New Metro Town Centers Report Does Not Mention Renters or Fair Housing in 114 Pages.

Metro has published a new pleasant looking 114 page report on The State of the Centers HERE.

Data is presented for each Town Center and a composite score is assigned based on a number of factors:

Park access, bike route density,people per acre, sidewalk density,private amenities,block size, and transit access. 

One problem is that you won't find the word "Renter, Rentals, or Fair Housing" anywhere in this report. 

You will find the phrase "Affordable Housing" just once, stated as this:  

Metro established policies in the Urban Growth Management Functional Plan that give priority for regional investments, such as future high capacity transit,to those communities that have taken the steps to promote center development including ....incorporating affordable housing near transit and services to promote affordable living. 

However, as I long ago noted [Post HERE is from Sept 2010] the Metro Functional Plan reporting of infrastructure investments in Centers does NOT require any reporting of rental housing development or preservation within Centers, including information about the affordability of housing developed or preserved in Centers. I am missing how Metro is going to give priority if it is not capturing data on the changes in the supply of affordable housing in those Centers.

The closest thing I could find in the Centers report about affordability is projected 2010 income data within each Center and a 1/2 mile buffer and the observation that the income level data

".. provide[s] a look at who benefits from a center and the segments of the market that local jurisdictions should [emphasis added] consider when planning for their centers"

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.