Amazing to read that taxpayer-subsidized abatements for developers in Vancouver are based on $92,000 average income of Portland (“City eyes housing tax exemption,” The Columbian, Nov. 28). Vancouver’s average is $64,000 where the apartments are being built. The article should be titled “How we keep rents up so developers get rich.”
Basing rents on incomes from another area will push that rent far higher. Perhaps New York City rents, anyone? To read the developers’ websites you would think it’s a noble effort on their part, not a profit-making scheme subsidized by taxpayers whose reward is higher rents. Only 20 percent of the units need be affordable yet it appears developers get tax abatement on the whole works. The Vancouver City Council is using other areas to base abatements on. Portland apartments are not Vancouver apartments.
