Portland Needs More Shared Community Spaces

 In Portland, finding a home isn’t just about shelter; it’s about belonging to a neighborhood. Yet many of our neighborhoods lack spaces where residents can gather, connect, and support each other. Community gardens, workshops, and parks aren’t just nice extras; they’re essential for building stronger, safer, and more resilient communities in our city.

Why Portland Needs Social Spaces:
Portland faces growing challenges: rising housing costs, increasing density, and social isolation in many neighborhoods. Shared spaces provide solutions:

1. Foster Connection: Neighborhood gardens, playgrounds, and community centers help neighbors meet, build friendships, and strengthen Portland’s social fabric.

2. Boost Health and Well-Being: Parks and recreational spaces give residents places to exercise, relax, and reduce stress—vital in a city where many live in smaller units.

3. Enhance Safety: Active, well-used communal areas promote vigilance and engagement, creating safer streets and neighborhoods.

4. Encourage Sustainability: Community gardens, green spaces, and eco-friendly public areas showcase Portland’s commitment to environmental stewardship.

5. Support Diversity and Inclusion: Thoughtfully designed spaces welcome residents of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds, reflecting the city’s values of equity and inclusivity.

While these spaces aren’t homes themselves, they strengthen the neighborhoods where people live. Portland residents benefit from communities where neighbors know each other, collaborate, and care, especially as transitional and affordable housing developments expand.

Call to Action:
Portland needs more shared spaces, and we can help make it happen. Support local initiatives, volunteer for community gardens, or advocate for parks and community centers in your neighborhood. Every effort helps create a city where residents connect, thrive, and belong.

Does Rent Control Work? What the Evidence Really Shows

 

 Jonathan Smith 
12/2/25

As rents rise and housing affordability becomes a global flashpoint, rent control, or rent freezes, is often sold as an easy solution. Cap the price, help tenants, problem solved. But a major 2024 report from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) asks a harder question: What are the real effects of rent control?

After compiling just under 200 academic studies, the report’s answer is clear: rent control delivers short-term benefits for a lucky few, but causes long-term harm for the broader housing market.

Where Rent Control Helps

Rent control lowered rents for those units that were regulated. This led to tenants who already occupied them being the beneficiaries of below-market rent. Unfortunately, the positives end there, and the overall effects do not.

Where Rent Control Backfires

Reduction in Supply of Rental Homes – Most studies show landlords respond to capped rents by selling or converting their properties. Fewer rentals, tighter markets, and fewer options for everyone else.

Discouraging of New Construction – Developers avoid building in markets where returns are artificially suppressed. Over time, the shortage of housing grows worse.

Misallocation of Housing – Because supply is fixed and demand isn’t, rent-controlled systems create waiting lists, hoarding, and mismatches between tenants and units.

Rise of Rents in Uncontrolled Units – When demand spills over into the unregulated market, prices spike for everyone else.

Pressure on Landlords Toward Selling – Many markets experience a shift from rental housing to owner-occupied housing, reducing the long-term rental stock.

The mechanisms of this process are simple. The capped rent reduces incentives to build and offer rental housing. As the number of rental properties being offered falls, demand rises, creating worse scarcity. Tenants that were able to start with the cheap units cling to them, blocking the natural flow of the housing market. Finally, developers avoid cities with difficult rental policies.

The increase in rent is a real issue, one that is hurting many Americans. However, freezing the rent is a remedy that is too simple, a remedy that would do a lot more harm than help. As rent-freezing policies become more popular at the ballot box, everyone should look at the real effects before they buy into the glamour that these types of policies offer.

To learn more visit the link below

https://iea.org.uk/publications/rent-control-does-it-work/?utm_source 

Shared Roof: A Model for Community-Based Housing Development

By: Aiden Moreno

    Housing affordability has reached crisis levels in the United States. There is a dichotomy between rent burdened residents and homeowners, but what if there was a way that homeowners can help reduce housing costs for the community? In the video below, I explore a novel new type of development in Seattle that attempts to do just that.

