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Housing Land Advocates 2012 Conference

Housing Land Advocates 2012 Conference. Recapping The Oregonian’s “Locked Out” series Brad Schmidt, reporter. Why affordable housing?.

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Housing Land Advocates 2012 Conference

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  1. Housing Land Advocates2012 Conference Recapping The Oregonian’s “Locked Out” series Brad Schmidt, reporter

  2. Why affordable housing? • The Oregonian set out to review the location of affordable housing after FHCO testing revealed differential treatment among African American and Latino testers. • Government may not be able to control private market, but oversees about $170 million a year in federal money for affordable housing with requirement to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing. • Officials in Multnomah County acknowledged problems with affordable housing location but Analysis of Impediments offered limited analysis.

  3. Why affordable housing (cont.) • “Affordable units are spread throughout the county, but there are clear clusters within the county where affordable housing is completely unavailable.” (page 105) • “Clustering affordable housing units … not only restricts overall housing choice, but also can have the unintended consequence of creating or further solidifying segregation. Communities of color in Multnomah County are disproportionately low income.” (page 107) • “ … areas of the county with higher concentrations of communities of color (non-whites) match up with areas of the county where there is affordable housing, and shows lower rates of communities of color in areas where there is fewer affordable homes. This shows a clear need to develop affordable housing throughout the county to mitigate this segregation effect.” (page 108)

  4. The Oregonian’s findings • Regional leaders are failing to fulfill a fundamental goal of the nation's 44-year-old Fair Housing Act: to give everyone, regardless of color, a fair shot at living in a decent neighborhood. • Taxpayer money meant to help break down segregation and poverty is instead reinforcing it. Agencies and governments are subsidizing housing in the poorest neighborhoods and commonly in areas with above-average minority concentrations.

  5. LIHTC findings • Of 17,000 Low Income Housing Tax Credit units in tri-county area: • 55 percent are in "poverty" census tracts. Poverty areas are those where at least 20 percent live below the federal poverty line. • 20 percent are in "minority" tracts. Minority areas have nonwhite populations that exceed the metro average by at least 20 percentage points; locally, that's nearly 44 percent, a high bar for a metro area that's more than 76 percent white.

  6. Project-based Section 8 • 4,700 units paid for through a $29 million state-administered rental program: • Of residents, about two-thirds of African Americans and Latinos live in poverty tracts, compared with just over half of whites. Latinos and African Americans are twice as likely as whites to live in minority tracts. • Overall, 57 percent of units in poverty tracts; more than one-quarter in minority tracts.

  7. City of Portland-funded projects • More than 7,300 units. Outside downtown, where projects overwhelmingly shelter poor whites, people of color disproportionately live in worse neighborhoods, according to 2009 data. • Of residents in the units, 65 percent of African Americans and 85 percent of Latinos live in poverty tracts, compared with 46 percent of whites. In Southwest Portland -- with just 136 units, all in low-poverty neighborhoods -- whites rent 89 percent of units. • Among all the Portland units, African Americans (41 percent) are five times more likely than whites (8 percent) -- and Latinos (48 percent) six times more likely -- to live in minority tracts.

  8. Home Forward • Section 8 program growth east of 82nd Avenue. • Of 2,071 vouchers added from 2001 to 2011, a net 93 percent ended up being used east of 82nd. African Americans in particular moved east at far higher rates than whites. • Project-based units prohibited from poverty tracts, but of about 1,300 units, roughly 80 percent in neighborhoods exceeding that level. • SF sales replaced in high-poverty Gresham.

  9. The Haves/Havenots • Lake Oswego/West Linn have almost no affordable housing. • Regional affordable housing targets from Metro lack follow through or penalties. • Adopting voluntary goals in Lake Oswego “would not be of any practical value for the community or the region.” • Task force recommendations ignored for years. • Units that existed sold by Housing Authority.

  10. The future • In Washington County, 785 acre development called North Bethany with affordable housing goals for 3,750 dwelling units: • 20 percent homeowner at 80 MFI • 20 percent rental at 60 MFI

  11. The reality • No government subsidies provided by county. • Basic “fact sheets” recommended to help generate interest among developers never created. • Zoning incentives not likely to be utilized. • Former county chairman hired by developer. • Affordable housing, he wrote in an email, is "just not feasible in North Bethany" without public money. "So unless the board has changed its mind on provision of some sorts of subsidies, affordable/workforce housing is not likely. Once all the plans are made and the high density is built, it MAY pencil for workers making $16-20 an hour, and it might not."

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