It's outrageous that the most useful tools that cities have to ensure that low- and moderate-income people can afford a home have all been taken away by the state. Local inclusionary zoning, rent control and land-transfer taxes are all prohibited by the State of Oregon --doing the bidding of developers who don't give a damn about anything but their own profits.

But the complaints of our city leaders about these preemptions ring hollow too. That's because our city still has one perfectly good tool that would accomplish all the same things. They could enact it tomorrow and there wouldn't be any question of its legality.

It's called a "linkage fee," and it would require housing developers to put money into a dedicated affordable housing fund. Portland charges development fees to fund parks and sewers and streets, but nothing to fund affordable housing.

So when our "progressive" leaders boo-hoo about how powerless they are to address housing affordability, call bullshit on it.

Fuck your profits. The world doesn't have to bend over just to ensure you get your profit. Don't like it? I'm sure you can take your money to some other "hot" market where everybody gives a shit about your unfettered right to squeeze your community dry.

And know what? The landlords of Portland didn't do a thing to earn the money they're bleeding from this city. The flood of new renters and homebuyers didn't actually come here because our landlords are so great --I know, I just blew your mind. They came here because of the community that we ALL helped create.

And now we're all supposed to just go die so you assholes can make the profits that you think God ordained for you? Again, fuck your profits.

A linkage fee is related to the business. It is directly related to the livability of the community in which these developers seek to do businesses in. If these developers want to make money off the community they should have to make a positive difference. Amd give something in return that earns that profit.

Yeah, taxes = marxism. Stfu, imbecile.

Euphonious - Contrary to popular belief, these developers are not making money hand over fist. Land and construction costs are at all time highs, AND building right now at what is surely near a peak in the real estate cycle is not without real long-term risks. Portland needs more density and close-in mixed use / multi family housing to support its growth and all of the people moving here. To say it another way...there aren't just shit loads of short-term profits from which these developers should be forced to pay additional "pay to play" type fees. Your little quip about "they can just move onto the next city" is poorly thought out...You think rents are high now, you don't even want to know what they would be like if we had no new apartment stock coming online with an economy that continues to shift toward higher paying jobs in tech, etc. and of these people continuing to move here.

Property development is the single most profitable business that an investor can buy into. It can be very risky --that's why developers come into a hot market like Portland, because the risk here is minimized.

Your notion that by taxing them, we'd be preventing the new housing supply the city needs, THAT'S what's poorly thought out. Portland and Oregon are among the most developer-friendly, low-tax jurisdictions in the country. and the strategies I'm suggesting for keeping housing affordable are in use in many other places with no discernable effect on investors' willingness to fund housing developments or developers' willingness to build them.

The idea that the investors flooding in here from elsewhere will suddenly dry up if we impose similar fees or regulations to those in other cities is nonsense.

These people are taking the sweat equity that a generation of Portlanders have built up, putting it into their pockets and walking away. The idea that we're not allowed to capture some of that value for the community's benefit is wrong, logically and morally.

walls create inequality period. stupid politicians.

The comment about property development (and more specifically multi family development which is what we are talking about here) being "the single most profitable business that an investor can buy into" is absolutely false. Yes, it can be lucrative (just like any business), but it is also very risky and there are just as many people who have lost everything trying to play the development game as there are people who have become filthy rich. Finally, your insinuation that all of these developers are from out of town is also not true. Most of the developers of close in multi family buildings over the past 2-3 years and the money behind them are local. A few from Seattle, but most are from Portland.

We need a balance of proper incentives and intelligent affordable housing policy. I think everyone can agree on that. It doesn't help to over sensationalize things though and make it seem like people are swooping in from NYC, etc. and robbing the city blind.

^ Jarhead- Socialism is not a bad word or a model for communist USSR, it's part of the checks and balances of the sociopathic machine that is Capitalism. We should start referring to Capitalism as Sociopathism. If Sociopathism is going to treat people like objects or animals, then we need some Socialism. And to be honest, Sociopathism aka capitalism has gotten so out of control violating human rights, living in Russia in the 1980's doesn't sound so bad. They had more security against starvation, homelessness, or the prison you end up in for being broke. Yes, fuck your profits!

more walls more dumb shit. build a factory and pack it with bunk beds for the poor....$200 / month and rental prices get pulled down for the middle classes. Problem solved.

Non-sustainable government charity and smaller boxes for smaller prices are not fundamentally different from the walls we already have. The government or developer could even profit from that.

Walls create inequality. More walls are not solutions. Period.

PS- Charlie hales is a dumb ass. so too his minions (the cops) herding homeless like rats in public parks - get a real job.

"Fuck your profits. The world doesn't have to bend over just to ensure you get your profit."

The problem is that profit is the only reason that anyone builds any housing. Without profit (and an attractive one at that) little new supply will be built. If costs and requirements drive down profit margins, they'll invest the money in something safer for a similar return.

It is the interesting nature of real estate development that we place so many extra social expectations on the business. No one reams out the vacuum cleaner store about what they're doing to solve the City's macro-level problems.

Instead of a society bent on using people and materialism-love of objects, perhaps we should think about using objects to love people....all you need is love...EXCEPT in a PROFIT DRIVEN ENVIRONMENT...because the love of money is killing us all.