Housing first! Don't mind the ripoffs.

Alex Z. of OPB has this alarming story  (the latest of many) about what government-subsidized "affordable housing" in Portland is like.

In 1998, the city inked a standalone deal to give the 47-unit apartment’s Minneapolis-based developer public funding “loaned at terms more favorable” than private loans. In exchange, the owners pledged to keep five units in the building affordable for renters making 60% of the area’s median income and 25 units regulated at 80% median income for 30 years. The remaining 17 units could be rented at market rate.

A city document shows the lofts received just under $500,000 in city development loans.

At the time, the owners agreed to follow federal housing standards, which based the area median rent off the number of bedrooms in an apartment....

Miranda Krone, another tenant at Everett Station Lofts, first realized she was being charged for a three-bedroom when she considered moving units last summer after her adult daughter moved out of her apartment. She lives in one of the one-bedroom apartments capped for tenants making at least 80% of the area’s median income (which is $66,000 for a solo renter in the Portland metro area).

Under this criteria, she should have been paying about $1,580 monthly. She had been paying $2,125 since moving in earlier that year....

“The owners took public dollars and promised the city to keep the rent at a certain rate and they haven’t done that,” Krone said. “At what point does the city hold them accountable?”

Apparently, at the point of never, unless and until the tenants get lawyers. At least now they have some.

And surprise! This stinker of a deal was brought to you by good old Prosper Portland.

If you think anybody in this picture is really going to help the city solve the street camping and drug crises, you're kidding yourself.