Mayor Wheeler on How Portland is Addressing Housing Issues
/Today I received an email from the office of the Mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler. I haven’t been as attached to Mayor Wheeler as I have previous mayors (I miss always seeing Sam Adams around town) but I was excited to see what the 10 things the City is doing to address housing issues. I think we will need a lot more than 10. But it’s a start! Here’s what Mayor Wheeler sent out:
“Like many cities, Portland, Oregon has had a massive influx of new residents in the last decade. More than 100 people move to Portland every day-and more than 100,000 more are projected to move here over the next 20 years.
This growth is undoubtedly exciting: Portland is often listed as one of the most desirable places in America to live. Situated in a park-like setting, thanks to the green trees, parks, and the various rose gardens Portland is known for, visitors and new residents alike enjoy our creativity evidenced through our celebrations, our maker culture, and our pioneering spirit. This has created an economic draw for many of our visitors and new residents. The Seattle Times recently called Portland's economy "transformational." Forbes called Portland the best place in America for careers and business.
I'm taking on these challenges. So are mayors across the country. It is our responsibility to grow smart, which we are doing by protecting renters, preserving existing units, and producing new units.
Here are 10 ways Portland is tackling housing-along a spectrum from homelessness to homeownership, and creating affordable solutions along that spectrum. We have focused our efforts on leveraging funding sources, and maximizing strategic investment opportunities:
We are implementing a fee on short-term rental units, including Airbnb, to create additional homeownership opportunities. Because short-term rental companies have a significant impact on the availability of rental units, we are modestly increasing the fee to create a dedicated fund for homeownership opportunities in our gentrifying neighborhoods in our community.
We are leveraging Portland dollars to create 1300 units in five to seven years with a Housing Bond. We are delivering well ahead of schedule on this promise-announcing four projects totaling more than 560 units of permanently affordable housing planned or purchased to date under the Bond only 18 months in. We are also pushing for a constitutional amendment statewide to allow us to leverage our dollars by combining them with private resources to create more housing units.
We are implementing Tax Increment Funding in urban renewal areas- We have over 600 units (and hundreds more on the way) in the construction or permitting process in our urban renewal districts.
We utilize public and private sector partnerships to increase housing opportunities. Portland continues to work with longtime partner Kaiser Permanente, who recently joined Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment. Kaiser committed a record $200M into a new community investment fund to preserve and expand affordable housing.
We utilize methods of creating permanent affordability. We continue to partner with our local land trust housing provider, Proud Ground, and our local Habitat for Humanity affiliate to create permanently affordable homeownership opportunities for Portland area residents.
We work with local and state agencies to create funding availability for permanent supportive housing units. This funding opportunity marks the first-time funding to build affordable housing has been bundled with funding for the services residents will need to thrive in that housing. By packaging construction capital and support services funding together for the first time, the City and its partners hope to achieve a minimum of 50 permanent supportive housing units.
We are using a Smart Cities PDX Priorities Framework to ensure our growth is equitable. As the City evaluates new technologies, uses of information, and related partnerships, we must ensure they promote equity, address inequities and disparities in our city, and provide tangible benefits to the people of Portland. We intend to expand this framework into how we approach housing-promoting equity and addressing inequities and disparities in our city.
We are increasing renter protections with an expungement program. The pilot program reduces barriers for those with a criminal record trying to rent homes and increases access to housing opportunities. Those with violations, misdemeanors or low-level felonies are eligible for expungement.
We leverage market rate developments to include affordable housing. The Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption program incentivizes those with market rate developments in the pipeline to include affordable housing units in their projects, so we can more quickly put more affordable housing units on the ground.
We utilize Inclusionary Zoning. We require any new development of 20 units or more to have affordable housing units included in the development.
We have focused our efforts on leveraging funding sources, and maximizing strategic investment opportunities because I want to ensure that Portland remains a city that is accessible and affordable for everyone. I don't want millionaires to be the only people who can afford to live downtown. I don't want service industry workers to have a two-hour commute. I want a city where we actively create housing options at every income level and for people of all ages.
Portland City Council has consistently voted in favor of more housing despite otherwise important and competing values-and I want to be clear that our efforts have paid off.
Annual production and permitting levels are higher than at any point in the last 15 years. In 2017, there were 14,000 units in the production pipeline, including permits. More than 600 affordable housing units came online in 2017-more than double the number of units in the prior year.
And this year will be another record year. There are currently more than 700 newly affordable units under construction and slated to open in 2018. This will be the largest number of affordable units ever produced by the City of Portland in a single year in modern history.
As Mayor, I will continue to prioritize policies to protect renters, preserve existing units, and produce new units.
-Ted Wheeler”
So, there are a lot of things in the works, including a lot more affordable units, but what else can we do? I think putting social workers in our public libraries would be helpful! And paying more taxes to have more money to put towards all of these projects, but I’m a Democratic Socialist, so I always think that the state supporting people is a good idea.
