The Affordable Housing Thread

[maccoinnich]

Portland Housing Bureau will buy The Joyce Hotel for $4.2 million



The Joyce Hotel, for decades last-resort housing for Portland's poor, will reopen.

The Portland Housing Bureau has agreed to purchase the building for $4.22 million, city officials announced Wednesday. The city, working with Central City Concern, eventually plans to upgrade the building at Southwest Stark and 11th Avenue to address any safety issues.

Until then, Central City Concern will operate the hotel, renting rooms for between $19 and $50 a night.

Poor people have been staying at the Joyce since at least 1965, when the owners began advertising furnished rooms for $32 a month. (In 2016, that would be just $242.) The 104-year-old building was another cheap lodge, the Hotel Treves, before that.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

City Council voted today to acquire property at 5020 N Interstate for affordable housing.

[maccoinnich]

Here's the $258.4 Million Housing Bond You'll Be Voting on in November

Hey, Portland: You know how this city is currently short about 24,000 affordable units? And how the rent here is shooting up as fast, or faster, than anywhere in the country—15 percent in the last year—meaning that number is only going to rise?

Meet the latest effort to improve matters. City Council next week will almost certainly vote to refer a $258.4 million bond measure to the November ballot. If approved, it'd allow the city to borrow that much from the bond market, and pay it back over time via your higher property taxes.

Housing advocates at the Welcome Home Coalition have been cooking this thing up for a long time, and haven't wanted to discuss all the specifics. But now it's public record. Here's the document city council will vote on next week.

...continues at the Portland Mercury.

[maccoinnich]

Portland tax would pay for 1,300 units of affordable housing



Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman released details Tuesday outlining how he wants to spend $258.4 million to pay for affordable housing.

Saltzman's proposed property tax would pay for 1,300 units — including construction of 950 new units and preservation of 350 units.

Of the 1,300 units, fewer than half would be targeted for Portland's poorest residents, where there is the greatest need.

Officials say 600 units would be targeted for people or families earning up to 30 percent of the region's median income; 700 would be targeted for people earning between 31 and 60 percent of the region's median.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Affordable housing? In Portland, there's (another) tax for that



Portlanders since 2010 have been subjected to an arts tax, a parks tax, a fire tax, a children-services tax, a telephone tax, a gas tax, a construction tax and – come November – city voters will be asked to approve a pot tax and a tax to pay for affordable housing.

"I'm a tax-and-spend liberal," Commissioner Steve Novick said Thursday, "and I'm tired of voting for tax increases."

"But," he continued, "we have a crisis in terms of affordability. And this is a tool that's available to address it."

And with that, the Portland City Council voted unanimously Thursday to place a $258.4 million bond measure on the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved by voters, the city has pledged to build or acquire 1,300 rental units for low-income Portlanders, at a cost of nearly $200,000 per unit, in what would be the city's single-largest effort to create affordable housing.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[RED_PDXer]

ugh.. the best tool to make housing more affordable is to allow more of it to be developed cheaply and quickly and in more places. Sure, there's a lag time between new development depreciating and becoming affordable, but no better time to start than now. We already have a ton of urban renewal money going towards affordable housing. We have surplus general fund money going toward affordable housing. We are about to remove all the bonus density options except for affordable housing. and we are about to implement inclusionary zoning. On top of all that, there are non-profits receiving grants and tax abatements to produce affordable housing. There's also a proposal for a construction excise tax toward affordable housing. Enough is enough.

I will not be voting for this.

[maccoinnich]

This bond measure would increase the average homeowner's tax bill by $75 a year. If property taxes in Oregon were based on the property's real market value (as they were before the right wing tax revolts of the 1990s) then the average homeowner's bill would be going up by a lot more than $75 just because of appreciation in home values.

[maccoinnich]

All about affordability



In a fifth-floor conference room at the Portland Housing Bureau’s downtown headquarters on Tuesday, Dike Dame gazed at a packet of papers.

Near the end of a three-hour meeting with consultants hired to analyze the economic effects of possible inclusionary zoning regulations, the principal at Williams & Dame Development wanted to make a point.

“We’re not going to know if this works until it’s out there and we’re trying to implement it,” he said to the consultants sitting across from him. “If we mandate a whole bunch of things that aren’t going to work in the real world, nothing’s going to happen.”

That’s the rub for the Inclusionary Housing Panel of Experts, a committee of developers, architects and affordable housing advocates convened by Commissioner Dan Saltzman. The committee’s charge is to evaluate possible inclusionary zoning regulations, and to recommend a set that provides affordable housing without discouraging development.

...continues at the DJC (no paywall on this article for next week).

