Mayor Charlie Hales just returned from the conference of mayors in Indianapolis, and commentator John Schrag suggests the mayor take a page from the Vacant Houses Task Force, foreclose on the abandoned homes, and sell them to nonprofits which would then rehab the homes and repurpose them as rentals for low-income residents. While foreclosure, receivership and transfer of deed of an abandoned home are complicated procedures, it’s better than demolishing them, and it would add to the city’s permanent affordable housing stock.
Additionally, some 3,200 Portland households live in manufactured home communities (MHC). He says the city should step in and make it easier for nonprofits or housing authorities to acquire the MHCs that are vulnerable as a means of preserving affordable housing.
In Lane County, St. Vincent de Paul Society owns and operates five MHCs, as MHProNews understands. Executive Director Terry McDonald says it costs about $40,000 to site a new manufactured home in a community, while the tab for building or preserving an apartment unit, if the voters approve a $258.4 million affordable housing bond measure, is $199,000.
Noting rehabbing abandoned homes and preserving MH is not sexy, he says, “If we ignore this reservoir of affordable housing, we do so at the larger society’s peril.” ##
(AbandonedHome-photocredit-dornob-postedDailyBusinessNewsMHProNews)
