Inclusionary Housing: What to Know & How to Get Involved

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INCLUSIONARY HOUSING: WHAT TO KNOW & HOW TO GET INVOLVED 

Written by: Dylan Blane
City of Portland Unveils New Meadows Affordable Housing Community

Since 2017, the City of Portland has utilized their inclusionary housing policy in order to account for the need of 23,000 additional housing units to serve low and moderate-income households. All residential projects proposing 20 or more new units must supply a percentage of the new units at rents affordable to households earning less than 80% of the median family income.

Under the umbrella of this obligation, the City has identified further regulatory possibilities. Permit submissions must provide one of the affordable housing choices in their proposal, or the applicant can pay a fee-in-lieu when the permit is issued.

The Portland Housing Bureau reviews all permit applications that are subject to or elect Inclusionary Housing. PHB employees are ready to answer queries.

The Portland rule applied to practically all apartment buildings greater than 20 units, unlike other cities that either made compliance voluntary or partially offset the cost of the new units through density bonuses or subsidies (or other forms of compensation). The new requirement didn't take effect until February 2017, yet developers submitted under the old rules in droves. This resulted in a temporary influx of new apartment buildings, which have largely been constructed within the last four years.

The city has recently enabled developers to build fewer affordable flats in market-rate buildings provided they instead build affordable units with two or more bedrooms to encourage the creation of family-sized homes.

The city and future apartment owners must collaborate to ensure that housing policies solve rather than exacerbate the problem. Both have a role to perform, and these roles do not have to be antagonistic. The goal should be to provide additional homes to meet the needs of a growing community.


Sources:

“City of Portland Unveils New Meadows Affordable Housing Community.” City of Portland, 11 May 

        2018, https://www.portlandoregon.gov/phb/article/684012.

“Inclusionary Housing.” Portland.gov, 2021, https://www.portland.gov/phb/inclusionary-housing.


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