![A low-income housing program is pouring big money into housing many Oregonians can’t afford [6/3/26]](https://www.hfore.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Depositphotos_10425436_S.jpg)
A low-income housing program is pouring big money into housing many Oregonians can’t afford [6/3/26]
OPB | Tony Schick | June 3, 2026 This article is part of our HFO in the News coverage.
OPB turned to HFO Investment Real Estate’s director of market intelligence, Aaron Kirk Douglas, for current Portland vacancy data in a deeply reported investigation of the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Douglas told OPB the Portland metro vacancy rate stood at roughly 7.6% as of May 2026.
Reporter Tony Schick, working in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, uses that benchmark to sharpen a striking finding: vacancies in subsidized “affordable” buildings have climbed to about 11%, leaving nearly 2,000 units empty while thousands of Oregonians sleep outside. The story traces decades of academic and federal warnings that the program was likely to produce housing competing with the market rather than reaching the lowest-income renters it was meant to serve.
Read the full story: https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/03/oregon-housing-rent-apartments-affordable-portland/
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