Many articles have been written lately about the homeless population in Portland and the new building surge in the city. No one is addressing the obvious: They are related.

These new “market-rate” apartments are out of the reach of most natives. People who were born here can’t afford to live here anymore. If I hadn’t bought a house years ago, I couldn’t afford to live in the city I was born in.

The rents are averaging well over $1,200 a month. Who can afford this besides rich transplants or speculators? My mother said years ago that Portland needed rent controls. She may be right.

Until the cost of housing in Portland is addressed, we will continue to see a rise in homelessness.

Wages have hardly risen in years, yet the cost of housing escalates. In the future, will anyone born here be able to actually grow up here?

Linda Armitage

Portland


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