Apartment Help (Portland, Gresham, Beaverton: low income, apartments, rental)

[OlderCouple]

Hi, We are an older couple moving to Portland next May (from the Northeast). My husband is only two years from collecting Social Security but has to stop working due to his health. The accountant told him not to file for disability as he will do much better on Social Security, so we will be living on my salary of $30,000 for two years.

I work at home so I am not restricted to a particular neighborhood. We do not drive and need to be within 1 block of a bus route (he walks with chronic pain). It would be great if a grocery store and Walgreens were nearby. We love to keep our windows open so a neighborhood that is somewhat safe for an older couple is a concern. We have a small fox terrier mix (15 lbs.). We have always lived modestly and do not need any extras. We cannot travel to Portland before moving - I am afraid of flying so we will be taking Amtrak.

I would appreciate any help that you can provide. We are looking for a two bedroom apartment so I can set up one for writing.

[Leisesturm]

Alphabet District? Walgreen's and Fred Meyer at 21st & Burnside. Trader Joe's at 21st and Glisan. Lots of older apartment buildings around. Live on the 2nd floor and you can leave your windows open.

H

[aroseinrain]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

Alphabet District? Walgreen's and Fred Meyer at 21st & Burnside. Trader Joe's at 21st and Glisan. Lots of older apartment buildings around. Live on the 2nd floor and you can leave your windows open.

H

I bet they can't live on the 2nd floor because of the gentleman's chronic pain (stairs...).

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by aroseinrain

I bet they can't live on the 2nd floor because of the gentleman's chronic pain (stairs...).

Elevators? Surely they have retrofitted those classic apartment buildings with 'lifts'?

H

[Nell Plotts]

You need to explore your options factoring in your budget. Portland Housing Authority has apartments for low income seniors, for example. Beyond that your are searching for housing with the rest of the population.

My favorite is the Vista St. Clair. They seem to cater to seniors.

[OlderCouple]

Thank you for your suggestions. Aroseinrain, you are right, my husband cannot climb stairs.

I looked at the apartments that were online in the area of 21st and Burnside. Most only offered studios and 1 BR. The one that I found with 2 BR was way out of our budget.

I checked with the Portland Housing Authority but their help is limited to seniors 65 and older, and I think they were the ones with restricted income housing. It will be 2 more years until DH qualifies for Social Security and, personally, we would rather pay our own way than live off the taxpayers in restricted income housing. We've always paid our own way.

The Vista St. Clair looks very nice and everything is close by. I would definitely like to live there. I'll have to figure out if I can afford the rent. It's the first time that we will be living on just my salary and, being self-employed, I pay both parts of social security.

I have one more question. Is there a website I can go to for the average price of groceries and utilities? Some of the apartments do not include water and others have electric heat. Once I have an idea of prices, I can do a budget and concentrate on apartments that we can afford. We have electric heat in our current apartment and all of the heavy snow last winter killed the budget - $650 in January and close to that amount in February.

Again, thank you for taking the time to help.

[philwithbeard]

Older Couple:

Portland's Kroger grocery stores is call Fred Meyers. You can go to Freddie's web page and check out their local ads. Use Zip Code 97212 which is for the Portland's Hollywood neighborhood. (Hollywood neighborhood starts at NE Broadway and 42nd street, get it??? )

Safeway also has a large share of the Grocery business in Portland. Note: Safeway offers home delivery, for a charge of course; but not that much when compared to a taxi ride.

In general, food prices and more importantly meat prices, in Portland is moderately high, but a lot of that is in comparison to where you live now.

Portland gets a lot of electricity from a dam on the fast flowing Columbia river, thus our electric utility rate is most likely cheaper than what you are paying now. And due to the mild temperatures, a whole lot of apartments in Portland only have electric baseboard heat, no forced air heating needed. Ground never freezes; roads get ice covered but only for a short while until ice melts. Figure heating cost for winter months for 2 bdrm apartment to be less than $100 per month, and most likely closer to $80.00 per month if you wear a sweater.

