Oregon Housing News
December 2019

Dear Multifamily NW Members,

We are excited to launch our inaugural monthly newsletter, Oregon Housing News at a time of year when connection is valued most. Our intention is for Oregon Housing News to be an important touchpoint for you to stay on top of recent news, legislation, events, trainings and a place to learn more about the stories of fellow members.

This season offers us a time to be grateful and a time to give back.

Multifamily NW has service committees in all of its locations that operate year-round. However, during the holiday season those efforts are super-charged. From Portland to Bend, members are supporting events and drives this month and next to support those in need.

Multifamily NW’s Portland-Metro Service committee organizes a goods and gifts drive supporting the White Shield Center, which takes in at-risk teens and new teen mothers to help them get ready to be successful on their own. Our members donate funds to allow every White Shield teen and baby to receive items from their Christmas lists. In years past, our members have given more than $5,000 dollars and many goods in order to make this a very successful annual project. 

For many years, our SWV Service committee and council volunteers have put together a Hope Project. Starting as Home of Hope, the group would work with a local nonprofit to identify homes in the community that needed some work. This project evolved over time to include larger scale community projects such as School of Hope benefiting the Great Days Early Education school or the Mission of Hope helping to do some much-needed renovations at the Eugene Mission. This year, they are partnering with St. Vincent DePaul on two projects called Angels of Hope. 

Meanwhile, our Salem members are busy collecting blankets at all of their properties to help keep all the residents in Salem warm and cozy this winter through Helping Hands, a nonprofit that helps families who need resources like clothing, bedding, household items, books and toys. Last year Helping Hands was there for 4,000 families.

Our members in Bend are just as busy collecting warm socks, gloves, hats and scarves through NeighborImpact for individuals and families in their community so they can be successful and empowered. NeighborImpact provides a range of services that not only meet basic human needs for food and shelter, but also enrich people’s lives by providing access to increased education, skills and hope for the future. 

We hope you can take a moment to acknowledge this good work by members around the state and if you aren’t already, consider taking part.
Deborah Imse
Executive Director
2020 ballot could include another high-dollar measure -- this one to fund homeless services
Portland rents decline for second month
Multnomah County commissioners have agreed to cuts across departments to ensure that they can send as much money as possible to the Joint Office of Homeless Services, which coordinates housing assistance, outreach and other needs for struggling Multnomah County residents.
Portland rents have declined 0.5 percent over the past month, the second month in a row the city has seen declines, according to the latest report from  Apartment List .


GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

If You Aren’t at the Table, You’re on the Menu: Vote!
As 2020 elections quickly approach, change is already on the horizon as political alliances are shifting to new realities of who is or is not running and what is or may likely be on the ballots in May and November.

The list of leadership objectives for the short session are still being baked. Whether or not you like politics, you will be touched by changes to your everyday life by legislation impacting Oregonians far more than legislation passed at the federal level. Voting is more important than ever.

• At this time, non-affiliated voters are not allowed to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary in Oregon.
At the end of October, there were 2,813,849 Oregonians registered to vote and of those registered, 34.6% are registered Democrat, 24.9% registered Republican and 33.7% are registered as non-affiliated.
That means 948,697 people will be shut out of voting in May unless they change their party affiliation ahead of the May primary.

My Housing Story
Members come to us telling their experiences with recent law changes and navigating the current state of property management in the Northwest.

We then share out these stories anonymously through our My Housing Story feature.

My wife was born and raised here in Oregon, having lived inside city limits for 30+ years. I have lived here for the last 25. We are freelance
creatives, and for as long as I can remember we’ve each worked two jobs. She an artist and musician, I a writer and towboat deckhand. We make ok money, and we sacrifice for it. As a way to plan for our future, we've owned two rentals in Portland since 2004.

This is money we could have used to travel, enjoy and be foolish with in our younger years. At some point soon, we imagine regulations that make our rental ownership to become frustrating and costly enough to sell both and walk away. We’ll profit from this just fine, albeit less long-term than we would were we willing to keep renting the two properties, but here’s the real rub:

Given they're both on one tax lot and we’re constantly getting developer offers to buy the places, these two rentals will very likely be torn down and replaced by the same condos you see popping up all over Hawthorne and Belmont.

These condos will certainly not be rentals and they will be targeted toward the affluent. In essence, the same, seemingly pro-tenant regulations that made us sell two rentals will be responsible for the razing of those very rentals and the subsequent replacement with high-dollar condos the developers will then profit from. Is that what the city wants?

Thank you for the chance to voice our concerns.

Share your thoughts at:
Education, Luncheons and Holiday Fun
Winter 2019-2020
December 12, 2019

Salem holiday part benefiting Helping Hands Resources. Bring king and queen size blankets for extra raffle tickets and and join in the ugly sweater contest!
January 6, 2020

Multifamily NW welcomes Greenspoon Marder LLP. This course creates an interactive environment in which attendees can get specific questions answered from an attorney on real-world situations.
December 13, 2019

Multifamily NW welcomes Jeffrey S. Bennett, Attorney at Law, Warren Allen LLP for a brownbag on new laws and forecasts for 2020.
January 8, 2020

This session is designed to help employers with casting a wider net to explore sourcing options when looking for candidates for your open positions.
December 19, 2019

Whether you are taking advantage of the full CAM designation or just individual classes, the CAM series is the perfect fit for your Apartment Manager.
January 15, 2020

Join us in January for an overview of Portland's FAIR ordinances overhauling standard resident screening and security deposit protocols.
info@multifamilynw.org | (503) 213-1281
16083 SW Upper Boones Ferry Rd, STE 105, Tigard, OR 97224
Multifamily NW © 2019

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