TIGARD, Ore. (KOIN) — Lois Keck has lived at the Woodspring Apartments in Tigard for two decades. This complex was originally built in the early 90s as affordable housing for low-income senior citizens 55 and older.
“It’s my home. I had no idea that I’d ever be forced at 80-years-old to have to look for another place to live. That’s not why I moved here,” she told KOIN 6 News.
But the affordable housing protections had an expiration date. The tax credits subsidizing the affordability expired at the end of 2020.
On January 1, 2021, the residents of Woodspring Apartments received a letter from their property manager informing them that after a 3-year grace period (in accordance with Oregon state law), the rents would be moving to market rate — meaning the residents could see their rent go up 14.6% from $1,100 per month to an estimated $1,260 next year.
Residents also found out shortly after that the apartments would no longer only be for seniors, but vacant units would be marketed and rented to an all-ages demographic.
These seniors in Tigard have banded together, fighting for the past 3 years to save their affordable apartments.
“It’s just so unfortunate that an ideal situation for 172 apartment resident seniors have had to have their whole lives disrupted because a money monger wants to raise the rents and make this non-senior development,” said former tenant Jill Grossman, who left because of the impending rent hike.
Hamilton-Zanze (HZ), a private equity real estate investment firm based out of San Francisco, is the current owner of the complex, purchasing it in 2015. KOIN 6 News reached out to the owners to see if they’re considering more reasonable rent increases for their senior residents.
“Hamilton Zanze does not have a comment to offer at this time,” was their statement.
In the meantime, the state and Washington County have developed a pilot program in an attempt to help, offering $3,000 to the remaining tenants to cover the rent increase or moving costs.
“It’s really hard to know that this is what happens to folks when this affordability expires,” said Melissa Sonsalla, the Policy and Strategic Initiatives Coordinator for the Housing Authority of Washington County. “But we’re really hopeful that even if it’s not a perfect program, that it’s a step in the right direction toward helping these households find more stability.”
Meanwhile, Keck — who leads the Woodspring Tenants Association — said they were under the impression they’d receive this financial assistance last year and that it was closer to $5,000. She said they were hopeful the tenants who were forced out already, like Jill Grossman, would also be eligible to apply for the assistance due to their recent moving expenses.
“And all of that has not happened,” Keck said.
The funds are coming from the state, and through and intergovernmental agreement, Washington County is administering the program.
“We’ve been working on the assumption that this will be around $3,000, and we understand that there may have been some confusion amongst some folks,” said Hameed Evenson, the Housing Communications Coordinator of Washington County.
“We didn’t want to give them a false sense of security by lowering their rent when we didn’t have a guaranteed source of funding for more than a year,” Sonsalla added.
This has left decade-long tenants like Sondra Fry fearful for what the future holds.
“I’m 87 years old,” Fry said. “There’s no way I can physically pack up and move and I don’t know where I’d go if I did.”
Without any other living relatives, she is faced with hard choices. She recently gave up her car just to afford to live at Woodspring Apartments.
“I feel like God put me here and he’s either going to keep me here or take me home,” she said.
KOIN 6 News reached out to the state agency in charge of this pilot program. In part, the Oregon Housing & Community Services Department said:
“We recognize the concerns of the residents of Woodspring and their stress around paying future rent for a home. Our shared goal with Washington County is to provide clear next steps for resources available to help residents stay stably housed.”
But this scenario at Woodspring Apartments in Tigard is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of affordable housing units across Oregon will expire within the next decade.