It Takes Home Forward 185 Days on Average to Fill an Apartment at One of Its Buildings

Home Forward, Portland’s housing authority, takes an average of 185 days to fill vacant units in its buildings, according to new data, with its contractor Pinehurst Management averaging 292 days—a timeline affordable housing developers call “egregious” given the city’s housing crisis where 7,500 people sleep homeless nightly. Mayor Keith Wilson, who has recently focused attention on Home Forward’s 11% vacancy rate, is working to strengthen coordination with housing providers to speed up unit turnover, though he does not directly control the agency’s operations. The lengthy turnover times stem from extensive unit repairs, marketing processes, and waitlist management, even as Home Forward continues rapidly developing new affordable housing projects with units at 60% area median income—the same type it struggles to fill.