Street Roots • May 25-31,2018
O p in io n
Page 3
Go big for housing and go big with the Metro bond
couple falls asleep on their mattress, a
blanket pulled up to their chins. Elsewhere,
a man nods off in a pink overstuffed chair.
These are scenes that might be unfolding in
houses across the city, but that mattress is on the
side of the road heavy with traffic, partially
covered by a freeway
overpass. And the
overstuffed chair? It is on a
narrow sidewalk alongside
a warehouse.
It is not news to you, I
By Kaia Sand
know, to read that housing
is too expensive, and not
just in Portland, but all
across the region, all across
the state. People are struggling, and sometimes in
desperate circumstances, sleeping on furniture
left on the side of the road or in tents.
Our housing market is mightily inhospitable to
poor people.
We need a big, public response because the
private market will not house all the poorest of
our neighbors. We cannot wait for the market to
solve this. It won’t.
But there’s reason to celebrate. On May 22,
Metro announced that it will increase its planned
general obligation bond to $652.8 million.
Yes! Let’s go big with this bond.
Why? It’s worth repeating: The private market
cannot solve the housing crisis for the poorest of
our neighbors. It will not pencil out. If we care
about actually having homes for people on the
streets, we have to step up. That couple on the
mattress, that man in the overstuffed chair - they
deserve actual shelter around their furniture.
On June 7, the Metro Council will hold a public
hearing to refer the regional affordable housing
bond to voters in November. So if you feel
strongly about this, please let Metro councilors
know. They need to hear that voters all across the
region want a strong public response to making
sure all our neighbors have secure, quality
housing.
There are many reasons why we need to create
deeply affordable housing on a regional level.
During the most recent Point-in-Time count of
people struggling with homelessness, Clackamas
A
K a ia S a n d is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach her at
kaia@streetroots.org.
Follow her on
Twitter @ m kaiasand
County surveyed people on what led to their
homelessness. The number one reason?
Unaffordable rent.
Students across the tri-county area are
struggling with homelessness. Beaverton School
District has tallied the largest number of
homeless students of all the school districts in the
state.
This is a regional problem.
And single-occupancy apartments will not
house these students and their housing-insecure
families. Apartments need to be big enough for
families. Metro has prioritized a portion of the
bond dollars for three and four-bedroom
apartments that fit families.
More children will be housed. More elders,
who might live in intergenerational family
structures. So as we evaluate how this money gets
spent, look at the number of people served,
rather than the number of apartment.
Let’s build our movement over the next five
months and pass this bond! Here’s what it will
cost per year to the average property owners:
$60. In other words, the cost of tickets for a
group of five or six friends to spend the afternoon
at a Hillsboro Hops baseball game. Or an evening
out watching “Avengers” at the local theater,
perhaps with some popcorn.
Housing people across the region is certainly
worth that.
Metro planners have learned from some of the
obstacles that the city of Portland has had to
overcome with its bond, and they are designing a
bond with a clear timeline and oversight, while
the implementation will be done at the local level.
Clearly, all the next steps are not going to be
easy. If they were, we’d have this all solved by
now.
We must not settle for a status quo that results
in cruelty.
People all across this region care that
neighbors are sleeping outside, that children are
moving from couch to couch as families
desperately try to keep things intact, that working
people make choices between medicine and rent,
unable to save for their senior years. People care.
So let’s go big for housing!
503-228-5657.joanne@streetroots.org.
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Executive Director Kaia Sand
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executive Editor Joanne Zuht
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