Overhousing In Oregon: 20% of Voucher Tenants Had More Bedrooms than Residents.

HUD's Picture of Subsidized Housing data has a variable that shows the % of tenants who are overhoused--meaning they occupy a unit that has more bedrooms than tenants. 

HUD rules allow disabled households to request a reasonable accommodation to occupy a unit with more bedrooms and some HUD assisted tenants who occupied units that entitled them to preservation vouchers are allowed to continue in units with more bedrooms than tenants. 

HUD Picture data however does NOT show what share of overhoused tenants fall into those categories. 

Even HUD Assisted Tenants Can Be Cost Burdened, OR Severely Cost Burdened

The remaining overhoused group are voucher tenants who CHOOSE to occupy a unit with more bedrooms than tenants. Those tenants are required to PAY 100% of the difference in housing costs between the smaller and larger unit. 

This means that SOME HUD assisted tenants pay more than 30% of their income for rent and some could have an extreme rent burden of 50% or more, DESPITE their HUD voucher assistance. 

Oregon Voucher Overhousing By PHA

The table below shows the overhoused HUD voucher percentage for Oregon PHA's: Note that three major PHA's in Portland are all at or below the state average of 20%. 

In the Excel workbook with the HUD Picture data (see prior post HERE)  there is a worksheet with this and more data on the PHA location of more than 7,000 overhoused voucher tenants. 

NOTE: HUD's Picture data also provides overhousing data for other HUD rental assistance programs. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Oregon Legislature: Latest Renter Cost Burden Data and Rates by Senate and House District Includes Member Name/Party and If on Housing Committee.

In time for the the start of the legislative session, I have created a 2 page PDF table HERE and embedded below for the 90 members of the Oregon Senate and House. The table includes

• District number.
• Member name.
• District/member counts of renter households that are cost burdened (611K statewide) and severely cost burdened renter households (146K statewide) 
• Percentage of district/member renter HH’s with cost burdens and severe cost burdens.[Statewide averages are 50.6%/25.3%].
• Member party. 
• A flag indicating whether member serves on a Senate or House Housing Committee.

Notes: 

Data is included for House district one, but the member name is vacant because it is newly vacant following the appointment of the prior member to the vacated 1st district Senate seat. 

Cost burden data is from most recent 5 year ACS Table B25070. 

I had to add member party by extracting data manually from web pages; IF you discover any errors please let me know at housepdx@gmail.com 

New ACS Data Shows the City of Portland Had 82% of Multnomah County Severely Cost Burdened Renters, and 46% of the 3 County Portland Metro Total.

NEW 5 Year ACS data was released last week and includes tables showing renter cost burdens. 

I downloaded some of that data and used it to construct the two tables and graph pasted below. 

The City of Portland Had: 

• 31,364  severely cost burdened renters. 
• 25.2% of its renters with severe cost burdens. (Note that Gresham had a higher percentage at 33.1%).
• 22% of statewide severely cost burdened renters.
• 46% of 3 Portland metro county severely costs burdened renters
• 82% of the Multnomah County severely cost burdened renters.  (Gresham had 15% of the Multnomah county total, leaving 3% of Multnomah county severely cost burdened renters outside of those two cities). 

Multnomah County Had:

•  38,253  severely cost burdened renters. 
• 26.1% of its renters with severe cost burdens. (Note that Gresham had a higher percentage at 33.1%)
• 26% of statewide severe cost burdened renters.
• 56% of metro Portland 3 county severely cost burdened renters.  

The State of Oregon Had:

• 145,776 severely cost burdened renters. 
• 25.3% of its renters with severe cost burdens. 

Data table used was B25070. The severe cost burden percentage calculation is: 

Renter HH with severe cost burdens/all renter HH's with known cost burdens. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Excel Tool to Compare Housing Choice and Costs for Metro Regional Long Range Rent Assistance Housing Vs. HUD Vouchers Starts with Income at SSI Level.

On several occasions I have pointed out that Metro Regional Long Range Rental Assistance can cost more than HUD vouchers and that higher RLRA rents mean fewer families served and disproportionately more housing choices for RLRA tenants.  

Earlier this month I pointed out that 1 bedroom RLRA tenants could bring as much as $8,800  MORE per unit per year if used in LIHTC units. 

