Scam smell strengthens around county "urban renewal" pork (Jack Bog's Blog)

Using "urban renewal" money to build buildings that aren't going to pay property taxes is bad enough. But now it turns out that when Multnomah County erects a new health department building in Old Town Portland, a huge fee is going to be paid to a well connected low-income housing outfit, formerly called Housing Authority of Portland (HAP) and now catchily relabeled "Home Forward." Problem: There isn't going to be any housing in the building.

Home Forward is another shadowy government agency of some kind, like Tri-Met or the Port of Portland, with much less visibility but with all sorts of money sloshing through it. Apparently Home Forward has the power under state law to build community health facilities, but it's mostly supposed to be about low-income housing. And it's certainly unusual for such organizations to be building office buildings on contract for someone else. If government is going to run general contractor businesses on the side, it's hard to see how private companies, who have to pay taxes on their profits, can compete.

In any event, the fact that Home Forward can get a cushy contract for this project without a competitive bid indicates to us that there's something not right about the way local government does business in Portlandia.

Comments (6)

"there's something not right about the way local government does business in Portlandia"

Runner up for understatement of the year. I love Portland, but I hate the way our "leaders" are taking us for a ride.

Posted by jmh | November 1, 2012 10:13 AM

homeforward is a govt agency set up by cop. they basically pass out hud money like individual section 8 and hud grants.

they are biggest landlord in Portland.

Posted by Steve | November 1, 2012 10:26 AM

Shennagins like this are another example of why the PDX metro area needs a well funded Citizens League or Good Government League which will take local governments to court repeatedly over stuff like this.

Anybody interested in helping fund such an entity?

Posted by Nonny Mousen | November 1, 2012 11:34 AM

Home Forward and Fish.

Posted by clinamen | November 1, 2012 12:15 PM

Government agency but their board meetings are not public. They do not adhere to the Oregon Open Metings Law or the Oregoh Public Records Law.

Posted by Mike in NE | November 1, 2012 5:25 PM

The main beneficiaries of government building scams like these are the builders/architects/consultants. Those holding the purse strings get to choose the contractors and get to keep their own lucrative jobs. All is well with crony capitalism as long as the money (that was never voted upon) keeps on coming.

Private builders/investors/owners are better able to create all manner of buildings from the smallest apartment to the largest warehouse or office and operate it profitably. In many cases, the government would do as well or better if they leased space in private buildings rather than having their own palaces built and paid for with OPM. That incentive to make a profit keeps costs low and the property stays on the tax rolls. The same problems can exist with any deal though. Someone needs to make sure there aren't any no-bid deals with investors and contractors ahead of time and gov. budgets are kept LOW.

Posted by Honest Landlord | November 2, 2012 10:56 AM

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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Scam smell strengthens around county "urban renewal" pork

Comments (6)

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