Want to learn more about Shared Roof? See The Urbanist's article here: https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/04/24/phinney-ridge-apartment-complex/

     If you'd like to learn more about novel housing solutions, the article below includes information about Seattle's new Social Housing Developer, modeled after Europe's social housing. The City of Portland is currently consulting with the Seattle group, and if you would like to see your own version in Portland, write your city government!

https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/02/13/social-housing-prop-1a-prevails/

 

Cold Fronts and Cold Streets: Winter Homelessness in PDX

By Nina Bockius

November 30, 2025

As the winter months approach in Portland, the temperature begins to drop. Most of us are heading inside, turning up the heat, grabbing an extra blanket, or cozying up into bed. But for thousands of people living unsheltered in Portland, winter doesn’t just mean discomfort it is a means of survival. The winters in Portland are wet, windy, and unpredictable.

Even with shelters, there aren’t enough beds for everyone. Many individuals can’t or won’t use them because of safety concerns, their stuff isn’t allowed, or their animals are not welcome. Instead, they stay outside, making camps out of tents, tarps, cardboard, and whatever else they can find.

Imagine what it would feel like waking up damp and freezing cold and still having to walk to find a meal or use a restroom. That is the reality for way too many of the individuals living on the streets in Portland.

This isn’t just a “homelessness problem.” It is a public health crisis, a moral issue, and something our city needs to act on.

Why does it matter?

Because people shouldn’t have to risk their lives just to sleep. Because we can create solutions that actually make a difference, more beds in the shelters, better resources for those who feel unsafe in them, and real support for the individual’s experiencing homelessness.

It matters because they are humans too, they deserve to feel taken care of and supported. No one should have to risk their life because they do not have a warm place to sleep.

If you want to learn more about how to help or get involved, click below:

https://www.streetroots.org/news/2022/11/16/winter-resource-guide-where-get-help

Breaking the Cycle : Understanding the Foster-Care to Homeless Pipeline

Youth Homelessness is not random. It often follow a predictable pipeline for young people aging out of the foster care system. Here are the key things that I want readers to understand: 

 1.) Many foster youth lose housing stability the moment they turn 18. 

When a support system ends abruptly, young people are left to figure out housing, work, and adulthood with little guidance. This sudden cutoff is one of the biggest predictors of homelessness.

2.) Trauma makes stability harder to achieve. 

Foster kids often carry trauma from early experiences or from moving through multiple placements. Trauma affects emotional regulation, trust, and long term planning. Which makes navigating housing systems even more difficult. 

3.) Housing is not just physical, its emotional safety. 

a stable home provides routine, and a sense of being cared for. Many foster youth age out without a lasting support network. Leaving them at the exact stage when most young adults rely heavily on family. 

4.) Prevention is cheaper and more humane than crisis Reponses. 

Programs that offer transitional housing mentorship, and financial support cost far less than an emergency shelter. Investing earlier prevents harm rather than reacting to it. 

5.) Community support make a real difference. 

Volunteers, mentors, and community organizations help fill the gaps the system leaves behind. Providing essentials or simply showing up consistently, stable relationships reduce youth homeless rates. 

6.) A just future means no young person ages out alone. 

My hope is for a future where every foster youth receives long term guidance, stable housing options, and the emotional support they deserve. No eighteen year old should be expected to survive adulthood without help. 

My hope is for a future where every foster youth receives long term guidance, stable housing, and emotional support they deserve. No eighteen year old should be expected to survive adulthood without help. 

 For those who want to learn more about the foster care to homelessness pipeline here is a helpful resource from the National Alliance to End Homelessness https://endhomelessness.org/overview/

Why Community Land Trusts Are the Affordable Housing Solution We Need, and Why You Should Care?

Housing in many U.S. cities is spiraling out of reach, but there’s a powerful, proven tool that not enough people know about: Community Land Trusts (CLTs). Unlike traditional real estate, CLTs separate land ownership from building ownership. The nonprofit trust owns the land, and homeowners own the structures, paying a long-term ground lease and agreeing to a resale formula that keeps the home permanently affordable (National League of Cities, 2021). 

