Home Forward’s Real Estate Portfolio Is Fast Approaching Financial Distress

Portland’s Home Forward housing authority is approaching financial distress, with its debt service coverage ratio plummeting from 2.36 in 2020 to 1.14 in 2024—barely above the 1.1 breaking-even threshold required by most lenders. The agency, which owns about 7,000 affordable units, is struggling with units taking an average of 185 days to fill, nearly half of tenants being more than 30 days delinquent on rent, and $8.4 million in lost revenue from vacancies in 2025, forcing it to make interagency loans to cover struggling properties. Despite a projected $30 million budget deficit, Home Forward’s top four executives received salary increases ranging from 59% to 74% between 2022 and 2025, with CEO Ivory Mathews’s compensation rising from $215,001 to $342,849.