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‘City o j Roses’
Read back issues of the Portland Observer
www.portlandobserver.com
Established
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Wednesday • • February
February
2012 Com
Com
itted to to Cultural
Cultural Diversity
Diversity ^ ^ m u n ity service
of
Volume XXXXI, Number 9
Wednesday
29, 29, 2012
m m
itted
Burdened
by Rent
Housing needs
outweigh inventory
by M indy C ooper
T he P ortland O bserver
Although sounds of construction echo throughout the
Portland area as new housing units are built, developers are
having trouble meeting the increasingly high demand from
residents who depend on lower rent to make ends meet.
According to a report by the National Low Income Hous­
ing Coalition, Oregon is one of a dozen states where the need
for affordable housing substantially outweighs the availabil­
ity of units where residents aren’t pushed into spending
more than half their household income on rent.
A housing unit is considered affordable if it costs no more
than 30 percent of the renter’s income, according to the
coalition.
I f you look at what people’s
incomes are with what
people’s housing cost—the
two don’t match up.
—Janet Byrd, executive director
of N eighborhood Partnerships
SIDEWALK
CLOSED
photo by M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver
The Portland Housing Bureau is providing tax-increment financing to the non-profit Central City Concern to
renovate the Medford Hotel Apartments at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Glisan Street. The building will provide
60 affordable housing units.
“The high need for affordable housing is a combination
of low incomes plus more people in the rental market, which
has created more demand for rental housing,” said Janet
Byrd, executive director of Neighborhood Partnerships, which
convenes with the Housing Alliance, a state wide coalition
o f organizations that work together at the state level to
advocate for affordable housing resources.
“If you look at what people’s incomes are with what
people’s housing cost— the two don’t match up,” said Byrd.
People also continue to lose their homes to foreclosures,
so previous homeowners are now in the rental markets,
driving up prices across the board, she added. “The rental
vacancy rate is also quite low.”
This post-recession return to renting, mixed with high
continued
on page 10