And at the start of the month I said that because of an increase in HUD Fair Market rents effective October 1st, the highest gap between RLRA maximum rent and the lowest payment standard would be $496 per month. 

I have now constructed an Excel tool that allows users to compare side by side  HUD voucher and RLRA housing choices, tenant rent payments, and subsidy costs. for each of the PHA created 12 payment standard areas in the three county area.

The one page Excel spreadsheet  HERE requires only 3 simple inputs.

1. A pull down of the location/zip code for the payment standard area
2. The reasonable rent and the and owner requested rent. (For simplicity purposes these are identical).
3. The tenant income. 

The spreadsheet then shows

1. The voucher and RLRA tenant paid rents and the share of their income for rent. 
2. IF the voucher tenant paid rent is more than 50%, a STOP MESSAGE indicating that the voucher tenant CANNOT rent the unit. 
3. The subsidy costs for vouchers vs. RLRA. 

Note: Cells other than those requiring input are locked. 

Gresham SSI Examples: 

In the default entries I have selected the Gresham payment standard area and a tenant income of $11,000 (about the 2023 single person SSI level).

Example one uses a rent reasonable/owner requested rent of $1,610, the same as the HUD 1 Bedroom FMR for FY 2023.  

Example two uses a rent reasonable/owner requested rent of ,$1,962 (the maximum RLRA rent of 120% of HUD Fair Market rent for FY 2023).

DEFAULT RESULTS For Gresham, Gresham / Fairview / Troutdale, Zip Codes 97019, 97024, 97030,97-60,97080. (Details pasted below).

In example one, rent at the HUD FMR, RLRA subsidy cost is $16,020

• For the voucher holder the total tenant paid rent is $449, 49% of monthly income. 
• For the RLRA tenant their share of rent is $275, 30% of Income.
• For the voucher tenant subsidy totals $13,932 per year
• For the RLRA tenant subsidy totals $16,020 per year, $2,088 /15% MORE subsidy than the voucher tenant. (and the RLRA tenant pays only 30% of their income for rent).

In example two, rent at the RLRA Max, RLRA subsidy cost is $19,844

• The voucher tenant CANNOT rent the unit as their share of rent would be $771, 89% of income. NOTE that for the Gresham default payment standard area at $11K income, any rent level beyond the $1,610 FMR would push tenant rents higher than 50% since the $1,610 rent burden was at 49%.
• For the RLRA tenant their share of rent is $275, 30% of Income.
• For the RLRA tenant subsidy totals $19,844 per year,

Frame of Reference: Current Average Voucher Per Unit Costs Vary from $10,296 to $11,916 Annually.

HUD's voucher dashboard indicates that for the year through June voucher per unit cost annualized averages for the three PHA's are: 

Clackamas     $11,472/ $956 per month

Multnomah   $10,296/$858 per month

Washington  $11,916/$993 per month

NOTES: 

1. If larger bedroom sizes were used they subsidy difference would be HIGHER than shown here if income remained constant. 

2. If a lower than 30% share of tenant income for rent were used the subsidy costs would also increase from those shown here. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Oregon Legislature: Renter Cost Burdens by Member, Feb 2022 Update. Share of Renters Paying 30% or 50% For Rent Are Similar for Both Political Parties.

In a December 2021 post HERE I created a PDF file that included a listing of cost burden data for all members of the Oregon legislature updated with 2019 data. I have updated that PDF to add new members who replaced members who left after the election last fall. 

That updated 3 page PDF file is HERE (I changed the link within the prior post also). 

ALL of the observations about renter costs burdens stay the same. 

Namely:

--PRE COVID--and regardless of party:

• About 1/2 of all renters paid 30% or more for rent; that's 287,983 renter households.
• About 1/4 of all renters paid 50% or more for rent; that's 145,586 renter households. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Cost Burdened Renters In Oregon Legislative Districts: Regardless of Party, About 1/2 of Renters Pay 30% or More for Rent and 1/4 Pay 50% of More for Rent.

I previously did a post HERE showing renter cost burdens for all members of the Oregon legislature, using ACS 2018 data. 

With a special session scheduled within a couple of weeks, I did an update using the latest (5 year) 2019 ACS data. 

The 3 page PDF file HERE and embedded below shows the rent burden counts and percentages for all 90 members with data for the 60 House members on pages 1-2 and data for the 30 Senate members in on page 3. 

