Results of MPAC Discussion on Affordable Housing: Meh?

I will let you judge for yourself from edited MP 3 audio recording HERE [about 46 MB and 50 minutes in length] but my take on this MPAC affordable housing discussion was that the overall response from MPAC members was: Meh. 

I heard very few questions that related directly to the long delayed housing supply report required by the Metro Functional Plan, and certainly none that related to the problems that I identified with that report. (It likely did not help that Portland Mayor Adams and Portland Councilwoman Fritz were absent from the meeting).

Listen for yourself, but from my notes and memory there was discussion about:

1. Housing needs for veterans [Councilwoman Roberts],
2. Need for mandatory local requirements [new MPAC Multnomah member Fitzpatrick] vs voluntary actions [MPAC chair Mayor Wiley from Hillsboro], 
3. Need for subsidies beyond tax abatement to reach lowest incomes [MPAC Multnomah County member Smith], 
4. Need to offer incentives and possibility of forming Metro affordable housing subcommittee [Lake Oswego Mayor Hoffman]. 

The discussion ended with the Chair saying he would meet with staffer Reid to discuss next actions with idea to come up with some ways of encouraging local governments to consider affordable housing needs. 

Originally created and pasted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated Metro Affordable Housing Supply Comments Now Include City Comparisons by Income.

Using data from the Metro housing supply database, I have updated my prior analysis of the Metro housing supply report HERE and added Appendix 4 [p.9], a draft table showing the rate of regulated housing supply vs the total number of housing units in 24 Metro Portland cities. 

That draft table shows that:

1. For every 1,000 housing units , Portland has a regulated affordable housing supply of 83 units vs 43 units in the other 23 cities. (See far right column in table) That's about a 2 to 1 ratio. [8.3% rate vs. 4.3% rate].
2. The rate of regulated supply affordable to households with incomes below 50% (See column with GREEN fill) drops to 35 units per 1,000 in Portland to only 6 per 1,000 housing units in the 23 other Metro Cities. That means that the rate in Portland for regulated housing affordable to incomes below 50% MFI is nearly 6 times the combined rate in 23 other Metro cities. [ 3.5% rate vs .6% rate].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Problems and Recommended Corrective Actions for the Metro Housing Supply Report Being Considered at Wed. MPAC Meeting.

I recently posted [HERE] an alert of an upcoming Wednesday April 11 MPAC meeting that included a long delayed Metro report on the supply of Affordable Housing in the Portland Metro area. (This report and reports on the progress toward voluntary affordable housing goals have been suspended since 2007).

I very much appreciate the willingness of Metro staff to share the report and also send me a copy of the underlying database and I also do appreciate the progress that this report represents; I expect that Metro staff will create a web page that will include the database soon, and when I receive it I will update this post. 

In the attached PDF file HERE, I have provided my listing of 8 problems and 12 suggested corrective actions that I found in reviewing the report. (A cheat sheet in the last page [page 8] of this file [Appendix 3] lists those problems and suggestive corrective actions in a table format.

The changes needed include:

1. Reporting the income groupings of affordable units in cities, counties, and centers. [Income groupings are in the database but omitted from the report].
2. Reporting those cities and the 18 regional and town centers which have NO affordable units. [Cities and Centers with NO affordable units are not shown in the report].
3. Reporting the share of all units in Centers that are affordable at different income ranges. My analysis indicates that (excluding the Portland Central City) only 3% of all dwelling units in regional and town centers are affordable to those with incomes below 50% MFI. 
4. Correcting an inadvertent error in the median income Functional Plan definition used to calculate affordable rents. 
5. Creation of a single Excel worksheet with all 2011 data and data elements from the "unit details" table and the "main table"  table in the housing supply database.

I will be sending my comments to MPAC and Metro staff on Monday and as I indicate in my comments "If appropriate, I would welcome the opportunity to further discuss these problems with MPAC members and Metro staff".

I also look forward to the presentation from the housing authority directors from Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington County at the MPAC meeting, and a discussion about why MPAC and Metro should provide greater focus on affordable housing. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Metro MPAC April 11 Meeting Has Long Delayed Affordable Housing Supply Report, with Correctable Flaws.

Metro staff were kind enough to provide me with a link to the Metro MPAC materials HERE for the Wednesday April 11th MPAC meeting. 

Included in that meeting is a long delayed report on Affordable Housing supply, a requirement of the Metro Functional Plan. (Link to Metro letter suspending reporting beginning in 2007 is HERE).

Housing Authority Directors for Clackamas, Washington, and Multnomah counties are included on the MPAC agenda for that discussion, likely the first time that has EVER happened.

I have begun to look at the Metro housing supply report and can see that it has a number of flaws, that could and should be corrected.  

More about that later, but for now I just wanted to provide a heads up to readers that Metro is finally advancing the ball on this long delayed report and that PHA Directors will have opportunity to present to MPAC for the first time. 

BTW: Metro candidates housing forum is the day BEFORE this presentation, so will be interesting to see their take on the affordable housing supply report. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Audio: MPAC Adoption of Affordable Housing Policy for Expansion Areas.

This is audio of 1 hour 10 minute discussion at Jan 12, 2011 Metro Policy Advisory Committee of affordable housing language for Title II expansion areas.  

Metro Council adopted this policy on the following day (My prior post HERE also includes audio of that meeting).  

I posted edited audio of the MPAC meeting to Internet Archive HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Metro MPAC Wed. Feb 24th Meeting Includes Calendar of Planned Future Topics.

The Metro Policy Advisory Committee to the Metro Council has a meeting scheduled on Wednesday Feb 24th from 5-7 PM.

Included in the meeting packet is a tentative schedule of future meeting dates and topics, including consideration of amendments to the Framework plan and Functional plan.

Links to materials for this meeting:

• Agenda and Work Program (257 KB)
• Packet (2 MB)

For future reference:

• The MPAC and Transportation Advisory Committee calendar page at Metro is HERE.
  
• MPAC agendas and meeting packets can be found HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.