The rising cost of housing in Portland continues to be one of the foremost challenges facing the city.

The City Council voted last October to extend its “housing emergency” declaration, allowing the city to fast-track building permits for affordable housing projects, among other measures. The council continues to work on a renter’s rights policy.

"There's more we need to do to stabilize the systems that impact housing and homelessness in our community," Mayor Ted Wheeler said. "This is an emergency that requires action now."

To help meet that challenge, the Housing Bureau last month asked for $800,000 a year to run the new Office of Renter Services. It's also seeking, among other requests, $500,000 in ongoing funding to help low-income homeowners stay in their homes.

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The need for such action has become undeniable for many Portlanders. The 2017 International Housing Affordability Survey by the St. Louis-based public-policy consulting firm Demographia found Portland to be the ninth most unaffordable housing market in the country, tied with Seattle.

"Folks are really struggling to make ends meet," Neighborhood Partnerships spokeswoman Alison McIntosh told The Oregonian's Elliot Njus last June. "If you pay more than 30 percent of your income for housing, you don't have enough left over for basic necessities."

The Portland Housing Bureau put out its most recent “State of Housing in Portland” report in December 2016, showcasing the growing problem.

“Rents and home prices continue to rise, and housing instability and involuntary displacement are a constant presence for far too many Portlanders,” Commissioner Dan Saltzman wrote in the forward to the report.

Below are some of the key findings:

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Mayor Ted Wheeler

Average 2016 monthly rent in Portland (and change from previous year):

Studio apartment: $1,169 (+3.0 percent)

One-bedroom: $1,328 (+12.4 percent)

Two-bedroom: $1,520 (+18.2 percent)

Three-bedroom: $1,562 (+14.7 percent)

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“Rents for 1-, 2-, and- 3-bedroom apartments have increased in every neighborhood in the city,” the report states. “With the exception of the St. Johns and Hillsdale-Multnomah-Barbur neighborhoods, a Portland renter looking for a 1-bedroom apartment with an average rent below $1,000 per month will likely need to look east of 60th avenue.”

Northwest Portland remained the most expensive part of the city for renters, with average rent for one-bedroom apartments going for $1,618 and two bedrooms going for $2,585.

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“Three-person extremely low income” households (median income $19,800) could afford rent in only two neighborhoods (Gateway and Parkrose-Argay) and then only for studio apartments, the report found. (“Affordable housing” refers to units that cost a resident 30 percent or less of their gross income for rent and utilities.)

The average senior household (median income $37,469) had trouble finding affordable rental units in most neighborhoods, with their best bets often coming in the outer East, Montavilla, MLK-Alberta, St. Johns and Gateway neighborhoods.

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Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, housing advocate

Low-income residents weren’t the only ones who had trouble finding rental options that took up less than 30 percent of their monthly income.

Even “3-person moderate income” households (median income $52,800) struggled to find affordable rental units in many neighborhoods. The average such household was mostly priced out of one- and- two-bedroom units in neighborhoods such as the Central City, Forest Park-Northwest Hills, Northwest, Belmont-Hawthorne-Division, South Portland-Marquam Hill and even the Interstate Corridor.

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Portland’s 2016 rental market by the numbers:

20: percent of rental households that are shared (roommates, boarders, etc.)

26: percent of rental households with at least one person with a disability

44: percent of renters who moved within the past two years

45: percent of households that are renting

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52: percent of renter households that are “cost-burdened” (they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent)

70.06: percent of black households that are renting

67.99: percent of Latino households that are renting

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Commisioner Dan Saltzman

How difficult was it for renters to become homeowners in Portland in 2016? The Housing Bureau report listed only eight neighborhoods that qualified as affordable for the average Portland household (median income $53,230). They are:

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122nd-Division

Centennial-Glenfair-Wilkes

Gateway

Hayden Island

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Lents-Foster

Parkrose-Argay

Pleasant Valley

St. Johns

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More

Read the report.