[BlazerBeav]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

This bond measure would increase the average homeowner's tax bill by $75 a year. If property taxes in Oregon were based on the property's real market value (as they were before the right wing tax revolts of the 1990s) then the average homeowner's bill would be going up by a lot more than $75 just because of appreciation in home values.

They keep throwing out this $75 number - which is apparently based on an appraised median value of $178,000. I'm not sure where homes in the city limits are at that number, but based on my property taxes it's certainly not in this SE neighborhood. I will also not be voting for this.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by BlazerBeav

They keep throwing out this $75 number - which is apparently based on an appraised median value of $178,000. I'm not sure where homes in the city limits are at that number, but based on my property taxes it's certainly not in this SE neighborhood. I will also not be voting for this.

Taxes in Oregon aren't based on appraised values, they're based on assessed values. I just looked up a random house at SE 35th Place near SE Hawthorne Blvd, and its assessed value is $80,140.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Taxes in Oregon aren't based on appraised values, they're based on assessed values. I just looked up a random house at SE 35th Place near SE Hawthorne Blvd, and its assessed value is $80,140.

That is also another screwy thing in Portland, places that should have a higher tax value sometimes have an extremely low rate, while areas that should be lower are higher than they need to be. A lot has changed in Portland over the past 20 years, unfortunately assessed values hasn't properly reflected that.

[maccoinnich]

City Council approved tax exemptions for projects at 905 NW 17th Ave and 1331 NW 17th Ave today. Both buildings will have 20% of their units reserved for people earning less than 80% MFI.

[RED_PDXer]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

City Council approved tax exemptions for projects at 905 NW 17th Ave and 1331 NW 17th Ave today. Both buildings will have 20% of their units reserved for people earning less than 80% MFI.

Isn't that the new normal under inclusionary zoning? I'm perplexed why they would provide subsidies for it this week and a few months later make it a requirement.

[maccoinnich]

Documents for a meeting of the Inclusionary Housing Program Panel of Experts, to be held tomorrow. If anyone understands real estate financing better than I do, I'd love a translation.

[maccoinnich]

Portland considers inclusionary zoning

What should cities do to tackle growing housing affordability problems? Is inclusionary zoning a good way to provide more affordable housing, or will it actually worsen the constrained housing supply that’s a big cause of higher rents?



In the next few months, the city of Portland, Oregon will be considering the terms of a new inclusionary zoning (IZ) policy. Like similar policies in other cities, the Portland IZ proposal will likely require developers of new multi-family housing projects to set aside some portion of newly built units to be rented at a discount from market rates. Earlier this year, the Oregon Legislature repealed the state’s ban on inclusionary housing requirements. (Oregon and Texas were reportedly the only two states that explicitly prohibited mandatory inclusionary zoning).

On September 12, the Northwest Chapter of the Urban Land Institute held a forum to discuss inclusionary zoning. I was one of the panelists speaking at this event: here’s a quick synopsis of my remarks and some observations about the presentations and discussion.

...continues at City Observatory.

[eric cantona]

is there someone out there that can provide an idiot's guide to Portland's inclusionary zoning proposal? my understanding is that developers are in a mad scramble to get projects locked in before having to provide the required affordable units or pay 1% of construction costs (?) into a housing fund. the working assumption is that BDS will get swamped with projects prior to the deadline then we'll see a distinct lull in new developments. I heard anecdotally that this is fucking up all the pro-formas, so developers will opt to do nothing once it takes effect.

anyone got the goods on this?

[maccoinnich]

The 1% Construction Excise Tax came into effect August 1st. Projects submitted for building permit review before that time are exempt from the tax, and there was a huge scramble to get in before the wire. As evidence, in week of July 25, 2016 to July 31, 2016 the total value of Commercial Building Permit Intakes received at BDS was $179,088,948. The following week only $12,793,385 of intakes were received.

The same thing will happen with projects trying to get in before the IZ changes, which are due to take effect on February 1st 2017. Any project submitted for building permit (or for design review, if in a "d" overlay area) will be reviewed against the current code. Given that design approvals are valid for three years, I would expect to see a lot of projects submitted for design review in the coming months.

Will development continue after the IZ changes? Of course it will. But any developer is naturally going to prefer the devil they know, and will do anything possible to get their projects reviewed against the current code.

[maccoinnich]

Incidentally, here is the Proposed Draft of the new code.

[eric cantona]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Incidentally, here is the Proposed Draft of the new code.

awesome, thanks. there's an incredible paucity of information out there for something that will seemingly affect all of us.

[cab]

Developers are saying proposed affordable housing mandate isn't feasible.
Two developers say they've been stopped cold by inclusionary housing proposal headed toward city council
Some developers have already stopped buying property within city limits because of a mandatory affordable housing proposal headed toward the Portland City Council.
http://pamplinmedia.com/but/239-news...-isnt-feasible