TERESA L. HEASLEY was stuck for a year on the Housing
Authority of Portland’s (HAP) long waitlist for affordable housing.
She, her husband, and their two kids squeezed into Heasley’s
mother-in-law’s house in Southeast Portland, sharing the packed space
with eight other people. Finally, a letter from HAP arrived, asking her
to choose her very own three-bedroom apartment off their list of
low-rent properties.
“It was wonderful,” she recalls outside the Dekum Court apartment in
Northeast Portland she chose. Heasley and her family have lived there
for seven years now.
HAP’s 2,600 affordable apartments throughout the city are in such
high demand that the group closed its waitlist to new applicants two
years ago, after the average wait for a home grew to more than 24
months. Now, HAP is opening its waitlist again for a brief window of
time.
The waiting list opened last Wednesday, June 18. Within four days,
over 2,000 hopeful households signed up, according to HAP Director of
Real Estate Operations Dianne Quast. At that rate, Quast estimated the
list might close again at the end of the month, perhaps for years.
Families and individuals must have good references from former
landlords as well as income less than 80 percent of the area median (or
less than $54,300 total for a family of four) to qualify for HAP’s
housing. The wait for a three bedroom apartment can be two years.
The opening of the waitlist is “both good news and bad news” says
Michael Anderson, policy director for affordable housing nonprofit
Community Development Network. “It’s good for those who are in
immediate need of housing, but it’s also a reflection of the bad state
of affairs that the housing infrastructure is in.”
Anderson blames the housing shortfall on the high price of real
estate and the fact that federal funding for affordable housing has
decreased precipitously over the past 30 years. In Anderson’s
estimation, Portland needs to build 16,000 more affordable apartments
and houses in the city.
I was on the list for about 4 years. Once I got in to housing, it was about 4 months till I got a job and less than a year till I moved out of the HAP housing. its a good program, just not enough of it.
If you read the WRAP report “Without Housing”, http://www.wraphome.org/wh/index.php , you will see that the missing link in our system is the HUD budget. In 78 there was like 83 billion dollars for affordable housing in the U.S. by 1983 that had dropped to 13 billion and it has not been over 30 billion since… All the while our population grows.
thanks
Patrick
It’s a great program, but shouldn’t we be encouraging people to use it as a non-permanent solution, like Patrick did? If families like the Heasleys are encouraged to stay in low-income housing for seven years, of course the demand will grow exponentially.
TWSS,
I would like to say, my case was a bit of a “golden child”. I had a friend who could get me a an entry level job right away and I was already vollunteering at the place I knew I wanted to work at long term (and was learning skills to get me that job as at a awesome rate!). if it takes someone a few years to get things moving in the right direction, well, that cant be helped sometimes. there are many reasons why someone would need to be in subsidized housing longer than me, including rental history, job history, medical conditions, etc.
thanks
Patrick
I’m happy things worked out so well for you, and I understand that there are a myriad of different life situations that can lead people to stay in subsidized housing for longer than others. Hey, my mom and I probably would have stayed in our Section 8 apartment for years longer than we did if she hadn’t married my stepfather.
What concerns me is the lack to desire to move on. I’m glad that the Heasleys are happy and housed, but they don’t seem interested in moving on, maybe even buying their own home somewhere, and opening up their rental unit to others who are struggling. Staying in a low-income rental shouldn’t be the goal, it should be a leg up to the next phase. Otherwise, we’ll never have enough housing for people who need it.
BTW, I’m a big fan of your work with SotR.
The lack of affordable housing in Portland is a growing problem for those needing a place to live — ironically, the new expensive high rise apartments are at 50% capacity yet the city continues to allow them to build new ones to sit empty and many of these new buildings can’t even find tenants for their ground level commercial units. I’ve sat in on conversations with quite a few people trying to transition from homelessness to working and housed, and the lack of affordable housing in the city prevents this. I’ve met many a homeless Portlander who works a 40 hour job, but they either cannot find a vacant unit to rent OR the available unit is managed by an out of state company with rental standards set so high that few Portlanders would qualify to rent from the management company. It is time the city reigned in these out of state property management agencies and required a ratio of low income housing to be built for every high end rental property unit built.
I know the Heasleys’, as they are neighbors of mine. Their family dynamic consists of individuals whom do not have the work skills to get a job any better than at subway. They are hard working and do much for the children of the apartments. I am living here and am not able to work due to my child’s and my own medical conditions. I WANT to work yet I am told (by welfare) to just concentrate on the medical. I have put my own schooling and career on hold since my son has a genetic condition which causes him to become very sick and need hospital stay. I am simply writing because many people here have not become complacent. Many assume that the reason why people stay for years is because they are lazy or desire no more than to stay regardless of the demand of housing. Yet the same people can not comprehend what it is to not have enough money for food but a roof over your head; it’s a mixed blessing. People do not want to be poor; they have it thrust upon them from generation to generation. I on the other hand want to break that mold. Yet here I am seemingly looking just like all the other welfare recipients. All I am saying is that before a comment is made please be a little more aware of the topic and that of the minds of those be spoken of before it is made…Thank you