April 30, 2013

Northwest Pilot Project recently released their annual Downtown Portland Affordable Housing Inventory report.

The City is proud to partner with Northwest Pilot Project in their work to secure affordable housing for older adults in our community. Their annual report shows the number of homes in downtown Portland that are affordable to someone who works full-time, making $8.95 an hour.

This year’s report gave us something to celebrate. The report shows that 2013 is the first year in 30 years with an uptick in affordable homes in downtownPortland.

A large part of the upswing is because of our successful 11x13 initiative, which sought to preserve the affordability of 11 buildings which were at risk of losing their federal subsidies by the end of 2013.

With our partners, we have preserved affordable homes for more than 650 vulnerable Portlanders since 2008.

In 2012, supported in part by City funding, local non-profit Cedar Sinai Park acquired three of our 11x13 buildings - the 1200 Building, Lexington Apartments, and Park Tower- preserving more than 300 affordable downtown apartments and ensuring almost $60 million in federal subsidy to our community over the next 20 years. 

In March, Northwest Housing Alternatives acquired one of our last 11x13 buildings – the Hawthorne East – and will preserve 74 affordable homes for older adults.

Thanks to our many community partners for their outstanding work to ensure that local families are able to have a safe and affordable place to call home.