Victory for Affordable Housing!
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Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution to create a set-aside from urban renewal dollars for affordable housing.
Citing the need to make Portland more family friendly and to respond to the
challenge of unmet housing need, on April 26 the Portland City Council passed by a vote of
4-0 a resolution to establish a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) set aside for the
development, preservation, and rehabilitation of housing that is affordable to
households with incomes below 80% of median family income.
“Portland is very fortunate to have elected officials that truly understand
the needs of low income working families, and seniors and people with
disabilities depending on fixed incomes,” said Teresa Huntsigner of the
Coalition for Livable Future. “Thanks to the leadership of Commissioners Sten
and Adams, the City took a giant first step to securing significant resources to
create rental and homeownership opportunities for those being left behind by
Portland’s housing market.”
The resolution instructs the Portland Development Commission work in
partnership with the Bureau of Housing and Community Development, the Office of
Management and Finance, the Housing and Community Development Commission, and
Affordable Housing NOW and other interested stakeholders to develop and present
to Council by September 1, 2006 either a implementation plan to create such a
set aside fund or other options to ensure guaranteed funding for housing
affordable to households with incomes below 80%MFI.
“Establishing the details of the level of the set aside, how the set aside
will work in existing urban renewal areas, and how to deal with urban renewal
areas that are zoned exclusively for industrial use will be crucial to meeting
the intent of today’s resolution: maximizing public resources to meet the
identified housing need,” said Ian Slingerland, executive director of the
Community Alliance of Tenants.
Creating an urban renewal set aside for affordable housing has been a
central target of Affordable Housing NOW! since the coalition’s inception four
years ago. Affordable Housing NOW! supporters turned out in large numbers for
today’s hearing, with representatives from the Community Development Network,
City Club of Portland, Stand for Children, the Coalition for a Livable Future,
and four tenant leaders from the Community Alliance of Tenants delivering strong
testimony.
Orlisa Deschene, a former renter that lived in the Gateway Urban Renewal
Area was evicted from her home shortly after it was declared an urban renewal
area. With a baby due new any day, Deschene was left to scramble to find a new
home.
“Urban renewal should benefit the entire community,” said Deschene. “It
should improve the existing community, not wipe it out in order to build a new
one. Affordable housing must be a priority in urban renewal areas not an after
thought.”
Members of Affordable Housing NOW! were most pleased with aspects of the resolution that specified allocation guidelines to meet the housing needs of people at 0-30% MFI, 31-50% MFI, and 51-80% MFI, and the requirement PDC work with BHCD and the City Auditor to report on spending of TIF for housing at all income ranges (rental and ownership) over the past 10 years against all TIF revenue (by district and overall), as well as the budgeted and projected TIF spending for housing in these income ranges over the next 5 years against projected revenues.
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