15 small houses squeezed onto two-thirds of an acre

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Above in purple framing is the before and simulated outcome of 15 new small houses subsidized by taxpayers at a rate of about 30% of total construction cost.

Cons: (1) There is no parking provided on-site, causing the inevitable wall of parked cars on the adjacent street, namely, Harvey.  The nearby section of Harvey has limited on-street parking already, but the City of Milwaukie plans to narrow Harvey, eliminating existing surplus parking spaces.

  (2)  Relies on housing bond / property tax subsidies.  Those homeowners who are not eligible to be tenants of these subsided housing units, will fall closer to the edge of living affordability because they are subsidizing the few lucky ones getting subsidized housing.  As a result, these government subsidized "affordable" housing projects actually cause some people to have to sell their homes to meet their other costs of living, as increasing taxes reduce net income for folks living on the lower edges of the middle class.  

 (3)  An existing home will be demolished to make way for the 15 new small house units.  So, the actual net gain is 14 homes, not 15.

(4) These small cottage cluster homes will share the lot together through a Home Owner association.  Homeowner Associations typically charge for taking care of the common grounds.

(5) I would bet that after a period of time each of these small houses become rentals, rather than owner occupied.  They are intended to start out as owner occupied.  To be eligible to purchase one of these small homes, the bidder must have income less than 80% of the median level of income for Oregon.

Pros:  As private property these newly constructed tiny homes should yield more in property tax proceeds for the City of Milwaukie, so as to bring more public safety dollars with their construction, so as to help fund a proportionate number of police and fire emergency staff.

(posted by Elvis Clark on November 3, 2024)