Included also is the members name, district number, and party.  (Several seats are vacant but party affiliation is shown for prior occupant). 

I did a summary table pasted below that shows --PRE COVID--that regardless of party:

• About 1/2 of all renter paid 30% or more for rent; that's 287,983 renter households.
• About 1/4 of all renter paid 50% or more for rent; that's 145,586 renter households. 

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Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog 

2021 Oregon Legislature: Latest Severe Rent Burden Rates for Districts of Housing Committee Members.

I recently published HERE a list of Oregon legislators along with information about the elderly population in their districts.

I'm now focusing on renter severe rent burdens (renters who pay 50% or more of their income for rent) in each of the 30 Senate and 60 House districts. 

As a start HERE and embedded below is a PDF list of Representatives and Senators who sit on Housing Committees. The list, which uses the latest ACS 2019 data on severe cost burdens, includes a hyperlinked name that is linked to email, as well as columns with the legislator's telephone number, party, and severe rent burden data for their district. 

Some observations: 

1. Statewide 26%/145,586 of Oregon renter households with household income data available were paying 50% of more of their income for rent.  Among Housing Committee members the share of renters in their districts who were paying 50% or more for rent ranged from 20% to 31%.
2. Statewide of ALL renters who were paying 50% of more of their income for rent 92%/134,413 had incomes of LESS than $35,000.  Among Housing Committee members the share of ALL severe rent burdened renters with incomes LESS than $35,000 ranged from 86% to 99%. 
3. Statewide of ALL renters who were paying 50% of more of their income only 1% had incomes of MORE than $50,000.  Among Housing Committee members the share of ALL severe rent burdened renters with incomes MORE than $50,000 ranged from 0% to 3%. 

At a later date I will later publish a list of severe rent burden data for all legislators. 

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100 Metro Comparison: 2010-2018 Change in Number and Share of Renter HH's Below $30K and Above $75K.

Harvard's Joint Center America's Renter Housing 2020 report HERE has an interactive HERE that allows selection from 100 metro areas to see how the income levels of renter households have changed from 2010 to 2018.   (All income comparisons are in real 2018 dollars). The interactive web graph also allows download of the full metro area data set. 

I downloaded the full data set and created an Excel workbook HERE that allows the user to select up to 7 metro areas to see a side by side comparison of the 2010-2018 changes in the count and share of all renter HH's in TWO select income groups:

• Renter HH's with incomes below $30,000 
• Renter HH's with incomes above $75,000.

(By default I include the United States total in the far left column but that can be changed to a metro area to get to the 7 maximum metro area side by side comparisons).
 
I am pasting below a screen shot and graph of several metro areas, including Portland and Seattle. Some observations.

1. There were only two metro areas in the country (Salt Lake City and Ogden-Clearfield, UT) that had a greater percentage decline than Portland (-24%) in the number of renters below $30,000 income. 
2. There were only 10 metro areas in the country that had a greater percentage increase than Portland (+96%) in the number of renter households with incomes of $75,000 and above. 
3. From 2010-2018 the Portland metro area gained (at a 1.6 to 1 ratio) more renter households at $75,000 and higher incomes (53,684) than it lost at incomes below $30,0000 (-32,871). This likely contributes to a recent decline in the overall severe cost burden rate for the Portland metro area as renters above $75,000 have virtually zero incidence of severe cost burden. (See my recent post HERE to show 2015 to 2018 severe cost burden rates by income; for the Portland metro area for all incomes below $35,000 in 2018, 61% of renter households had a severe cost burden).
4. Compared to the Seattle metro area the Portland metro area had a greater 2010-2018 percentage decline in renters below $30,000 income (-24% vs -22%) AND a greater percentage increase in the number of renter households with income above $75,000 ( +96% vs +84%). 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Portland Metro Council Supportive Housing Services Ballot Measure: Where Will Funding be Distributed and What are Priority Populations.

I have looked through the proposed Ordinance and related resolutions and HereTogether "Regional Policy Framework" and "Governance Framework" to better understand the funding priorities for allocation and spending revenue raised from the proposed Portland Metro ballot homeless supportive services measure. (These documents can be found in the Metro meeting package HERE).