Aside: Due to the rainy and damp winter months, I have found running a dehumidifier allows my bath towels to dry for the next day, and I can have spaghetti and live comfortably without the steam bath effect. However, the Dehumidifier raises my electric bill a noticeable amount.

Portland area only needs an air-conditioner for maybe 15-20 days per year. Last two years have been warmer than NOAA weather service statistics. YMMV on need of an air-conditioner of course. Normal July-September weather is dry with a 30 degree temp swing from Dawn to Mid-afternoon heat. (60 degrees to 90 degrees, that dry.)

IMO, Portland is safe. This is in comparison to other places I have lived. If your comparison is to a rural rural community, an urban place like Portland may have more crime. I mention this because your rental budget for the Portland area means you will have to seek out lower income housing area for a couple of years, I'm afraid to say. Portland's rental prices are to a large degree supply-demand driven with desirable neighborhoods and closeness to Mass Transit driving up the prices. Spectacular window views of Mt Hood are out of you price range, trust me.

If you use craigslist dot com for checking out apartment prices, across the top of the Portland page, there are some tabs. MLT is for Multnomah County which is mostly city of Portland and a few small other places. 'burb counties are WSC for Washington County (Beaverton, Hillsboro) and CLK for a large (mostly) agricultural county called Clackamas where many suburbs to the south and southwest of Portland are. Clark county is north of the Columbia river in Washington state. The other counties are further away from Portland.

Your price range will put you on the East side of the city of Portland. And most likely east of 50th street. I recommend you also stay West of SE 122 st, unless you go actually into Gresham. Also Stay north of SE Division street out past SE 82nd street. The areas I am suggesting to avoid are still safe, just more of a double fisted drinking areas.

The area I do suggest will be the Montavilla neighborhood, and specifically between SE Washington and NE Glisan within your comfort walking distance of the Safeway on SE 82nd street and E Burnside. Lots of small apartment buildings (16 units or less) scattered around. Many walk home from that Safeway pushing their in-store grocery carts home and leaves the carts by their apt building. Sub-contractor truck comes through entire neighborhood twice a week and fetches the carts and returns them to the store. This occurs in other Portland neighborhoods also. This area has a broad range of racial mixture (white, Asians, Blacks, Native Americans, Russian refugees, etc.) all seeking inexpensive housing. Very good bus service.

You only need to live very, very modestly for a couple of years, correct?

Phil

PS: Sorry for the long post.

[Nell Plotts]

In the Vista St. Clair neighborhood there is also the King Tower, 735 St. Clair and 2020 Building apartment buildings. Comments at Apartment Reviews dot com make me hesitate to recommend the King Tower, however.

Homes with a west exposure are hotter in the summer, by the way.

Using Google Maps as a tool you can see transit, grocery stores and apartment building names - even sometimes ratings (reliable?). Using that the Lloyd Place Apartments would be worthy of a look (elevator, near a Safeway, shopping center, and not far from the MAX).

If your husband can't climb stairs he may qualify as a person with a disability. On that basis you could be eligible for the Station Place apartments, operated by the housing authority of Portland. I know someone who lived there and in my opinion the floor plans are awkward. My other issue is that your neighbors are a mixed bag, not at all unsafe but for many life has been a struggle. If you can manage an other than a HAP building you will probably be happier.

A almost all of the newer apartment buildings have units set aside for persons with a disability, don't overlook the fact that climbing in & out of a bathtub doesn't get easier as we age. The complicating issue is that most of the units are likely to be one bedroom.

[Green Irish Eyes]

Have a look at the Housing Connections website, which allows you to search by area, price and accessibility.

Best of luck to you!

[Nell Plotts]

I checked the Housing Connections website, if you can swing The Morrison (1959 SW Morrison) rent ($885 for a 2 bedroom) it will meet all your needs.

Right on light rail stop, there is a Walgreens and Fred Meyer within a couple blocks. Perfect!