Number of vacant affordable housing units in Portland reaches 10-year high, study shows

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - A brand new permanent affordable housing complex opened up on Tuesday in downtown Portland—the Julia West, a 12-story building with 89 units.

The developers say their goal is to help elderly homeless people get into a safe and stable living situation with on-site case managers and other resources.

There will also be 20 units set aside specifically for people who are in recovery from substance use disorders.

“To be able to bring them off of the street or a shelter or somewhere temporary and into a permanent home and the timing coinciding with the holidays, it feels very special,” said Eric Paine, CEO of Community Development Partners.

While new affordable housing units become available in the city, a new study shows the number of vacant affordable units in Portland is at a 10-year high, reaching nearly 1,900 vacant units.

City councilors told FOX 12 they were shocked by the number of vacancies, but says the city is working on solutions to clear the bottle neck that is preventing people from getting into these affordable units.

In Portland, there are 25,409 affordable housing units, but according to a study by CoStar—the company that runs Apartments.com and Homes.com—nearly 1,900 of those units are sitting empty.

“I find it astonishing and alarming that we got a system that cannot house everyone in our affordable housing system,” said City Councilor Mitch Green.

Back in 2022, there was a 4% vacancy rate at affordable housing complexes, not counting affordable units in market rate buildings

Fast forward to 2025, that vacancy rate has nearly doubled to 7.4%.

“7% is higher than it has probably been historically or is ideal but there is some natural element of vacancy due to turn over,” Paine said.

Councilor Green speculates the cause for this increase in vacancies is that the cost of rent for affordable units is only slightly less than market rate.

“The issue is these providers have debts on their balance sheets so their cost basis is pretty high and that puts a floor that they cannot reduce rents,” Green said.

Plus it’s easier to get into a market rate apartment that doesn’t need an annual proof of income or other affordability requirements.

“All of a sudden there is not an advantage to being in affordable housing and also having to go through compliance steps for income verification and paperwork that is associated with affordable housing,” Paine said.

Councilor Green and Councilor Candace Avalos say a possible solution is a set of bills they have introduced that would change how affordable housing sets its rent prices.

“We need a rent structure that is cost-based and we need to have a developer approach that ensure we have a long term permanently affordable units, that we don’t take on too much debt. and that we are charging rent that is the cost of the unit not the area median income,” Green said

FOX 12 reached out to the mayor’s office about this study. A spokesperson said the mayor will be working with city partners to help identify available housing and accelerate the shift from people in shelters to permanent housing, but did not provide details.