Portland is launching a pilot program aimed at persuading homeowners to rent out their spare rooms for cash.

Why it matters: The city is grappling with a severe shortage of affordable housing and rising rents, prompting leaders to try tapping underused space in existing homes.

State of play: The one-year program, beginning this month and run by the Portland Housing Bureau, offers a $1,000 one-time grant to homeowners who rent a room to low-income tenants through one of two approved home-share providers.

• To qualify, the room must be in the owner's primary residence, rented to the same tenant for at least one month and not leased to a relative.
• Homeowners can receive another $500 for each additional room they rent.
• Mayor Keith Wilson pushed for the pilot program during budget negotiations last year, securing $500,000 to get it up and running as city leaders worked to fill a sizable budget gap, per the Oregonian.

Homeowners must use either PadSplit or the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon as their home-share provider.

Yes, but: Homeowners cannot require a security deposit and cannot charge more than $200 a week or $800 a month, including utilities and fees.

• A full list of the stipulations and requirements is available here.

Between the lines: The idea isn't new. Several private initiatives have tested home sharing in Portland in recent years.

• Most recently, the nonprofit Home Share Oregon suspended operations in December amid financial struggles.

What they're saying: "As we work together to solve our housing crisis, the City of Portland is exploring creative solutions to activate existing housing that may be underutilized," Wilson said in a statement.

• "For many Portlanders, home sharing is a win-win solution, helping homeowners to supplement their incomes while providing low-income tenants with affordable housing options," Wilson said.

What's next: The city plans to offer classes on local rental codes and how to navigate interpersonal issues with roommates starting next month.

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Winters are getting shorter across most U.S. cities amid climate change, but not in Portland.

• That's per a new analysis based on temperatures rather than calendar dates from Climate Central, a climate research group.

Driving the news: Compared to the 1970-1997 period, winters are now shorter in 80% of the 245 U.S. cities analyzed in the report.

• Among those 195 cities, winter lasts for nine fewer days on average.

Yes, but: Portland has bucked the trend, with four more days of temperature-defined winter, per the analysis.

• And we're not the only ones: On the California coast, Eureka's winters are now 50 days longer, while those in Monterey are 46 days longer.

Context: Winter has shortened the most in Juneau (62 days) and Anchorage (49 days), "consistent with exceptionally rapid warming in Alaska and other high-latitude locations," per the report.

• Among continental U.S. cities, Miami's winters have shortened the most (38 days).

How it works: Climate Central defined "winter" as the coldest 90 days of the year in a row during the 1970-1997 period, then compared the frequency of those temperatures during the 1998-2025 period.

• That temperature-based approach is different from the way seasons are traditionally defined by calendar dates.

The big picture: The report comes as millions of Americans in other parts of the country are enduring a frigid, icy winter.

• Meanwhile, those of us in the West are staring down a snow drought that has hampered winter recreation and could have big implications for summer wildfires and water supplies.

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