91视频

Traci Manning, director of the Portland Housing Bureau, said she has watched decreasing residential vacancy rates in and around the city cause rents to get 鈥渟o high, so fast.鈥�

But while approximately 10,000 to 12,000 new apartment units are predicted to come online in the Portland area by the end of 2015, the PHB since 2013 has approved only about 300 new affordable housing units for construction.

鈥淚t feels like a moment of really big change in the Portland multifamily market,鈥� Manning said. 鈥淲e have 120,000 new households coming to Portland in the next 20 years. We can’t do this the old-fashioned way. We need new partners and better, cheaper ways to do it.鈥�

As Portland continues to experience a multifamily development boom, efforts are under way to identify possible ways to encourage the inclusion of more affordable units.

One way could be a change to Portland zoning. Manning said the city has hired a consultant who, over the next several months, will assess the viability of adding to city code a type of incentive zoning that would increase the floor area ratio allowed in new construction if the developer agrees to include a certain percentage of low-income housing.

Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman said he’s looking at other ways to make construction of affordable housing more attractive to developers.

鈥淲e need to address head-on the affordability problem in the Portland rental market,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need to take a look at the bonuses that are on the books and decide which ones are no longer necessary or effective.鈥�

One bonus offered by Portland is the Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption. It allows developers to forgo paying property taxes for 10 years if they reserve 20 percent of the units within a newly constructed multifamily building as affordable.

In 2012, following a policy review by the 鈥淏ig Look鈥� committee of regional stakeholders, the PHB tightened the MULTE program by capping annual forgone revenue at $1 million and making the annual selection process competitive.

鈥淲e do have people proposing affordable housing developments to receive the exemption, but they’re not beating down our door,鈥� Manning said. 鈥淲hen we changed the program it was a different real estate market. Nothing was getting built and we saw this as a way to incentivize development.鈥�

Saltzman said he’d like to increase the amount of forgone revenue the city allows through its MULTE program, but acknowledged that some people oppose that because they perceive it as money lost from other programs.

鈥淲e only have one shot at this rental boom,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we don’t catch the wave now it’s going to be ironic when we’re moaning about the lack of affordable housing but missed the opportunity to create it.鈥�

Saltzman pointed to Seattle, where there is no cap on the amount of forgone revenue it can grant developers via tax exemptions. As of mid-2014, Seattle’s Multifamily Tax Exemption had contributed to development of 148 projects that included affordable housing. He hypothesized that increased development could offset any forgone revenue.

鈥淚ntuitively it strikes me as making sense,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey’re putting properties on their rolls that wouldn’t otherwise be there.鈥�

Saltzman said he’s approached developers in the Portland area to see which incentives would encourage them to incorporate affordable housing in new projects. He said Jeff Pickhardt with Hood River-based Key Development Corp. was responsive to his ideas. Saltzman said he also has reached out to Wade Lange, vice president and regional manager for American Assets Trust‘s Portland office, though they haven’t spoken yet.

Lange said that although his company’s current projects 鈥� the Hassalo on Eighth superblock and the proposed Oregon Square superblock developments 鈥� were conceived with only market-rate units, he recognizes the need for affordable housing in the Portland area and plans to discuss ideas with Saltzman.

In the meantime, local governments are looking to the public for ideas on how to increase housing affordability in the metro area. Last week, the PHB announced that Multnomah County and the cities of Portland and Gresham 鈥渨ill invest millions (of dollars) over the next fiscal year to help address the community’s need for affordable housing and community economic development.鈥�

The three entities on Dec. 11, at 6 p.m., will host a Community Need Meeting at Gresham City Hall, 1333 N.W. Eastman Parkway. Officials want to gather input from community members on the best way to address the shortage of affordable housing.

鈥淚f you’ve got an idea, we want to know what the question is we need to be asking that we’re not asking,鈥� Manning said. 鈥淲e are the government and we don’t have all the answers. We screwed this up.鈥