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North & Northeast housing strategy reports hundreds of affordable units, committee presses for deeper affordability and retention
Summary
The committee heard the North & Northeast Housing Strategy annual report showing roughly $121.8 million in Interstate TIF invested, about 975 rental units in production or open and an expanding homeownership pipeline, and members pressed city staff to align affordability with household incomes and strengthen retention and outreach.
The Housing and Permitting Committee on July 7 heard a 10-year status report on Portland’s North & Northeast Housing Strategy, which the Portland Housing Bureau says has leveraged more than $120 million in tax-increment financing and produced nearly 975 affordable rental units and a growing pipeline of homeownership opportunities.
Leslie Goodlow, equity and business operations manager for the Portland Housing Bureau, told the committee the bureau has spent about $121,800,000 in Interstate TIF through December 2025 and that city subsidies helped leverage roughly $414,000,000 in total development financing for the strategy’s projects. “We have 12 buildings right now, 975 units,” Goodlow said, and the bureau reports that roughly 740 of those units are designated under the strategy’s preference policy.
The report broke the strategy into four strands: prevention (home repair loans and grants), creating homeowners, rental production and land acquisition. Goodlow said the program has delivered 192 forgivable loans (forgivable after 15 years) and 1,245 households served with grants, each grant up to $10,000 and without a lien. She also said PHB has supported roughly 86 households with down-payment assistance and contributed to more than 130 households who became homeowners through strategy investments.
“Preventing displacement is strategy number one,” Goodlow said, describing repair grants that have preserved homes for seniors and others. Committee members noted the $10,000 grant cap may be inadequate for major repairs such as roofs, and asked whether the bureau should increase grant amounts or shift funding priorities.
Dr. Steven Holt, chair of the strategy’s oversight committee, framed the program as a tested model for restorative, race‑conscious investment. “We have something that has grit, that has data, that’s moved families,” he said, while urging the council to align affordability levels with actual household income conditions and to expand pathways to homeownership.
Several council members pressed PHB on affordability metrics. Vice Chair Green and others questioned reliance on AMI-based thresholds, noting that a significant share of preference-eligible households cannot afford a typical 60% AMI unit in Northeast Portland. Goodlow acknowledged the gap and explained that a combination of tools — including outside buy-downs secured with Metro support and use of other funding sources such as construction excise tax and short-term rental revenue — has been used to lower effective rents at some sites.
On wait lists and access, PHB said the rental preference portal had about 1,639 applicants in 2025 and that the active wait list typically contains around 1,500 people at any given time; time from application to move-in varies by building but typically can take two weeks to a month once a household is referred and has documentation in order. Goodlow said certification of preference points is often a barrier: in a recent portal opening roughly 1,000 people applied but only about 400 verified documentation and moved into the pipeline.
Committee members asked whether the program’s spending split is still appropriate now that AMI dynamics and housing prices have changed. PHB said original allocations prioritized rental production because Northeast Portland had very little affordable rental stock when the plan began; TIF “lifts” and subsequent allocations expanded the program but left trade-offs between rental and homeownership dollars. Dr. Holt and PHB urged continued community engagement, said the oversight committee would review priorities, and recommended better communications to raise awareness of existing programs.
The committee asked several follow-ups for staff to bring back, including more detail on wait-list composition by preference points, the feasibility of increasing grant sizes for critical repairs, and options for targeted rent buy‑downs to improve leasing outcomes in buildings with vacancies.
What’s next: Councilors and PHB staff agreed to continue the conversation in future committee meetings and to plan follow-ups focused on aligning affordability levels with the needs of preference-eligible households and on preserving the strategy’s gains as some TIF funding phases out.
