A 3.7-acre parcel of land in Southwest Portland is being offered to the City of Portland by the U.S. Department of Defense.
A variety of community interests are vying for the site, including Portland Community College, Westside Christian High School, and the Portland Department of Transportation, which would like to create a city emergency preparedness site.
Three other groups are hoping for some form of affordable housing. One of those options includes transitional housing and affordable rentals, including drug- and alcohol-free units. The other two proposals include putting a combination of affordable rental units and homeownership on the 3.7 acres of land.
Seniors, families and people with disabilities have a difficult time finding affordable housing in Portland, especially in Southwest Portland, where houses are now being built in the $500,000 range after existing homes in good condition are torn down.
Couple this with the fact that condominiums in Southwest Portland are going for upward of $250,000, and many apartment buildings are being converted to appeal to a more affluent population. The flip is leaving Portlanders, including families, out in the cold, pushed farther away from the city’s core.
One in four Oregonians are spending more than half of their income on rent. That’s not affordable. Someone making minimum wage has to work 72 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment, and too many people, people with children, are trying to survive on just that.
We can’t become so polarized by economics and race that our neighborhoods aren’t accessible to everyone. The idea of creating affordable and mixed-income housing in Southwest Portland will have a positive effect on our entire community. It’s our belief that affordable housing creates a better quality of life for entire neighborhoods. And better neighborhoods raise the tide for the entire city. What is frustrating, however, is that while neighborhoods will support a concept, they unite to keep it out of their community, and then are further loath to join forces to create what we all acknowledge the city needs: housing for all.
Street Roots believes that an emergency preparedness center is a must-have, especially considering that if a natural disaster does occur in Portland, there’s a chance that some individuals could find themselves homeless or worse. We applaud the idea of a high school in the neighborhood and Portland Community College’s need for administrative offices, but in the end, affordable housing is what Portland needs today.
Portland must continue to focus its energies on any opportunities available to create new affordable housing units in order to meet the ambitious goals set out in the 10-year plan to end homelessness. We are on a successful path with the housing-first model, but the market is pushing back more and more each year.
Ultimately, we can’t afford not to build housing on the Sears Army site. It is an opportunity that we can say with confidence will never come again, and we’ve never needed it more.
