4/29/2024 0 Comments Milo apartments redmondAnd that was basically so people who didn’t live there and didn’t have a key could still get in. What I observed first was the entry door to one of the buildings was sort of propped open with a garden hose. Miller : What was visible on the inside? What did you see? But a lot of it, when you get inside, it’s just sort of fallen into disrepair or needs a little TLC. They still look new, and there are a lot of nice features. The buildings are colorful and a few of the main rooms, like where the property manager’s office is located, they’re tidy. What is Argyle Gardens like from the outside when you visit right now? Miller : And that’s one of the reasons, one of the big reasons that local governmental and nonprofit leaders were so excited about this model when it opened. So there really is a huge cost savings when you’re using this modular design with shared amenities. Those shake out to about $423,000 per unit. Comparatively, places like the Hattie Redmond, which is also a deeply affordable property they have studio-only apartments, meaning each tenant gets their own kitchen and bathroom. I think that shakes out to about $169,000 per unit if you’re talking about construction costs. At this place, they were able to squeeze in about 71 units for under $12 million, which is pretty incredible. Miller : How does the cost per unit, how did it compare to developments where everyone has their own kitchen and bathroom ‒ a more standard version of apartment or condo living? They got some money from the Meyer Memorial Trust ‒ about $400,000 ‒ and then a personal loan or a private loan for about $730,000. And then the rest came from sources like Metro, I think Metro kicked in about $340,000. So those tax credits really helped them get this thing off the ground. Argyle Gardens was built with a lot of low- income housing tax credits, I think about $9 million or so, which is the bulk of the cost. Vaughn: So, funding came from a variety of sources, but most of it was public agencies. But where did the funding for this come from? Miller : All that was… were the promises… we’ll get to the reality in just a second. So theoretically it’s ‘move-in ready’, and then you’ve got amenities, like it offers secure bike storage, access to a full kitchen, and then a chance to build community with neighbors, which is something that you don’t really get if you’re living in a shelter. So if you’re someone who doesn’t have the money to furnish a place or you don’t have furniture of your own, it does come already equipped with a real small bed and a desk. There aren’t, as you know… we don’t have enough to accommodate everybody who needs housing.Īnother perk to Argyle Gardens is it’s really close to transit lines and it also offers basic furniture. If you have the opportunity to get a unit like this of any kind, you should probably take it. First being that deeply affordable housing like this is hard to come by. Vaughn: I think residents were drawn here for a number of reasons. Miller : And a lot of these were small efficiency units that had their own bathrooms and kitchens, but some of them were just simply bedrooms known as single room occupancy, ‘SROs.’ What made this appealing to residents? They wanted to be able to give folks a place that they could live in that was true housing to shelter, but be able to do so affordably. So it’s built to accommodate folks with very low incomes, which is why it was built with this modular design and a lot of cost efficiency. Vaughn: I think the idea here was to build housing that could support folks who were living in shelters but may be ready to move on to permanent supportive housing. So to start off, what was the idea behind Argyle Gardens? Miller : Thanks for joining us once again. Welcome back to the show.Ĭourtney Vaughn: Thank you. Courtney Vaughn reported on this as a news editor for the Portland Mercury. But just three years later, some tenants are fleeing, citing filthy conditions, assault and theft. One metro councilor called it a remarkable project that had driven down the cost of its housing units. It was hailed as a way to help some people out of homelessness. A new low- income apartment complex opened in North Portland in the summer of 2020. The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:ĭave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB.
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