian Bryant, a member of the
commission and the president of the
Oregon Rental Housing Association and
the Portland Area Rental Owners
Association, expressed concern that
landlords could also face retaliation.
“We can’t deny that there is a housing
issue,” Bryant said. “We do need to try to
create fixes that will solve the problem for
the long run, as well as the short run.”