Once known for being a holdout of affordability on the West Coast, Portland is now leading the charge on raising the cost of living. According to Rent Cafe, a livability calculator, Portland has a skyrocketing lack of affordability, with an increase in housing costs that exceed the national average by 50%.
The Eviction Research Network reports that evictions in Multnomah county have gone up by 6% over the last 12-months. According to the city's own website, Portland has seen a 65% increase of homelessness between 2015 and 2023.
As the housing crisis fuels the houseless crisis, those in charge seek to criminalize those who fall below the bar of affordability. Just recently, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office stated that they will begin enforcing the city’s camping ban and prosecuting individuals who refuse to relocate to a shelter.
The disproportionately high cost of living coupled with the state’s promise to criminalize those who are forced to the streets demonstrates just how dire the status of the renter has fallen in Portland.
According to a recent article published by the Portland Mercury, the vision for Portland’s tenant’s bill of rights closely mirrors a similar action in neighboring Tacoma, Wa
shington, where voters had ushered in the measure last November with a narrow margin of just 400 votes. Tacoma’s measure ensures that renters are entitled to fair warning of up to six months of impending rent increases and those with children or working in education are exempt from eviction during the school year.
If communities don’t come together as a whole to prevent their most vulnerable members from falling prey to the meat-hook cruelties of our for-profit society, then we are all at risk of losing our livelihoods to the next faceless corporate edifice with the lobbying force to woo those in power.
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