Portland’s largest public housing provider is staring down a fast-approaching cash crunch that could mean selling buildings, cutting staff and pulling back services. Internal financial documents and tenant accounts describe a system under strain, with rising vacancies, higher day-to-day costs and several properties that no longer pay their own way. Residents in some complexes say they are already feeling the fallout in slipping security and slower maintenance, even as city officials and advocates scramble to keep an essential affordable housing network from unraveling.
Board Packet Lays Out a Big Red Number
In a packet presented to commissioners last Tuesday, Home Forward projected a net operating loss of about $30.8 million for the coming fiscal year and identified a $28.0 million change in overall financial position that will have to be managed. Staff told the board they expect to lean on reserves and one-time proceeds from property sales to close the near-term hole, while they study longer-term revenue options and prepare a detailed revenue study for commissioners. The same materials spell out program tradeoffs and a plan to shrink staff and limit some discretionary spending as the agency navigates the year. See the February board presentation in materials published by Home Forward.
As detailed in documents released by Home Forward.
Property-Level Stress Cracks Start to Show
Independent reporting points to growing stress inside the portfolio. Records reviewed by Willamette Week show that as of September 2025, twenty-three of thirty-eight buildings with required debt coverage tests failed to meet lender coverage ratios. At one property the recorded debt service coverage ratio, or DSCR, was about 0.12, which is far below typical covenant thresholds. The outlet also found unusually high vacancy rates at several sites and relayed multiple tenant accounts of crime and disorder that managers say are expensive to address. Those operational pressures, including falling rent revenue combined with rising insurance and security costs, are the main drivers of the financial gap Home Forward is now trying to close.
As reported by Willamette Week.
Why DSCR Trouble Sets Off Lender Alarm Bells
Mortgage documents and prospectuses spell out how central DSCRs are to lender covenants. If coverage stays too low for too long, lenders can trigger reserve draws, clamp down on cash distributions and use other remedies that limit an owner’s flexibility. SEC-filed mortgage prospectuses describe how underwritten DSCRs are used to assess refinance and repayment risk across groups of cross-collateralized loans. When several buildings underperform at once, the financing for the whole portfolio can weaken, which leaves an owner with fewer options to borrow for repairs or to bridge operations while occupancy recovers…