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This wiki describes the data we have used to build the "Opportunity/Cost" housing project, and discusses at greater length the decisions involved in how we created the data.

This project, developed with our partners at the Portland Housing Bureau, explores the new housing opportunities and rising housing costs associated with Portland’s growth since the great recession. The title of our project--a pun on the classical economic concept of opportunity cost--invites readers to consider how the opportunities and costs of Portland’s growth are distributed disproportionately across Portland’s diverse communities. And it invites readers to consider what opportunities we might seize--and what we might forego--as we consider the public policies that will shape Portland’s future.

The people in this room, like people across Oregon, have substantive disagreements over how they want Portland to look in the future, and how to achieve those ends. Our work here seeks to visualize and communicate civic data from a nonpartisan, unbiased perspective. Whatever your point of view, it’s up to you to draw your own conclusions about what it means. As you do, we invite you to reject the natural human tendency to seek confirmation of your existing biases, and look for ways that this data may complicate your understand and challenge your preconceived notions. We believe that good government, and good citizen engagement, comes out of a deep understanding of

Portland’s growing economy has created opportunities for some and costs for others. As people follow job opportunities to Portland at rates not seen since the 1990s, rents and home prices have increased dramatically. “Opportunity/Cost,” developed with our partners at the Portland Housing Bureau, explores the new housing opportunities and rising housing costs associated with Portland’s growth since the great recession. The title--a pun on the classical economic concept of opportunity cost--invites readers to consider how the opportunities and costs of Portland’s growth are distributed disproportionately across Portland’s diverse communities. And it invites readers to consider what opportunities we might gain--and what we might forego--as we consider public policies that will shape how Portland continues to grow in the future.

People across Oregon disagree about how they want Portland to look in the future, and about what role state and local governments should play in helping to achieve those ends. Our work here illuminates some of the facts on the ground, and allows readers to draw their own conclusions about the data’s implications.

This project, developed with our partners at the Portland Housing Bureau, explores the new housing opportunities and rising housing costs associated with Portland’s growth since the great recession. The title of our project--a pun on the classical economic concept of opportunity cost--invites readers to consider how the opportunities and costs of Portland’s growth are distributed disproportionately across Portland’s diverse communities. And it invites readers to consider what opportunities we might seize--and what we might forego--as we consider the public policies that will shape Portland’s future.

The people in this room, like people across Oregon, have substantive disagreements over how they want Portland to look in the future, and how to achieve those ends. Our work here seeks to visualize and communicate civic data from a nonpartisan, unbiased perspective. Whatever your point of view, it’s up to you to draw your own conclusions about what it means. As you do, we invite you to reject the natural human tendency to seek confirmation of your existing biases, and look for ways that this data may complicate your understand and challenge your preconceived notions. We believe that good government, and good citizen engagement, comes out of a deep understanding of

Our group approached these complex questions ruthlessly editing out bias. It was challenging. This is just the start of bringing data resources to go above and beyond what bureaucracy can do.

We know the status quo isn’t working for the poorest among us: According to the Welcome Home Coalition, “For families with incomes below 50% Median Family Income (about $35,000 for a family of 4) the Portland metro area is short more than 63,000 affordable rental options.” Too many of our poorest families--including families with children--are homeless. African Americans and other people of color long excluded from opportunities to build wealth by segregation, subprime lending, and job discrimination are increasingly pushed out of Portland altogether by a gentrification process that has allowed relatively few people of color to take advantage of new amenities and wealth in N and NE Portland, and has seen the wealth gap in Portland grow by ---.

But the picture is also complicated for Portland’s middle and upper middle classes. Across all income groups, rents have increased 63%, but salaries only 39% in the last decade. Long time homeowners have gained substantial and exciting new equity, but too often their children cannot afford to live--or raise their grandchildren--nearby. Young adults are living with their parents into their 30s. And Portland’s competitive advantage as a location for tech startups and tech satellite branches--one important source of our recent economic growth--decreases as our cost of living rises, threatening to stifle further growth.

What information does the city need to make decisions that are fair?

Focus on need for data to make decisions. What we’ve done is a start, but with subsidies we could do so much more. State of Housing tells us Portland is unaffordable for people of color, seniors, most working families.

This offers opportunities for existing homeowners, and for those who have access to the growing segments of the city's job market. At the same time, it further disadvantages those without wages or wealth, particularly people of color, who face inequities in education and discrimination in the workplace and who have historically been excluded from homeownership as an avenue for building wealth. While the growth in jobs, rents, and housing is expected to stabilize or even fall slightly in the near term, how can Portland’s housing policies help create a city where equity, affordability, and inclusiveness help drive sustained and sustainable economic growth?

The title of our project, “Opportunity/Cost,” is a pun on the classical economic concept of opportunity cost, or the opportunities we lose when we make an unexamined choice of one option over another because it is familiar or comfortable. What economic opportunities are lost when housing costs make Portland out of reach for seniors, for people of color, for those working low-wage and increasingly even middle-income jobs? How might regulatory changes that drive down the cost of middle income housing entice companies to locate in Portland and fuel the small business innovation that makes Portland a vibrant place to live? When we consider equity in housing policy, what weight should we give to the needs of existing residents? But also, what weight should we give to the needs and desires of those who come to Portland seeking opportunity? [Maybe: how do we weigh the needs and desires of those who come to Portland seeking opportunity against the very different needs and interests of existing residents who have and have not shared in the opportunities of the last decade.]

Reasonable people can and do disagree vehemently about the desirability, causes, and potential solutions to housing affordability. Here is a guide to some of what has been happening in Portland--because knowing what’s going on is the first step.