Where Will the Funding Will Be Distributed?
The Ordinance has relevant language in Section 7. 

First, the first two years allocation of funds will be split between the counties with 21 1/3% to Clackamas County, 45 1/3% to Multnomah County, and 33 1/3% to Washington County. Then " the percentages may be adjusted to reflect the portion of Supportive Housing Services Revenue actually collected in each County. "

After the first two years (2021 and 2022), the BALLOT TITLE says clearly that the measure "Allocates funds to counties by estimated revenue collected within each county" so my belief is that the funds will be allocated in years 2022+ based on where they are raised.  (Currently there are no documents posted with projections of how many tax filers will be subject to the tax and how much revenue will be collected--the only reference is to the ECONorthwest Feb 2020 document presented previously).

Who Gets the Money- In What Order and With What Services?
Second, Resolution No. 20-5085 says that the Council "directs staff to use the attached [HereTogether] Policy Framework..and Governance Framework....for further planning and implementation with Metro, local governments, service providers and other implementers, and the community."

In the HereTogether Governance Framework paragraphs (a)-(c) of Section 6 Funding Priorities/Priority Service Populations identifies the waterfall of funding priorities and the related definitions to be used.  

Paragraphs (a)-(c) however are written in narrative form and it is difficult to determine the order of the populations served and what services apply to each priority. 

To better understand those spending priorities I constructed the chart below which is my effort to better understand these priorities and services. 

A closer look will show that there are differences based on race and marginalized status, disability status, income level, severe cost burden, doubled up status, and the kind and length of housing support. 

I do NOT think these priorities are legally binding or not subject to change, but some might disagree. I also may have misinterpreted the intended priority. 

The key point for me however is that table format like this would be useful so that all have a clearer AND common understanding of who gets priority for the funding, and in what order.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update: 3 County 2018 PDX Data Lookup Added. New ACS 2018 Severe Cost Burden Lookup for US, All States, and Select Oregon Geographies.

Update:
For 2018 data ONLY I have added an entry that combines cost burden data for Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. This combined data only appears in the 2018 lookup worksheet (not prior years or the raw data worksheets). To locate within the 2018 lookup worksheet scroll down through the alpha ordered county list to "THREE Portland metro counties". 
-----
In late December of 2018 I did a post HERE of an Excel workbook with 2017, 2106, and 2015 ACS 5 YEAR cost burden AND severe renter cost burden data. It included data and a graph for the US, all states, and select Oregon geographies. [I used 5 year data because it provided the widest ranges of geographies within the state].

I have just updated that workbook to add the latest 5 year ACS  data (2018-2014); the new version is posted in a new location HERE.  

Some changes in the new 2018 worksheet (all other worksheets remain the same as before):

1. I didn't include Oregon census tract data [it made the pull down list menu too long].
2. I expanded the data table to add some new metrics that group several income groups into two income categories; incomes below $35,000 and incomes above $75,000.
3. I added a second graph that shows the count of severe rent burdens for all the income categories, including the two new consolidated income categories.

To get results for 100+ different cost burden metrics for nearly 500 geographies requires only one step--selection of the geography from a pull down at the top of the worksheet. 

The pull down list is organized alphabetically within each geography in this order: States, Oregon metro and micro areas, Oregon counties, Oregon places, and Oregon's federal legislative districts. [I also included Clark and Skamania counties in Washington so that all counties in the Portland metro area were included]. 

For example, to find a county just pull down until you see county names (Baker+) starting to appear and they will then be organized alphabetically. Same with states, metro and micro areas, places, and congressional districts.

I have chosen to NOT password protect the workbook, so be careful to not make inadvertent selections or data entries once you download--only one selection needs to be made with a pull down [in cell D3]. It's likely that selection of some (smaller) geographies will result in error messages. This is because data used in the formulas is not available or a division by zero error occurs. If this occurs it is not an error in the formula; the data simply doesn't allow the calculation to be completed.

The workbook also includes worksheets with the raw downloaded data for each year, including margin of error information. 

Caution When Comparing to Prior 5 Year Reports
While the workbook contains worksheets with prior year 5 year data, the 5 year coverage period for each worksheet overlaps with prior years, so comparisons would have limited validity. 

