KATU 2 News | By Christina Giardinelli | December 2, 2024
Nearly one year after Oregon’s Housing Stability Council made a seemingly empty threat to withhold almost $44 million in public funds from one of the state’s largest low-income developers due to habitability issues at Milepost 5, a KATU investigation found many of the issues persist.
“Sometimes I end up sleeping through the day when I should be working, just because if I keep all the lights on at night, and I’m active at night, then the roaches don’t end up coming out, and it helps sort of mitigate the problem,” said Geahk Burchill, a resident at Milepost 5, during an interview at his roach-infested residence on Nov. 22.
Documents obtained through a records request show that many of the issues were pointed out in Oregon Housing and Community Services’ (OHCS) latest property audit. The audit pointed out issues such as roach infestations affecting multiple units as well as common spaces, bathrooms out of order, a leaning firewall with missing bricks, and broken windows. The audit conducted in January of 2023 found a total of 80 physical findings along with other issues pertaining to record keeping.
A tenant-led tour of the property KATU took on Nov. 22, 2024, revealed that many of the physical issues such as roach infestations, multiple communal bathrooms closed for maintenance, broken windows, leaning firewall, and overall cleanliness of common spaces persisted for nearly two years after the audit and almost a year since threats were made to withhold public funds.
Oregon’s Housing Stability Council (HSC) is tasked with holding OHCS accountable and must approve all funding decisions the state’s funding agency makes. OHCS does not hold public meetings, but HSC’s monthly meetings are public, and until Feb. 1, 2024, the first portion of the meeting was dedicated to general public comments.
Residents of Milepost 5 had begun attending meetings in 2021 to voice their concerns over habitability issues, which they said the low-income developer refused to address. Community Development Partners (CDP), one of Oregon’s largest low-income developers purchased the property in 2019. Prior to that it had been billed as naturally affordable housing for artists but was not income-restricted.
The units at Milepost 5 are single-room occupancy, meaning rooms do not have full bathrooms or kitchens; instead, residents are expected to utilize common areas for cooking and showering. Because of the small size of units, rent remained below market value and the prior owner had prioritized renting to artists. Tenants say once CDP took over the maintenance declined, and the property was left in disarray.
CDP declined to comment.
On Jan. 5, 2024, the HSC threatened to withhold $43.6 million in public funds from CDP for The Julia West, a permanent supportive housing project in Portland, until issues with Milepost 5 were addressed. In a half-hour special session on Jan. 22, the council pushed through approval of the new project and funding with mere lip service from CDP as to how the developer planned to “fix” issues at Milepost 5.
“I have had some crazy things happen in my life and nothing has affected my mental health worse than waking up in the middle of the night with roaches crawling on me,” Burchill said. He noted that he came to live at CDP after being hospitalized following a workplace accident.
“I woke up one night with a cluster of roaches on my wound dressings,” he said.
Residents report running from floor to floor in a towel looking for a useable shower because bathrooms were so often closed for maintenance. KATU’s tour revealed a number of shuttered bathrooms were not even labeled as such and simply had debris and construction materials stored in them while doors remained unlocked. At least one of the open bathrooms had showers without faucets or shower heads. Others had broken toilet bowls. A chemical stench continued to permeate the entire building while corridors and common areas appeared to have not been deep cleaned in some time.
Burchill said overall the habitability issues have left him feeling as if he has no way out.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s any help from the building, from management or from ownership. We tell them every month that this is a problem, we have these meetings. They always say, ‘We hear you and, of course, that’s completely valid.’ Then we never see any action,” he said. “It feels like we live in a jail, and we haven’t done anything. We haven’t been convicted of any crime other than not having the means to have an apartment or a place to live that is at a humane standard.”
Meanwhile, documents obtained from the city of Portland reveal CDP owes the city just about $17,800 for code violations that remain uncured since the city’s inspection was done in October 2023.
“This property was cited by the Bureau of Development Services (the predecessor bureau to Portland Permitting and Development) for 25 violations of the City’s property maintenance code on October 16, 2023,” a spokesperson for the permitting bureau said in a written statement. “The property owner (or their representative) was given 60 days from the date of the letter (until December 15, 2023) to address those violations. At that time they were required to contact BDS to schedule a re-inspection by our team to make sure the violations were corrected. We have yet to receive that request for a re-inspection.”
According to the bureau, inspectors have been reaching out to CDP regularly to attempt to re-inspect the property.
“Our inspector has been in contact with the property manager to urge them to get these violations addressed. In late May 2024, the property owner’s representative told our inspector verbally that they had made corrections and would send documentation. We have yet to receive that documentation. On November 8, we asked for permission to come onto the site to reinspect the property. We have not yet received that permission,” the agency’s statement reads.
The city said liens on the property are increasing at a rate of $1,955.80 plus interest and penalties each month until the violations are corrected.
Milepost 5 tenants feel as if their voices are being silenced, particularly since the HSC removed public comment shortly after KATU aired a report on the issues.
“I mean, it feels like a punishment, right? You exposed us, we got some bad press, we don’t like it, so we’re gonna take it away from you,” said Milepost 5 resident Amber Cook who currently has a pending lawsuit against CDP filed by Underdog Law Office for alleged tenant/landlord violations.
Cook said the public comment period at the HCS meeting had been an outlet for tenants to voice their concerns not just to the council and leaders of the housing agency who also attended those meetings but also to housing providers and other officials.
Delia Hernández, a spokesperson for OHCS, says the decision to remove general comment was not made as a result of previous coverage.
“It’s beneficial for the council to hear information if they’re going to vote on a certain development, and the time is limited and that’s why it was restructured that way,” she said during an interview with KATU.
Though the HSC is tasked with holding OHCS accountable, members have previously relegated media inquiries to OHCS. Members of the council did not respond to KATU’s request for an interview made on Nov. 22.
When asked how the agency intends to hold the developer accountable, Hernández pointed to potential IRS tax break repayments for low-income housing violations. OHCS audits properties for such violations, though Hernández said none of the 80 physical inspection findings were IRS reportable violations. Hernández said over the past two years OHCS made two IRS violation reports to the federal agency. It is unclear whether those have resulted in any returned tax breaks from the developer to the IRS.
When asked why the agency continues to fund future CDP projects despite mounting issues at this current project, Hernández noted that the agency’s mission is to provide affordable housing. Oregon is short thousands of affordable housing units per the latest statewide housing needs analysis published in 2022, which noted the state would need to produce 9,000 publicly supported low-income units to meet the needs of low-income families.
“Our goal is to work with the owners of properties that offer rents that are affordable to people so we can maintain those homes, so those folks could stay housed, and our goal is to work as a team to try to resolve those issues so people could feel safe,” Hernández said.
She added that the agency is meeting regularly with CDP to try and remedy the issues. She said she could not comment on why CDP has failed to pay off city liens that continue to accumulate interest.
Hernández said the agency has not physically inspected the property again since the audit in January 2023. She said an inspection was scheduled but delayed so that CDP could complete projects onsite.
