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Portland Housing Bureau lays out land-banking study and stabilization options amid portfolio stress
Summary
Portland Housing Bureau presented a land-banking study and portfolio stabilization options to the Finance Committee, identifying about 18 city-owned candidate sites, discussing redevelopment scenarios (including the Ellington Apartments) and short-term stabilization tools such as rent buy-downs and $2.5M in safety/security awards.
The Portland Housing Bureau briefed the Finance Committee Dec. 8 on early work toward a land-bank strategy and on measures to stabilize the city's affordable housing portfolio.
Interim Director Michael Bonacore said the bureau is developing a proposal for a land bank (an entity to hold and strategically deploy land) and described prior and ongoing land-acquisition activity, including parcels owned or controlled through the housing bond and surplus-property processes. Tanya Wolfersberger, who leads Development and Housing Construction Services, summarized a 2023 public-land inventory that identified about 18 city-owned sites potentially suitable for affordable housing, including Mount Tabor Annex (being released for solicitation), a Burnside/Gateway site, Menlo Park water tank (negotiations with Habitat for Humanity), Broadway corridor parcels and the Sears Armory site.
Bonacore and Wolfersberger also described portfolio stabilization work prompted by a Housing Development Center assessment. They reported that between 2019 and 2023 operating expenses rose ~7.1% while average gross potential rents rose ~4.3%, leaving net income growth near 2%; the bureau said bad debt and vacancies are driving financial stress for many affordable properties. PHB has piloted tools including rent buy-downs (buying down loans and using regulatory agreements), stabilization memoranda of understanding with providers, gap funds and $2.5 million awarded for safety and security improvements to improve marketability and insurability.
Bonacore gave an example: the Ellington Apartments (a roughly 10-acre site acquired under the housing bond) could require an estimated $70 million in PHB resources to subsidize redevelopment with total development cost near $355 million, based on preliminary feasibility work. Councilors asked about alternatives such as park-model/manufactured housing, converting certain public parcels (including golf course land) and public ownership models (ground leases); PHB said the social housing study will evaluate ownership and financing models and that ground leases are among the tools being considered.
What's next: PHB is continuing the social housing study and preparing RFPs for specific parcels; staff offered to follow up with additional feasibility and cost details.
Sources: Remarks by Michael Bonacore and Tanya Wolfersberger to the Finance Committee, and council questions recorded in committee transcript.
