Oregon Immigration

< Back to Oregon Immigration Resources

Affordable housing

As population increases, the affordable housing supply often drops. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the state is among the least affordable for renters; nearly half of Oregon renters pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent, higher than housing authorities consider affordable.30 Lack of affordable housing in Portland is severe enough to have undermined the tax base for providing basic education,31 and, according to a Harvard study, has forced an unprecedented number of 20-somethings to continue to live with their parents.32

Housing affordability in Oregon fell 50 percent in the 1990s.33 In Portland, where median rents, adjusting for inflation, rose 20 percent during the 1990s, housing affordability dropped more than in any other comparably sized city except Seattle.34 Oregon workers who earn minimum wage must work 81 hours per week in order to afford a two-bedroom unit at the area’s fair market rent. Oregon’s housing wage (the amount a full-time worker must earn per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent) is $13.18, but its minimum wage is $6.50.35

Contact Oregon Immigration Attorneys

Top of Page