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J uly 29, 2015
P ortland
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s eattle
V olume XXXVII, n o . 43
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C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Rent
Increase
Error
25
TEACH-IN
Low-income renters
– in and out of
affordable housing –
can face confusion
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
See RENT on page 3
INDEX
News ................1,3,8-10
Opinion .......................2
Calendars ................4,5
A & E ........................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ..........11
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
A
rent-increase notice of more than
$1,000 – sent last week to a resi-
dent at McCoy Village in Northeast
Portland, which offers subsidized housing
to tenants – turned out to be the result of a
clerical error.
But advocates for renters say Alesha
Steward’s Facebook post about the increase
went viral because it points to larger prob-
lems: confusion about how affordable-hous-
ing subsidies work, and an overall shortage
of housing leaving all renters vulnerable to
change.
Steward, who did not reply to a message
from The Skanner News asking to comment,
shared a photo last week of a letter from
her property manager, Cascade Property
Management, which manages her building
on behalf of Catholic Charities, saying her
rent would go up in October – from $921 to
$1,926. By the end of the business day, her
post had more than 700 shares on the social
media site.
“The notice was sent out in error by our
property management company, Cascade
Management, and residents will NOT pay
that amount,” Richard Birkel, executive di-
rector of Catholic Charities, told The Skan-
ner in a statement e-mailed Tuesday morn-
ing.
“The rent of $1,952 is the determined mar-
ket rate for the units in question. Of course,
the whole purpose of affordable housing is
to close the gap between that number and
what a tenant can ‘affordably pay’ — a num-
ber which is determined on a case by case
basis (e.g. income determination) and clear
guidelines under which we work. Most res-
idents will never see increases of more than
3 or 4 percent and some (Section 8 voucher
holders) will see no increase.”
The increase will be covered by the mix
of government and nonprofit agencies that
subsidizes tenants’ rent.
Rose Sanders, a senior at Technology Access Foundation Academy, and the director of the Minority Education
Incentive Program, organizes a game during an education workshop July 25 at Rainier Beach Presbyterian
Church. The workshops were designed to help students take control of their education by empowering them to find
the resources and to ask the questions that will help them to reach their educational goals.
New Urban League President
Mission is the same, but efforts refocused amidst new challenges
By Donovan M. Smith
Of The Skanner News
N
kenge Harmon Johnson
is new to her post, but
not to the city.
About two months into her
tenure as president of the Urban
League of Portland, the North-
east Portland native says she is
ready to continue the organiza-
tion’s legacy.
Harmon Johnson left her post
as communications director for
former Gov. John Kitzhaber last
year and stepped into her new
role during a time when — as
highlighted by the second State
of Black Oregon report, released
this May — Oregonians of Afri-
can descent continue to struggle.
The wealth gap between Blacks
and the state’s majority White
population has widened (fol-
lowing a national trend), nearly
a third are living below poverty,
and in a state where Blacks are
only 2 percent of the population
the high school graduation is
one of the worst in the country.
The civil-rights attorney, who
now lives in Marion County
with her husband, attorney Eri-
ous Johnson, says the report
highlighted two other important
facts: Black Oregonians exist in
every county of the state, and
still continue to thrive.
Acknowledging the increased
dispersal of the state’s small
Black population, she says he
says the Urban League must
“refocus its efforts” to create a
more fortified community here.
“The population here is dif-
ferent; the mission is largely the
same: jobs and education,” she
said.
“Oregon does a terrible job at
getting people out of high school
— Black, White or whoever.
This is [everybody’s] problem,
and we can work on it all togeth-
er. At the Urban League’s recent
job fair, 55 percent of the peo-
ple who showed up were Black.
What’s that mean? That means
the other 45 percent were every-
thing else. The Urban League
has always helped others.”
Part of those refocused efforts
has included Harmon Johnson
See URBAN LEAGUE
on page 3
Seattle Homeless Count Numbers In
Numbers are higher in Seattle, likely due to higher population
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
I
n an abandoned building, at a bus stop,
on the sidewalk, under a freeway over-
pass.
These were the answers given when Se-
attle volunteers asked homeless people,
“Where did you sleep last night?”
Earlier this year, coalitions in Seattle and
Portland conducted a one-night count of
the homeless population in King and Mult-
nomah Counties respectively. Both counts
occurred at the end of January 2015, pro-
viding a snapshot of the individuals and
families experiencing homelessness in the
middle of winter.
In Seattle there were 10,047 people count-
ed as homeless on the night of Jan. 23,
2015. The Seattle/King County Coalition on
Homelessness found 3,772 people sleeping
on the street, 3,282 people in shelters and
2,993 people in transitional housing.
Multnomah County counted 3,801 people
who were homeless; 1,042 people who were
sleeping in transitional housing, 872 people
who were in an emergency shelter and 1,887
people who were unsheltered on the streets.
Some of the difference can be attributed
to the size of the counties. The population
of King County is 2.044 million people ac-
See HOMELESS on page 3