The city of Portland will pay homeowners $1,000 – or more – if they rent out rooms as part of a new homeshare program championed by Mayor Keith Wilson as part of his campaign to address the city’s dual housing and homelessness crises.
The idea is an outcrop of private initiatives that have been around for years. In Portland, the Home Share Oregon nonprofit spearheaded getting homeowners to rent to roommates but faltered amid financial troubles last year.
Wilson has pushed for the municipalization of home-sharing, successfully urging the Portland City Council to carve out $500,000 in the budget for his program during tense budget negotiations last year…