There are at least four separate kinds of housing shortages, she is confusing and integrating those separate topics. Yes we need lots more housing, but it’s worth digging deeper to see what needs to be done.
The first is ordinary housing for those who can afford to pay full cost.
The second is housing for those who cannot afford a full “market-based” rent..and this will increasingly be a larger number of us as many are retiring who have worked near minimum wage jobs, their social security earnings will not be enough to cover rent. We will need a lot more subsidies of housing whether this is in public housing projects or vouchers for privately owned housing.
The third is the highly supportive types of housing and staffing for transitional sober housing.
The fourth is the even more specialized housing for the mentally ill who are able to have their condition stabilized and able to be integrated into the community with good support.
I agree with your assessment. The big question is, what can we afford? Number 4 on your list is and will be, enormously expensive, especially since our State has been kicking this can down the road for decades. Federal help will be shrinking, inflation will likely continue climbing and the demographics of our tax base will not be conducive to the permanent, wrap-around services which might allow the chronically mentally ill to live independently. I certainly don’t have the answers, but unless we acknowledge that there are fiscal limits to what we can provide, we’ll never find any success. The perfect will simply get in the way of the good.
Lots to agree with you here re prudent spending, yet I think it’s fair to say we need to provide housing for the seriously mentally ill, it’s a sad situation where the choices of institutionalization and supportive housing are both expensive. The enormous costs that are already being carried by our society of consequences of their being unhoused also greatly reduces the differences in spending for humane compassionate solutions.
JVP like her predecessor, has a messianic complex: only SHE has the answers to the problems we face and she’ll spend everyone else’s hard earned money to prove it. She hates Sharon Meiran because she had the audacity to stand up to her passive aggressive bullying. JVP (like DJT) is incapable of self examination and admitting she’s wrong.
When will Portland’s gullible electorate stop voting for toxic people just because they are “progressive”?
JVP has something like a 10% approval rating. Let’s hope good decisions are made by voters finally next year and we don’t have to listen to her talk anymore.
We have housing —check out all the rentals available. What we lack are people coming to Portland with skills that can add value to our city. We need to attract the people who can afford to live in Portland, and we won't get that if we continue to allow druggies to move to Portland and are allowed to break our laws, but get free food and shelter. Paraphrased quote by Margaret Thatcher: "socialism is great until you run out of other people's money."
As noted below, we have housing--in fact, some Pearl-area highrises are advertising "free months rent," which is a sure sign that the market is soft. To be expected when higher-income taxpayers are slowly leaving. A big drop in mortgage rates will create a landslide of departures (not everyone is in love with this town); which is why smart real estate money in Portland is either bottom-fishing or selling out and taking a loss that will only get bigger.
As I drive around my neighborhood on the backside of Mt. Tabor, I have a melancholy feeling--this town will never again build classic foursquares and "farmhouse" style houses. The party machine has plainly said that the single-family house is obsolete. "Social housing" is small apartments, no storage space, itty-bitty kitchens, and "loft" architecture. Cram 'em and jam 'em. Renters build equity--for apartment owners.
Neighborhoods with single-family housing are in the machine's gunsights: Kotek & Co got the legislature to outlaw local zoning; in Portland, if some developer wants to drop a multi-unit apartment stack shading my backyard, well...god bless 'em!
The only housing that's now being built is "affordables," which are government subsidized, limited to the officially poor, and off property tax rolls because most are fronted by nonprofits.
There are at least four separate kinds of housing shortages, she is confusing and integrating those separate topics. Yes we need lots more housing, but it’s worth digging deeper to see what needs to be done.
The first is ordinary housing for those who can afford to pay full cost.
The second is housing for those who cannot afford a full “market-based” rent..and this will increasingly be a larger number of us as many are retiring who have worked near minimum wage jobs, their social security earnings will not be enough to cover rent. We will need a lot more subsidies of housing whether this is in public housing projects or vouchers for privately owned housing.
The third is the highly supportive types of housing and staffing for transitional sober housing.
The fourth is the even more specialized housing for the mentally ill who are able to have their condition stabilized and able to be integrated into the community with good support.
I agree with your assessment. The big question is, what can we afford? Number 4 on your list is and will be, enormously expensive, especially since our State has been kicking this can down the road for decades. Federal help will be shrinking, inflation will likely continue climbing and the demographics of our tax base will not be conducive to the permanent, wrap-around services which might allow the chronically mentally ill to live independently. I certainly don’t have the answers, but unless we acknowledge that there are fiscal limits to what we can provide, we’ll never find any success. The perfect will simply get in the way of the good.
Lots to agree with you here re prudent spending, yet I think it’s fair to say we need to provide housing for the seriously mentally ill, it’s a sad situation where the choices of institutionalization and supportive housing are both expensive. The enormous costs that are already being carried by our society of consequences of their being unhoused also greatly reduces the differences in spending for humane compassionate solutions.
bingo, jonathan.
She's hopeless...and feckless.
JVP like her predecessor, has a messianic complex: only SHE has the answers to the problems we face and she’ll spend everyone else’s hard earned money to prove it. She hates Sharon Meiran because she had the audacity to stand up to her passive aggressive bullying. JVP (like DJT) is incapable of self examination and admitting she’s wrong.
When will Portland’s gullible electorate stop voting for toxic people just because they are “progressive”?
JVP has something like a 10% approval rating. Let’s hope good decisions are made by voters finally next year and we don’t have to listen to her talk anymore.
No to housing first! It will lead to more of the same and is unsustainable and dangerous.
Of course she is!!! Look at all the money she’s making!
We have housing —check out all the rentals available. What we lack are people coming to Portland with skills that can add value to our city. We need to attract the people who can afford to live in Portland, and we won't get that if we continue to allow druggies to move to Portland and are allowed to break our laws, but get free food and shelter. Paraphrased quote by Margaret Thatcher: "socialism is great until you run out of other people's money."
As noted below, we have housing--in fact, some Pearl-area highrises are advertising "free months rent," which is a sure sign that the market is soft. To be expected when higher-income taxpayers are slowly leaving. A big drop in mortgage rates will create a landslide of departures (not everyone is in love with this town); which is why smart real estate money in Portland is either bottom-fishing or selling out and taking a loss that will only get bigger.
As I drive around my neighborhood on the backside of Mt. Tabor, I have a melancholy feeling--this town will never again build classic foursquares and "farmhouse" style houses. The party machine has plainly said that the single-family house is obsolete. "Social housing" is small apartments, no storage space, itty-bitty kitchens, and "loft" architecture. Cram 'em and jam 'em. Renters build equity--for apartment owners.
Neighborhoods with single-family housing are in the machine's gunsights: Kotek & Co got the legislature to outlaw local zoning; in Portland, if some developer wants to drop a multi-unit apartment stack shading my backyard, well...god bless 'em!
The only housing that's now being built is "affordables," which are government subsidized, limited to the officially poor, and off property tax rolls because most are fronted by nonprofits.
The city is being "manhattanized."
By design.