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A home-sharing pilot program Mayor Keith Wilson launched in conjunction with the Portland Housing Bureau earlier this year is off to a dismally slow start.
The program—in which the city writes a $1,000 check to Portland homeowners who list spare bedrooms for rent on particular platforms, including the Atlanta-based PadSplit—has so far received just five applications in four months.
When Wilson launched the program in February, he said it could be “one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways we’ve ever provided housing to Portlanders” and that it would “remove barriers and unlock housing” for renters in need of affordable rooms. He characterized the pilot as just one piece of a multipronged plan to increase affordable housing across Portland and to end unsheltered homelessness.
But the paltry number of applicants so far suggests few Portlanders took the bait.
The city’s program stipulates that a homeowner must rent their room for $200 or less per week (using one of the listing sites) for at least 30 days before it’s eligible for the $1,000 city grant. The program also stipulates the homeowner must keep the room available for rent for at least 12 months.
Wilson spokesman Cody Bowman cautioned that the program is still in its early days and that the city should be able to offer more information about its progress soon. But the city launched the one-year pilot program in February—nearly four months ago—which means that a third of the year has already passed.
“We expect to have more to share in the coming weeks as the program continues to move forward,” Bowman said.
Wilson travelled to Atlanta last year to meet with the founders of PadSplit—a private home-sharing listing platform company—about partnering with the city on a pilot program. The city’s pilot program appears to have been born of that trip.
