A four-story mixed use building is going up in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, on a stretch of SE 13th Avenue where the average building is two stories high. Over the past few months of construction someone keeps spray painting on plywood front of the building: "Four stories is obscene."
Portland's population is booming and the housing market is getting tight. Once a mecca for low-cost housing, the city is rapidly being transformed into a haven for the rich, while low income residents are forced from traditionally affordable neighborhoods to the perimeters of the city. Meanwhile a building boom is destroying much of the older affordable housing stock in the city and replacing it with large market-rate apartment buildings.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Rob Justus, founder of JOIN and co-owner of Home First Development, about the current housing crisis in Portland, what are the forces feeding it and what are the solutions.
Rob Justus founded JOIN in 1992, an organization to support the efforts of homeless individuals and families to transition out of homelessness into permanent housing. JOIN focused on individuals sleeping outside in the Portland Metro area and launched "housing first" as a model for helping transition people into housing. Rob has a long history working with nonprofits and church communities around the issues of homeless and housing. In addition to work on housing, Rob has worked with CASH Oregon creating innovative approaches to increase income for low income Oregonians.
- KBOO