Cottages aren’t enough: Why inclusionary apartments are Portland’s next step
To remain diverse and affordable for people at every income level, Portland is pursuing several policies at once.
By Michael Andersen | Nov. 22, 2016
Portland is in the midst of something pretty big: a three-pronged attack on high housing prices.
After years of watching its housing crisis deepen, the city government seems to be trying to make up for lost time. But oddly, nobody in the local media seems to have looked at all three prongs and how they work together — or the crucial fact that each of these new ideas is designed to help a different group of Portlanders.
We’ve spent the last month exploring the benefits of re-legalizing small homes on residential lots. But as we wrote last week, the best you can say for duplexes, triplexes and cottages on residential lots is that they’re a housing affordability program for the middle class.
To remain diverse and affordable for people at every income level, Portland is pursuing several things at once:
1. Smaller infill homes. This is mostly for middle-income households. It creates mid-price housing by legalizing mid-size homes in more situations: putting a backyard addition on an existing 1500-square-foot house to add a 1000-square-foot-home behind it, for example.
Status: This could happen. Portland is proposing to re-legalize duplexes, triplexes, cottages and internal divisions in more situations, while also preserving a lot more of its still-useful older housing stock by limiting the size of new buildings, to reduce overall demolition. Council testimony on this closes tomorrow. There’s a vote in the next few weeks.
2. Directly subsidized housing. This is largely for people emerging from crises, people with disabilities that limit their employment, and other very-low-income Portlanders.
Status: This is happening. Hours before crying into their beverages on election night, Portlanders overwhelmingly approved a property tax hike to build or preserve 1,300 directly subsidized homes. Of those, 600 will be for people making less than 30 percent of the local median income ($19,800 for a family of three, for example). Another 350 are for people making up to 60 percent of median ($39,600 for a family of three) and the rest of the money would buy 350 existing low-cost units and keep them cheap.
That’s far from enough homes to house all the Portlanders without roofs of their own. But it’ll be enough to house tens of thousands of Portlanders over the life of the buildings. It’s a major step.
3. Inclusionary housing. This is mostly for lower-middle-income households. The city’s current proposal would require developers to make 20 percent of new homes in larger buildings affordable to people making 80 percent of the local median income ($52,800 for the hypothetical family of three). To offset potential lost profit from those units, the projects would get property tax breaks and the right to build a bit bigger.
In addition, developers would have an option to offer up to 10 percent of units affordable to households at 60 percent of median income, in exchange for extra incentives.
Status: This is the next big thing in Portland’s December flurry of housing affordability action. The city council starts to hear testimony Dec. 8, with a vote likely before year’s end. Portland for Everyone’s reporting for the rest of this year will focus on the details of this policy.
Threaded through all these measures is a fourth goal:
4. Just building enough homes. On top of all this, the Portland metro area also needs enough homes in general to keep up with the housing market’s unpleasant game of musical chairs. If it doesn’t, the richest people will get whatever homes do exist and the poorest people will be out in the cold.
That’s what happened during the Great Recession, when housing construction halted while Portland’s population growth accelerated. We’re living in the aftermath.
Status: Look closely — all three measures do a little bit to advance this goal too. Re-legalizing duplexes would cheaply increase housing capacity in Portland’s residential areas. Building public housing … builds housing. And a strong inclusionary housing policy would mean that instead of reducing relatively cheap homes along main streets, each new apartment block would actually increase the number of lower-priced homes, making growth a win-win.
Portland got into its housing crisis bit by bit over many years. These measures won’t be enough to solve all its housing problems; even if they’re all approved there’ll be more work to do. But done right, these can help the city turn back toward building the diverse, vibrant community that most Portlanders want.
Portland for Everyone supports abundant, diverse, affordable housing. This blog is a reported effort to explore the ways to achieve those goals. You can get involved in Portland for Everyone’s organizing work here.