Unfortunately, ACS didn't include severe rent burden [50% or higher] data in table B25074 until 2014, so a comparison next year between 2010-2014 ACS data will be valid as the new severe rent burden data will cover the non overlapping period of 2015-2019. There may be a workaround but I don't know of it.  (Of course, comparisons between two geographies for the same 5 year period are valid).

2018 Severe Cost Burden Observations, Using the Default Entry of Oregon as an Example:
The graphs pasted below show (1) severe renter cost burdens decrease dramatically as income increases and (2) that above $75,000 household income there are virtually NO severely cost burdened renters.

In Oregon during the survey period there were 571,345 renter households with known Incomes. Of those, the total renter households with severe rent burdens was 150,120 (26.3%, or 263 households per 1,000 renter households).

Renter Households with Incomes ABOVE $75,000+ [21% of households whose Income was known].

1. There were virtually NO renter households [.3%] in this income range with severe cost burdens.
2. Out of a total of 150,120 severe cost burdened renter households only 368 had incomes above $75,000+. 
3. For every 1,000 severely cost burdened renters only 20 would have incomes above $75,000.  [.2%].

Renters Households with Incomes BELOW $35,000 [44% of households whose Income was known].

1. 56% of renters in this income range had severe renter cost burdens.
2. Out of a total of 150,120 severely cost burdened renter households 140,095 had incomes below $35,000.
3. For every 1,000 severely cost burdened renters 940 [94%] had incomes BELOW $35,000.  

Comment: Triage suggests that efforts to increase housing supply should include a carve out focused on income restricted housing for the most severely rent burdened households (at low incomes). 

Conversely, increasing the supply of rental housing affordable to households with more than $75,000 income (2018 value) may provide some help via long term filtering impacts but will have close to ZERO impact on severe rent burdened renters and rates of severe rent burden. 

 
Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated 2018 ACS Renter Cost Burden and Severe Cost Burden, By Oregon Senate and House Districts and Members.

New 2018 census data was released this week.  It includes a new interface that will take some time to learn. 

In the meantime, and as an early Christmas gift, I downloaded and created a new 3 page PDF HERE, and embedded below. (I had to orient it landscape to fit all the data, so may be easier to download and view rather then scrolling to the right within this post).

The PDF includes:

• A listing of all Oregon legislative districts, member names, and party affiliations.
• For each district/member the count and percentage of cost burdened renter households, including BOTH 30% and 50% cost burdened counts and percentages.

Quick summary: 

1. 2018 Oregon data shows a total of 294,968 renter households paying 30% or more of household income for rent and 150,120 who paid 50% or more of household income for rent.  
2. That means that (among those renter HH's where cost burdens were known) 52% or Oregon renter households had a cost burden of 30% or more and 26% had a cost burden of 50% or greater.

Note: Data is from ACS table B25070.



Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New 2018 Housing Production Report From 45 Oregon Cities: 1,470 Unit Regulated Unit Production Barely Dents 153,000 Count of Severely Rent Burdened HH's.

Background:

In 2018 Oregon enacted legislation (HB 4006) that required cities with more than 10,000 population and 25% or more severely cost burdened renters to hold community meetings to discuss way to address this problem. 

My prior post HERE has a listing of the 27 cities, and all 47 cities with population above 10,000; OHCS counted 46 cities above 10,000 population, with Silverton being slightly under 10,000 in population in their count.

As part of that legislation those 46 Oregon cities above 10,000 population were required to submit a report to the state showing counts of planned units, AND units actually produced (with temporary or final certificates of occupancy). Breakouts for single family and multifamily AND "regulated" housing units are included, as well as structure type. The state DLCD page HERE has more about the reporting requirements, including the Excel reporting form.

Those reports were due earlier this year. 45 cities have filed reports to date (Klamath Falls has not yet reported). Gladstone added N/A to their production inputs so their population and severe rent burden households are counted in the database but no unit production.

I decided to focus on housing production because planned unit counts can be obtained for any permitting locality from the HUD website HERE and I suspect this is first time housing production data, and especially regulated unit data, has been posted for 45 cities throughout Oregon.

Thanks to DLCD who provided me with the submissions for each city.

I assembled all 45 Excel worksheets in a single workbook and then extracted housing production data from individual Excel worksheets into a single new worksheet. I added severe rent burden data and exported the combined data into a new Excel workbook HERE, and embedded below. Note: I did not extract structure type for my database. Once I post another Excel workbook with all 46 city reports [see below] users will be able to deep dive into that data in individual worksheets. 