What doesthat mean in real life? Homes in CLTs stay affordable for generations. Even if neighborhood values skyrocket, CLT homes aren’t flipped for profit, they remain anchored to the community (Grounded Solutions Network, 2024). CLTs aren’t just good for homeowners, they’re good for neighborhoods. By protecting residents from displacement in gentrifying areas, CLTs help maintain community stability and social cohesion. Governance structures include residents, local leaders, and nonprofits, giving people a real voice in shaping their community (Network for Philadelphia, 2022). 

Even in economic downturns, CLT homeowners are more stable than market homeowners and feel a stronger sense of security (Urban Institute, 2023). Some argue CLTs limit wealth-building due to resale caps, that’s true, but this trade-off prioritizes collective stability over speculative gain (Brookings Institution, 2021). Why you should care: If you’re worried about rising housing costs, for your neighbors, your community, or even your own taxes, supporting CLTs helps build lasting affordability. It ensures long-term residents aren’t priced out and that public subsidies have lasting impact (Milwaukee CLT, 2024). For the next generation, our children, or your neighbor’s kids, CLTs offer security, belonging, and a stake in their future. They’re more than homes; they’re roots. Want to learn more or help build one where you live? 

Click here to discover how Community Land Trusts work and how to support them . 

Sources (for reference):

National League of Cities. (2021). What city leaders need to know about Community Land Trusts. 

Grounded Solutions Network. (2024). Community Land Trusts. Network for Philadelphia. (2022). Fact Sheet: Community Land Trusts. Urban Institute. (2023). Do Community Land Trusts Improve Resident Outcomes? Brookings Institution. (2021). Community Land Trusts: An old-school innovation with new-school applications. Milwaukee CLT. (2024). Why CLTs?

Funding Failure: Portland's $14.7M Budget for Cruelty

 

Jamie Partridge, member of the Democratic Socialists of America, listens to public testimony at the City Council meeting.
Eli Imadali / OPB

By Abby Watson

A recent, contentious City Council meeting revealed a deep and growing divide in Portland’s leadership, a chasm created by Mayor Wilson’s failed strategy to address homelessness in Portland. The fight wasn’t even about eliminating his controversial sweeps program; it was a modest proposal to cut $4.3 million from its $14.7 million annual budget. $4.3 million that was meant to be reallocated to direct aid and housing programs, like housing grants, food assistance, and support services. But even that was too much for the Mayor, who fought to protect every dollar for his “Impact Reduction Program”: a program that does not reduce impacts, but rather displaces the unhoused.

The core of the conflict is simple: other city leaders are finally stating publicly that the Mayor’s strategy is both harmful and a colossal waste of money. As Councilor Mitch Green stated, these sweeps are “not only ineffective, they are counterproductive,” adding that they “layer trauma on top of trauma, and they lead to more deaths on our streets.” Councilor Candace Avalos was just as blunt, noting the city is “spending millions and millions” to move people block to block without addressing the real issue.

This public, bitter division at City Hall is the inevitable result of Mayor Wilson’s insular, unilateral strategy that actively excluded community and expert voices. When a Mayor designs multi-million dollar systems, from unwanted shelters to traumatic sweeps, without a shred of meaningful collaboration, the result is a city at war with itself. This desperate budget fight is a symptom of a failed partnership, one that the Mayor refused to build. This is the inevitable outcome when leaders are forced to beg for compassion in a public forum because they were never invited to the table in the first place.

The Mayor got his way. The proposal to cut his sweeps budget failed. The city will continue to spend $14.7 million to displace its most vulnerable residents. This is Mayor Wilson’s choice: to fund a revolving door of trauma.

But while Mayor Wilson chooses to exclude the unhoused from his plan, you can choose to support them directly. Click here to support Street Roots, the newspaper that gives the unhoused of Portland a voice and income with dignity.