Metro Community Investment Comments Due COB FRIDAY OCT 1; New Portland Metro ACS Data Shows Cost Burdens Based on Income.

I have previously provided my comments on the Metro Community Investment strategy, for which comments are due COB Friday October 1st. (Prior post HERE includes email address of where to send comments and a MS Word version of my comments).

I also have received a copy of comments from Housing Land Advocates HERE. 
I ENCOURAGE you to make your OWN comments and/or to write in support of my comments or HLA comments.

ONE additional piece of information is just out in the American Community Survey for 2009.  I looked at the one year 2009 ACS estimate of Metro Portland cost burden data for renters, did some calculations, and created a table pasted below that shows how renter cost burdens are a function of income.   

The table shows:

1. For all renters, 48.9% are cost burdened. 
2. For renters below $35,000 (about 50% of area median income) 78.1% of renters are cost burdened. Renters in this income group are 53% of all renters, but 84% of all COST burdened renters.
3. For renters with incomes between $35,000 to $74,999, the cost burden percentage drops to 21.8%, and virtually disappears for renters with incomes above $75,000 (1.3%).

This data helps illustrate Corrective Action #1 in my Metro comments: 

A SPECIFIC portion of $3.8 billion in projected local Residential "incentives"/ subsidies must be targeted for exclusive use by low income renter households to help solve the problem of growing cost burdens and, as required by Title 7 (307.740 B.3.), future “Centers/ Corridors” supply reports must include counts of affordable housing placed into service or preserved. 

Table is pasted below:

Renter Income	Total Renter Occupied Units	Cost Burden 30% or More	Cost Burden %	Share of All Renters	Share of All Renters With Cost Burdens
ALL	321,521	157,068	48.9%	100%	100%
Less than $10,000	37,936	28,429	74.9%	12%	18%
$10,000-$19,999	53,759	48,305	89.9%	17%	31%
$20,000-$34,999	77,903	55,682	71.5%	24%	35%
$35,000-$49,999	57,661	18,158	31.5%	18%	12%
$50,000-$74,999	53,009	5,946	11.2%	16%	4%
$75,000-$99,999	21,129	501	2.4%	7%	0%
$100,000 or More	20,124	47	0.2%	6%	0%
Incomes Less than $35,000	169,598	132,416	78.1%	53%	84%
Incomes Between $35,000 and $74,999	110,670	24,104	21.8%	34%	15%
Incomes $75,000 and Above	41,253	548	1.3%	13%	0%

You can download the Portland Metro 2009 ACS Query and data I used for this analysis from the Census Bureau website HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.