The Excel workbook contains the combined data, a pivot table, a worksheet with a listing of fields in the database, a page with links to various related sites, and the actual City of Portland submission (so that you can see an example of all the data collected).

The default opening view is of a pivot table with the count of total units produced AND regulated units produced AND the count of severely rent burdened households. You can use the Pivot table to add additional fields, including counts of SF or MF units, whether regulated or not.

IF you want to ONLY see those cities that had greater than 25% rent burdened households OR only cities in the Portland Metro jurisdiction you can used the pull downs at the top of the pivot table to zero in on those geographies.

In the future my plan is to post the entire Excel workbook I constructed with individual submission from all 46 cities, likely after Klamath Falls files their report. This will allow others to do a deep dive into whatever information is available, but not included in this database.

45 City Observations:

1. These cities had 57% of 2017 statewide population (2,361,225 /4,141,100).
2. These cities had 72% of Oregon's total 2016 ACS severe cost burdened renters (111,159/153,942).
3. There were a total of 14,683 housing units produced, and 1,470 (10% of all units produced) were regulated housing units.
4. There were a total of 6,621 total SF units produced, but only 35 regulated SF units reported as being produced.
5. There were a total of 8,089 total MF units produced, with 1,435 regulated MF units reported as being produced. 
6. NOTE: Adding SF and MF total units together (items 4+5 above] does not exactly match total units shown in item 3 above; 14,710 units when SF and MF added together vs 14,683 total. No issue with regulated SF and MF totals. Not quite sure what problem is; perhaps I input one piece of data incorrectly, but error of 27 units out of 14,000+ units not enough for me to hold up publication and my focus is primarily on regulated units). 
7. Only 2 cities reported NO housing units produced, but 33 cities reported NO regulated unit production.

Even with positive impacts from housing filtering production of 1,470 regulated MF units in 2018, which likely includes less than than half of units affordable below 50% of MFI, is CLEARLY not sufficient to make progress in reducing the count of 153,000+ severely cost burdened Oregon renters. [Note also that 35 regulated units produced were SF, and not all regulated MF units produced are necessarily rental units]. 

(The most recent [2015] HUD CHAS data shows that 90% of ALL Oregon severely cost burdened renters [137,900/153,130] have incomes below 50% MFI).

I hope and suspect that regulated unit production has picked up this year. 

Within These 45 Cities:

• The City of Portland accounted for 43% of all housing units produced and 54% of all regulated housing units produced; their share of severely cost burdened renters was 29% and their share of population was 27%.
• Portland had the highest number of total units produced with 6,345 units , Bend came in second at 1,020.
• Portland led with 800 regulated units produced, and Beaverton came in second with 280.
• Beaverton (67%) and Woodburn (58%) had the highest rate of regulated units as a percentage of the total units they produced.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

A Concrete Outcome from HB 4006: Lake Oswego Proposes Action to Reduce Severe Rent Burdens and Increase Housing Choice for HUD Voucher Households.

Some Background
Last December the City of Lake Oswego held a community event to discuss ways to reduce severe rent burdens as required by HB 4006, passed by the 2018 Oregon legislature. I attended as a Lake Oswego resident, as did the Mayor and several members of the City Council.  

In the discussion at the meeting I noted that 45 years after the HUD voucher program began, only about 25 of 1,500 HUD voucher holders in Clackamas County were located in Lake Oswego. (The 25 HUD voucher count for Lake Oswego is from latest HUD Picture of Subsidized Housing data). 

Updated ACS 2017 severe cost burden data (Table B25070) shows that 1,232 Lake Oswego renters had severe cost burdens; that's 11.9% of all Clackamas County severe cost burdened renters (10,389). 

If Lake Oswego had 11.9% of 1,500 vouchers in Clackamas county it would have 178 vouchers, more than 7X the current vouchers and an INCREASE of 153 vouchers. 

To address this imbalance I recommended, in a document HERE, that the city request that the Clackamas County housing authority adopt HUD maximum small area rents to increase payment standards and housing choice for HUD voucher holders in two Lake Oswego ZIP Code (97034 and 97035).  [In my December document I pointed out that if Lake Oswego vouchers were at same rate as the rest of Clackamas county, Lake Oswego vouchers would increase to 195, an even larger number than the voucher count that would result from applying Lake Oswego's share of severe cost burdened renters}. 

