'In-betweeners' make too much but can afford too little

By Fufkin Vollmayer

The Portland Tribune, Jun 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Deb DeMarco says she feels like she’s between a rock and a hard place.

The only way she thought she could get a house was through the Portland Community Land Trust. But because she earns just a bit over $38,000, or 80 percent of the median family income for a single person, the trust turned her down.

DeMarco says: “I have a master’s degree. I’ve been working in social services for 20 years, so my field is low-paying, and I have nothing to show for all my years of work.”

DeMarco is what real estate agents describe as an “in-betweener”: Her income level disqualifies her for many housing-assistance programs, but she isn’t earning enough to exercise much buying power in Portland’s escalating market.

She was laid off from her counseling job at a nonprofit center a few years ago. DeMarco is self-employed now and says she just can’t get ahead financially.

“I’m getting killed on business tax and business licensing, and when my income goes up, so do my taxes,” she says.

Despite this, DeMarco says she feels compelled to find a house. Her Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard duplex was just sold, and she thinks she may see either a big rent increase or an eviction notice in her future.

Added to this, DeMarco says, “I’m going to be 55, and retirement is looming.”

She says buying a house means significantly downsizing. She has a 1,000-square-foot apartment now, but she bid unsuccessfully on a “$126,000 one-bedroom that was 300 square feet in St. Johns” and that she called “claustrophobic.”

DeMarco says of her hunt: “I’m not giving up, and I’m hoping that I can find something.”

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