A home-sharing pilot program Mayor Keith Wilson launched in conjunction with the Portland Housing Bureau earlier this year is off to a dismally slow start.
The program—in which the city writes a $1,000 check to Portland homeowners who list spare bedrooms for rent on particular platforms including the Atlanta-based PadSplit—has so far received just five applications in four months.
When Wilson launched the program in February, he said it could be “one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways we’ve ever provided housing to Portlanders” and that it would “remove barriers and unlock housing” for renters in need of affordable rooms. He characterized the pilot as just one piece of a multi-pronged plan to increase affordable housing across Portland and to end unsheltered homelessness…