Portland: It's raining. Also, we have cats and dogs.
Autumn has arrived in Portland and the cooler temperatures are also extending to our local real estate market. Not to worry, I'm here to help you navigate it successfully. If you're looking to buy or sell in 2018, now is a great time to start forming our strategy!
I asked Justin how he convinces people that their house will show better and they'll get higher offers if they hire a home stager? Wrong question. Justin's principle is "we don't sell, we educate." The analogy he uses is that if you walk into a Gap store, you're willing to pay more for the crisply ironed and folded shirt than you are the one crumpled up in the corner. There's a buyer for both shirts, but the buyer of the crumpled shirt wants a bargain, while the person buying the nicely ironed shirt is willing to pay full price. Spade & Archer is not selling the crumpled shirt. One of their recent properties went for $340,000 over asking, the highest amount ever in Seattle's history. So the ultimate problem is not convincing people that staging works, because it's pretty apparent that it does, but convincing people that they are not the client. Homeowners like to give their opinion of what they like and don't like but Justin (nicely) tells them that, ultimately, of all the people in the world who are going to buy the house, they are not one of them. Instead, Spade & Archer is really 
They average about 80-90 houses at any given time in the summer, and 40 in the winter. There are six houses staged each week in each office, and six houses that are de-staged every week. They work four 10-hour days per week, starting at 7:15am. Trucks are loaded and ready to go by 8:30-9am. They go out and stage, come back, put everything away and might pull some things for the next project day and they're done by 6pm. The crews have it down to a science at this point.
The Next Adventure apartment looks like it's been gleaned from a Wes Anderson movie set. This look is not "standard" Spade & Archer, which according to Justin, "acts mostly as a backup dancer as opposed to the headliner." In the case of the Next Adventure apartment the client needed more because the apartment was both dark, small and outdated, with metallic wallpaper and grasscloth everywhere. Justin's team treated the project like a concept car, not something that people are going to drive around but that everyone wants a chance to sit in. Everything that Spade & Archer put into the apartment was purchased specifically for the project, which gave them a chance to try new ideas and break their rules a little bit. The recent tenants were a young hipster couple with a little kid so they decided to design for them. Their concept was that the apartment was like a cabin on a cruise ship, a place where you store things and sleep. During the day you go on fabulous adventures and come back at night to recuperate before your next day of exploring. The family would use the apartment as a landing base before embarking on their next adventure. There's a map with pins in all the places they've traveled, photos of the family surfing, the couple's bedroom is an apres-ski love den, and the kids' backpacks are at the ready above their beds. They're doing what everyone else wants to be doing. "We make people feel like they can be that family, even if it's just for 7 minutes, just long enough to make an offer," says Justin.
What are your favorite sources for design inspiration?
Event Details: 
When the company first launched, there wasn't much public knowledge of Volatile Organic Compounds (the toxic chemicals that evaporate out of paint at room temperature, also known as VOCs) and other toxic chemicals found in conventional paint products. Educating consumers on this topic has helped to propel the entire paint industry in a healthier, more sustainable direction.
By Jane Hartle
Dan's offer was outbid by several developers, whose intentions were to demolish the house and build several condos in its place. Emboldened, Dan wrote a letter to the sellers, the home's only other owners. He outlined his plans for the house and the untapped potential he saw in it, describing how instead of tearing it down, he planned to restore it, holding on to many of the original features. Miraculously, it worked. Dan bought the house in August of 2014, less than a month after it went on the market.
Before moving in, Dan found a treasure trove of round light fixtures from the forties and fifties at Hippo Hardware. Someone else might have walked right past them: they were in terrible condition and at some point they'd been sprayed with silver metallic paint. Once that had been removed and they'd been polished, they looked good as new.
In the kitchen, the fantastic viking stove (another Craigslist find) and white subway tile backsplash complement the ample cabinetry that Dan installed himself. Removing unnecessary closets created more counter space and room for the sink, and a skylight floods the area with natural light. He kept the inside spaces bright and airy by sticking to white walls, countertops, and cabinetry, setting the scene for colorful artwork and furniture.
Once the dust began to settle, Dan's focus turned towards decorating. The boldly colored and patterned furniture is true to the mid century theme of the home. Like the appliances, much of the furniture is refurbished, reupholstered, or reconditioned. One chair even came from off the sidewalk destined for a trash pile. Not unlike the house, Dan saw the bare bones of it and immediately knew that with a little patience and the right materials it could be transformed into something really special. "The people helping me work on my house at the time were like, I'm not quite sure what you're doing here! They were used to throwing all this stuff out."
The project will accommodate 1700 students. This number is specified by the district in the Educational Specifications for all new and modernized PPS high schools. The increase in student population is anticipated to grow and the new campus will add room for an additional 200-300 students. 
