November 20, 2015

Portland officials say new rules are driving up rents

PORTLAND (AP) — Housing officials say rules intended to protect Portland renters have led to an unprecedented number of rent increases for low-income tenants.

The Oregonian reports (http://bit.ly/1PCsATC ) that the Portland City Council approved new renter protections last month in response to record-high rent increases and record-low vacancy rates. Landlords now have to provide more notice of a rent increase or a no-cause eviction.

Housing advocates worried that landlords would rush to raise rents and evict tenants before the rules took effect Nov. 13.

New numbers from Multnomah County's housing authority Home Forward show that may have happened to some of the people who can least afford it.

The agency manages thousands of its own apartments, but nearly two-thirds of its clients – 6,500 households – live in privately owned units and pay some or all the rent with Section 8 vouchers.

Home Forward executive director Michael Buonocore says most Section 8 voucher holders will see rent increases this year.

Landlords in the program need to get approval from Home Forward to raise rents. The agency approves requests as long as rents are in line with others in the area.

Since Oct. 15, two days after the City Council vote, Home Forward has received 489 such requests. According to Home Forward figures, the next highest monthly total was April 2012, with 389.

Buonocore called the flood of requests unprecedented, but he also noted a three-year trend of rising rents for low-income Portlanders.

“I've never seen where we've had the majority of our owners raise the rent,” said Dena Ford-Avery, Home Forward's director of housing choice vouchers, who's worked for the agency for nearly 28 years.

Home Forward receives $70.8 million from the federal government to pay for the voucher program.

Voucher recipients typically pay about 30 percent of their income toward rent, based on the fair market value set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

When a landlord raises the rent on a Section 8 tenant, federal subsidies cover the increase, typically up to the federal cap. But those caps are three years behind actual values, Ford-Avery said.

Tenants then have to make up the difference — or move. But “even if they wanted to move,” she said, “the availability of other rentals is very limited.”

Buonocore said Home Forward is teaming with Washington State University and regional governments to get better rent data. Then it will ask federal officials to raise rent caps.