Thursday, May 23, 2013

Portland Gets Another $3 Million from HUD for Lead Abatement in 300 Homes.

National HUD PR is HERE

Local HUD PR with more details is HERE on MS SkyDrive. From that PR: 
The effort is a partnership with Multnomah County, the Healthy Homes Coalition of Multnomah County, the Community Energy Project, the Community Alliance of Tenants, the Fair Housing Council of Oregon and Growing Gardens.  This is the sixth Lead Hazard Control grant the City has received from HUD.  The first was awarded in 1998 and, since then, the City has addressed hazards in just under 1,600 homes
Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Audio of Housing Voucher Source of Income Ways and Means Hearing from Thursday.

State media website was acting up, but managed to capture audio of most of today's hearing on HB 2639; meeting materials and bill text are available HERE

Audio file is on Internet Archive, HERE.

Speaker Kotek is the first speaker.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Tuesday Metro Council Work Session Has Opportunity Mapping on Agenda.

Agenda item starts at PDF page 24 of the agenda packet HERE

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog


Cook County Passes Voucher Source of Income Legislation.

Chicago Sun Times story is HERE. (Story reports that Chicago ordinance has been in effect for many years).

Wikipedia says Chicago about 54% of Cook County population, and that the 5.5 million population of Cook County  is larger than 29 states. 


Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

2013 OHCS QAP Includes Several Fair Housing/Housing Choice Improvements and Increased Transparency, Jump Starting Conversations for 2014 QAP/CFC.

The Housing Council package for the May 17th meeting contains the final QAP for Council consideration as well as a summary of comments received on the earlier draft and OHCS staff responses. [ A permanent link to all Housing Council meeting packets for 2013 is in the right pane under Oregon Housing Council Materials].

Along with the Fair Housing Council, for 2013 I had suggested the addition of a discretionary basis boost for project applications in low poverty neighborhoods. I had suggested also that the QAP expand the transparency of waivers, and add an explicit acknowledgement that they had the authority to grant waivers to affirmatively further fair housing.

I am pleased to see that those recommendations were incorporated in the 2013 QAP.

Moreover, I am pleased that OHCS acknowledges the need for an more extensive fair housing conversation and policy review for the 2014 QAP /CFC saying 

" Within the next six months OHCS will facilitate a work group to research and recommend Fair Housing policies for program adoption that will be incorporated into Permanent Rules."
(My 2013 QAP comments included a listing of the kinds of topics I think should be included in that conversation and policy review).

In response to FHCO comments, OHCS has indicated the scoring panels will receive Fair Housing training. I anticipate this will include examples of how an application in a low income area can claim points in the scoring criteria. 


Note: For non QAP policies, OHCS will be adopting temporary administrative rules and producing other related policy guidance.  The OAR chapter for OHCS is HERE; looks like Division 90 contains the rules for the LIHTC program (but rule changes might also occur in other Divisions of the OHCS rules).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Update: Downtown $50M+ LO Mixed Use Redevelopment Site Proposal: 240 Apts , Rents @$1,500-$2,600.

Update: 
Lake Oswego Review story HERE says that developer will be looking for a $5 milllion city commitment. This was not discussed during the public portion of the LORA meeting, so it may have come up in Executive Session or in following City Council meeting or in seperate discussion with developers. Story also indicates 242 apartments, not 240 and that waiver of 4 story height limit would also be required
-----

Months after terminating the Foothills Redevelopment Urban Renewal Plan and planned funding for affordable rental housing, the City Council, acting as the LO Redevelopment Agency, heard a presentation this week about a mixed use plan to redevelop the underutilized downtown Wizer Block. 

While details are initially absent from the posted on line materials, I attended the LORA meeting; my notes on the planned development include some VERY preliminary numbers:
  1. 240 Apartments over retail with enclosed courtyard, up to 5 stories.
  2. Retail , 30k Sq. Ft. 
  3. Permanent retail jobs , 30-40. 
  4. Temporary Construction jobs, 1K? (Likely part year, not FTE).
  5. Could get close to 500 parking spaces, 130 for retail, and up to 360 for apartment residents. Parking per resident, 1.2 to 1.5 spaces per unit. 
  6. The project requires some Planning Commission approvals, including approval of ground floor housing. 
  7. Projected increase in property taxes $680k per year; additional one time $193k to Lake Oswego schools in construction excise tax.
  8. Bedroom Distribution: 108 1 BR, 120 2 BR, 12 3 BR. 
  9. Rents : 1 BR $1,500;at 750 sq.ft that would be $2 a sq.ft. Top rental rate is projected at $2,600 per month. 
  10. Using $200k cost per unit, and modest retail and other costs, this project looks to easily be a $50m+ project.    

Oregonian story HERE has details about development firm (O story says 280 apartments, but my notes in two different places say 240 units; I think 280 was mentioned as low end # of parking spaces for apartments).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.