[The HUD Notice HERE explains that housing authorities may adopt small area rents without any required HUD approval; the Guidebook HERE goes into more detail, including establishment of payment standards in Chapter 2 (PDF page 16)]. 

In my recommendation I noted that regardless of the maximum small area rents adopted, the Housing Authority would continue to limit actual voucher rents via their rent reasonableness process. 

And So, Last Night....

Last night the Lake Oswego City Council approved sending a letter to the Clackamas County Housing Authority asking for the adoption of small area rents for zip codes 97034 and 97035. The letter is HERE and says that in addition to reducing severe rent burdens higher payment standards will 

" .. help in meeting the low income housing needs identified in Lake Oswego’s Comprehensive Plan while allowing people to live closer to where they work, reducing traffic congestion."

I commend the Mayor, the City Council, and city staff for taking prompt action following the December severe rent burden meeting prompted by HB 4006. 

I hope the Clackamas County Housing Authority responds positively and takes action to increase Lake Oswego payment standards for zip codes 97034 and 97035 and takes other actions to improve mobility counseling and expand housing choice for voucher holders. 

I am also looking forward to learning about specific concrete actions taken by the other  cities that held public meetings as required by HB 4006 around the topic of severe rent burdens.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Legislative District Data: Oregon Renter Median Incomes in 2017 Were 50% of Home Owner Median Incomes.

Readers may recall that I recently posted updated 2017 renter severe cost burden data for all 30 Senate and 60 House member districts HERE. 

Today for all districts and members I am posting a 3 page PDF HERE (and embedded below) that shows:

• Overall household median income. 
• Home owner household income. 
• Renter median household income
• The district number, the member name, the party affiliation and whether the member sits on the House Human Services and Housing Committee or the new Senate Housing Committee. 

[Note: Page 1 displays Senate data, Pages 2-3 display House district data. All source data is from ACS 5 year table B25119]. 

I also include my calculation of how much lower renter median household income is than home owner median household income. 

Statewide renter median incomes are 50% below home owner median incomes; within districts renter median household incomes range from 31% below to 67% below home owner median incomes. 

In the Senate: District 4 had the lowest median renter household income at $28,240 while Senate District 17 had the highest at $54,417. 

In the House: District 56 had the lowest median renter income of $26,547 and House District 30 had the highest at $67,382.



Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

This Years List of Oregon Cities>10K Population, With Severe Cost Burdens>25%: Total Number the Same But Some Dropped, Some Added.

My prior post from February 2018 HERE identified the 27 Oregon cities with population greater than 10,000 where 25% or more of renters had a severe cost burden of 25% or more. 

ACS data (Table B 25070) published in December 2018 for years 2013-2017 changed the list of cities, but the total of 27 cities remains. 

• Four cities previously included no longer have severe rent burdens of 25% or more: Beaverton, Bend, LaGrande, and Milwaukee. 
• Two cities now have population slightly larger than 10,000 and severe rent burdens of 25% or more: Cottage Grove and Prineville.
• Coos Bay and Tualatin now have severe rent burdens of 25% or more. 
• The statewide severe cost burden rate was 26.9%, down from 27.4%. 

A table I prepared showing the 27 cities with population greater than 10,000 [from PSU preliminary data] and severe rent cost burdens of 25% or more (and the 4 cities removed this year) is pasted below.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Severe Renter Cost Burden Data Updated to 2017 For 1,300+ Geographies Down to Oregon Census Tract Level.

I previously constructed an Excel workbook that showed detailed income level renter cost burden data for more than 1,300 geographies, all the way down to Oregon census tract levels. (US, States, and multiple Oregon geographies were included). 

New 5 year ACS data covering 2013-2017 was released in early December and I have updated the prior Excel workbook with a new version HERE that includes data for 2015, 2016, and now 2017. 

The 2017 Oregon statewide graph below illustrates the central message the data shows:

• The greatest incidence of severe cost burdens occurs at the lowest income levels and virtually disappears at higher income levels.
• If the goal is to reduce severe rent burdens, rental housing assistance (including additions to the housing supply) should include a focus on the lowest income renter households. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New Renter Cost Burden Data for Upcoming Oregon Senate and House Session.

