Housing

Portland is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. As the only law school in the Portland metropolitan area, our students have a myriad of opportunities for work, externship, and networking while in school.

When not studying, students can enjoy the city itself or get away to the coast or skiing on Mt. Hood in just over an hour.

Rental & Roommate Listings

word protected for incoming 1L sAre you looking for a roommate or want to be someone’s roommate? Looking for a place to rent just yourself? Or perhaps, you have a good place locally and are looking to share? Check out our law student roommate listings, rental listings (submitted by the public), or post your own. 

  Rental Listings   Roommate Listings

Post a Rental Listing Post a Roommate Listing

All rental and roommate listings are password protected for incoming 1L students. Login information is available by request for students following Orientation in August.

Please contact lawadmss@lclark.edu with any questions or to request login information.

Off-Campus Housing for All Law Students

The College partners with Utopia Property Management to offer housing options conveniently close to the law school and are rented by the room. For more information or to learn about the availability of rooms contact Utopia Property Management at portland@utopiamanagement.com. Current tenants of Off-Campus Housing should first contact Utopia Property Management, in writing, with any questions or concerns. If Utopia is not able to answer the question or resolve the issue within a reasonable time, please contact Billy Walker, Program Director & Special Assistant to CFO & VP for Operations at Lewis & Clark College, at bwalker@lclark.edu.

More Information

Most students live within a three-mile radius of the law school. The campus is located in a suburban setting in southwest Portland. There are apartments and houses to rent in the area as well as some campus-owned housing specifically for law students. The school operates free shuttles to take students downtown to connect to the public transportation hub. Additional information regarding shuttles is included in the transportation section of this website.

Also, check out the latest edition of our Portland Housing Guide to learn where the majority of our students live.

The Housing Listings page is password-protected. As an admitted student, you will receive a password to this page separately. The housing listings are provided to the law school by the general public. This site is one of the best places to find housing in Portland.

NOTE: Most rentals available in August will be posted starting in May. Many students will not begin posting roommate postings until May or later as well, once the semester has concluded.

If you find someone compatible with you, get in touch and go from there! Another way to meet future roommates is by looking on our housing listings for shared housing, by attending Orientation functions during the summer, or through the Facebook Admitted Student Group page found on the homepage of Inside L&C

Campus-owned houses have rooms available specifically to law students. Houses are within easy walking distance to the law school and are rented by the room. For questions about campus-owned houses contact Tangent Property Management at 503-594-2101 or nelson@tangentpm.com. Current tenants of college owned housing should first contact Tangent Property Management, in writing, with any questions or concerns. If Tangent is not able to answer the question or resolve the issue within a reasonable time, please contact Billy Walker, Program Director & Special Assistant to CFO & VP for Operations at Lewis & Clark College, at bwalker@lclark.edu. Website: http://www.tangentpm.com/rental_listings

Limited on-campus housing is available. Nine single rooms in Edna Holmes residence hall are available to law students on a space-available basis. Holmes Hall is located on the undergraduate campus and within easy walking distance to the law school. Questions should be directed to Campus Living at 503-768-7123 or living@lclark.edu.

Most students come in late July or early August. If you don’t have a place before arrival, we recommend coming at least two weeks before Orientation. By arriving two weeks early, you should have time to find housing, get utilities set up, explore the area, or participate in our Summer Institute program which happens in early August.

Portland is divided into quadrants:

  • Northwest (NW)
  • Southwest (SW)
  • Northeast (NE)
  • Southeast (SE)

Each quadrant has its own distinct flavor. The Willamette River divides the east and west sides. A street called “Burnside” divides north and south. So, if you are in the Northwest quadrant of town you are north of Burnside Street and west of the Willamette River. The Willamette, by the way, flows north to the Columbia River which divides Washington and Oregon. The Columbia is the river Lewis and Clark floated down to the Pacific. Most LC students live near school (SW Portland), with Lake Oswego, NW Portland, and SE Portland (Sellwood and Hawthorne) as the most popular alternatives.

In each section below, you’ll find descriptions of various Portland neighborhoods (with comments from students who live there) to help you select where you might want to live.

We also recommend checking out the Redfin Portland Neighborhoods Guide for even more information about neighborhoods & renting in Portland.

We are not able to specifically recommend or endorse any of these websites or companies - they are listed simply as resources. We would appreciate feedback, particularly if you have difficulties.

  • www.padmapper.com - PadMapper is like Google with map interactivity for finding apartment and home rentals. This site can give you a median rent comparison for your search returns, and you can set up email notifications for new postings. Monitoring those notifications and updates can be helpful in spotting rent trends for specific neighborhoods. You can also type in the school’s address and it will show you the Craigslist postings in relation to where the law school is located.
  • www.oregonlive.com - rental search and information about Portland neighborhoods (under “Rentals”).
  • www.movingtoportland.net - developed by a local realtor, this site provides excellent descriptions of the Portland neighborhoods.
  • portland.craigslist.org - Comprehensive listings for various things in the Portland community, including housing. For housing found on craigslist, be prepared for competition.
  • www.wweek.com - Weekly local online publication with rental classifieds.
  • www.move.com - pictures and information primarily regarding buying or renting houses.
  • www.myapartmentmap.com - find housing near a zip code (ours is 97219). The site lists grocery stores, laundromats, and other amenities nearby.
  • www.forrent.com - pictures and a program that allows you to search by zip code, city, and by distance from a specific address.
  • www.apartmentratings.com - Provides listings and rankings/comments from current or past residents about various apartment complexes.
  • www.placeofmine.com - Authentication required. A service that integrates apartments for rent from thousands of online sources. You can search by different conditions (rent, number of bedrooms, city etc.) The results include links back to the original websites for more information.
  • www.apartmentguide.com - National apartment search which primarily gives info on larger apartment complexes.
  • For pet-friendly housing, you may also want to check out the Oregon Humane Society which has a list of pet-friendly housing rentals in the area.

We are not able to specifically recommend or endorse any of these services as we have not had sufficient experience with them. We would appreciate feedback if you use any of the services, particularly if you have difficulties. It is best to contact such a service after you arrive or just before. The service will mail or fax you names of landlords, addresses, and descriptions of the housing units, and the prices. These services handle large commercially owned and operated complexes and some private rentals.

Renters should be informed of their rights under Tenant Law before signing a lease or entering a new rental situation.

If you are considering buying a house in Portland, there are a couple of very helpful websites that can help you locate listed houses and get specific information about them.

  • www.rmls.com - allows you to search in various cities, counties, and zip codes in Oregon for houses that are for sale. You can also search by price, square feet, number of bedrooms, etc. Most listings have short descriptions and pictures of the homes.
  • www.redfin.com - allows you to search the types of homes (townhomes, condos, land, etc.) and the site also allows you to search for agents.
  • www.portlandmaps.com - if you know the address of the house for sale, you can enter it here and the site will give you details on the market value of the house, sales taxes, schools and parks in the area, crime statistics and more.

Transportation

Our Transportation and Parking webpage can help you find the best options for parking on campus, commuting, finding alternate transportation solutions, and will ensure you can abide by our transit regulations while you’re here. 

Carpooling Options

Interested in carpooling, but don’t know how to connect with fellow travelers? Find out about ways to carpool in Portland and to campus.