RE: “City: Proposed $258.4 Million Housing Bond Amounts to 1,300 Units” [Blogtown, June 28]. “The City of Portland now has another figure to attach to the $258.4 million housing bond city council will almost certainly put before voters this November: 1,300,” wrote Dirk VanderHart. “That’s the approximate number of affordable housing units those millions would hope to create or preserve,” VanderHart continued. “Nearly half of the units the city hopes to create or preserve are for ultra-low-income Portlanders… making 30 percent of the city’s median family income (MFI) or less. For a family of four, that’s a maximum of $22,000 per year. The remaining units would be affordable to people making at most 60 percent of the MFI—$43,980 for a family of four.”
1,300 units?! Preserved units?! Only 600 of the households at or below 30 percent of the MFI?! A pittance for those in need of truly affordable housing.
pollo
Guess what you pay back bonds with? New tax revenue. Where is that going to come from? If it’s property owners, then that cost will be passed along to renters. If it’s the general populace, it’s coming from your paycheck. Both of those are fine, of course, as long as you’re willing to also accept the accompanying results.
Or we could significantly liberalize the zoning laws and promote new market-rate construction that will increase the supply of housing stock, thus putting downward pressure on prices across the board. But we wouldn’t want our precious weird Portland to “change,” so I guess it’s back to the drawing board while the situation continues to get worse.
FlavioSuave
