In her victory speech on election night, newly reelected Gov. Tina Kotek said she will focus her second term on making key services, particularly housing, “more available and more affordable.”
Yet one month earlier, the nine-member panel Kotek appointed to oversee billions of dollars in state housing funds approved what appears to be the most expensive subsidized housing development in Oregon history.
Specifically, the Oregon Housing Stability Council voted Oct. 2 to spend $30 million more on a project it first funded in 2022. That brought the project’s total cost to $56.2 million, or almost $1 million per apartment, for an affordable housing development in North Portland formerly known as Minnesota Place and now called Monarca…