Last year I did a post allowing the lookup of renter cost burden rates for all 30 Senate and 60 House districts and their members. This year I decided to simplify that data into a single PDF document. [Oregonians can lookup their districts/members by entering an address HERE). 

New ACS data came out in early December and I:

• Updated the renter cost burden data to 2017 (5 years, ACS table is B25070).  
• Updated the names of members for all districts, including the November election results.  

The resulting 3 page PDF file (House on first two pages, Senate on third) HERE, and embedded below, shows the:

• District number and member.
• Number and percent of renters with cost burdens (more than 30% of income for rent). 
• Number and percent of renter households with SEVERE cost burdens (more than 50% of income for rent).   
• Party of the member.  
• Cells highlighted in red indicate that the district/member had a HIGHER rate than the statewide rate. 

The data shows that statewide 297,000 renter households/52% pay more than 30% of their income for rent, and 152,000 renter households/27% pay more than 50% of their income for rent. 

[Note: To identify new members I had to manually check hard copy;  IF you notice any misspellings or wrong political party affiliation, please drop me a note at housepdx@gmail.com] 



Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

New Rent Burden Data from Apartmentlist.

My tweets from earlier today:

My related chart of top 25 metros (sorted based on # of renters) illustrates that 97% of ALL 2017 severe cost burdened renters had income less than $50,000. IMHO housing supply increase discussions need to include hard targets below income range. #YIMBY #PDX pic.twitter.com/FnHRA9HmAy

— Tom Cusack (@oregonhousing) September 25, 2018

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

UPDATE: Renter Cost Burden Data for 86 Nominated Oregon Opportunity Zone Census Tracts.

Update:

I noticed last week that Oregon Business has inadvertently included one extra census tract in their listing of Opportunity Zones (96.06 in Multnomah County). After I notified State legislative staff over the weekend that census tract was removed on Monday and I have removed it from the Excel file below (and changed count of CT's from 87 to the correct count of 86).

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Oregon recently nominated 86 census tracts to be designated as federal Opportunity Zones. Oregon has created a map showing those census tracts HERE.  The Oregon web page with more on Opportunity Zones is HERE. 

I looked at the data for census tracts eligible for nomination and I noticed there was little renter information, including renter cost burden data. 

So I cross referenced the listed census tracts with ACS 5 Year 2016 renter cost burden data and created the Excel file HERE, and embedded below, showing the renter cost burden and SEVERE cost burden counts and %'s for each of those tracts. (ACS table is B25070). 

This data may be useful in identifying areas where additional equity investments in affordable housing development and preservation could have the greatest positive cost impacts for renters. 



Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Correction: A First: Lookup Renter Housing Cost Burdens for Any of the 90 Oregon Legislators in the House and Senate.

Correction: Text changed below to reference ACS table B25070 not B25074,
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I have constructed a new Excel workbook HERE and pasted below that allows users to lookup by either district number, or legislator's name, the most currently available rent burden data for that district/member. [ You may need to scroll to the right on the pasted in version below to see all three columns of data; I generally find that downloading and then viewing the file In Excel is the best option].

The default selections are for the Chair of the House Human Services and Housing Committee, and the Chair of the State Revenue Committee. 

Users will be able to see counts of the number of rent burdened and severely rent burdened households and the percentage of all renters in those categories. One of the rows also shows if the member serves on any housing related Committee. 

The far right column is static and shows, for comparison, the statewide count of rent burdened, and severely burdened rental households, and the percentages of all renters in those categories. 

The graph at the bottom of the first worksheet shows the counts and % of cost burdened renter household for the member in the 1st column. 

Also included in the workbook are additional worksheets that include:

• A link to on line service that finds the Oregon legislative member and district based on a street address input. 
• The raw data for both the House and the Senate from ACS 2012-2016, Table B25074, (correction-B25070) published in December of 2017.
• A listing of Senate and House members including party affiliation and any housing related committees that they may serve on (House Human Services and Housing, House Revenue, Senate Human Services, Senate Revenue and the Joint Ways and Means Sub Committee on Transportation and Economic Development )
• A graph that shows severe cost burdens for each of the 9 members of the House Human Services and Housing Committee.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.