The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-10-21
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Homelessness and Housing Committee met on Tuesday, October 21, at 12:01 p.m., with roll called and a statement of conduct read. Committee minutes covering August 12 through September 23, 2025 were approved without objection. The committee then heard a presentation from Portland Permitting and Development regarding appointment and reappointment of members to the Development Review Advisory Committee (DRAC), including background on two candidates recommended for second terms and four recommended for first terms. Discussion covered DRAC's advisory role, its history of feedback on permitting issues such as the demolition ordinance, customer service in the permitting process, tree-preservation requirements, balancing environmental goals with affordability, regional economic development comparisons with Clark County, and residential infill challenges. Votes occurred on the motion to send the report to full council with a recommendation to accept; outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger. No one signed up for general public testimony on this item. During the open public testimony portion on homelessness and housing, six individuals spoke, addressing topics including shelter capacity expansion, housing placement and retention services, eviction prevention funding, anticipated HUD funding changes, the Housing First model, coordination between the City and Multnomah County, and shelter safety standards. The meeting adjourned at 1:14 p.m., with the next meeting scheduled for November 4.
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Procedural markers in this session
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0 Hey, Jamie, can you hear me?
1 I can hear you. Councilor Avalos.
2 Testing my sound. Can you guys hear me?
3 Yep. You're coming through.
4 Captions. One. Two. Three captions.
5 Let's do this thing. Good afternoon, friends. I called the meeting of the homelessness and housing committee to order. It is Tuesday, October 21st at 12:01 p.m. Diego, can you please call the roll?
6 Good afternoon. Zimmerman here.
7 Dunphy here.
8 Ryan. Morillo.
9 Avalos here. Can you guys hear me?
10 We can. Thank you.
Procedural episode · turns 11–19
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11 Excellent. Claire, can you please read the statement of conduct?
12 Good afternoon, and welcome to the meeting of the homelessness and housing committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda@Portland.gov council agenda, slash homelessness and housing committee. Or by calling 311. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise, your microphone will be muted when your time is over, the chair preserves order. Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, please state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. And finally, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
13 Thank you claire. Thank you diego. Colleagues, we have three things on our agenda today. We will be hearing a report from Portland permitting and development for the design review advisory council. We'll also be having some open some time on the agenda for open public testimony on homelessness and housing issues. But before we get to those items, we need to adopt committee minutes. Diego, will you please read the first item?
14 Item one August 12th, 2025 through September 23rd, 2025. Homelessness and housing committee minutes.
15 Today we are approving committee minutes for the meetings that took place in August and September. Minutes are approved by unanimous consent unless there are any objections. Colleagues, are there any objections to approving the minutes? Seeing none without objection, the minutes are approved. Diego, will you please read the second item?
16 Item two appoint and reappoint members to the development review advisory committee.
17 Portland permitting and development has a set of appointments and reappointments for the committee to consider for the drac, the development review development review advisory committee. I think I said design review earlier development review advisory committee. There's too many acronyms in this city, guys. I'm sorry, I'm going to be handing it over to deputy director hajiyev. Oh come on, Jamie hajiyev and ross caron from the housing. There we are. I apologize for screwing up your names, gentlemen. Take it away.
18 I'll share my screen. Okay. Okay.
19 Good afternoon. Council members. Elshad hajiyev, deputy director of Portland permitting and development and acting director. While david kronhausen is out of office. Joining me today is ross caron. He is the liaison to the development review advisory committee. We are here to request your approval of two draft members for a second three year term, and also your approval of four candidates to serve their first term on the track. Next slide please. This is the second time we've been in front of the homelessness and housing council committee about track. So I wanted to give you a little bit of a high level information about this committee. Rac was established in 2001 as a city's advisory body for permitting and development review. Track works to ensure that a timely, predictable and accountable development review process occurs and the fair and consistent application of development related regulations. Drag currently has 17 seats that represent a broad range of community development industry perspectives and interests. The committee's current membership is inclusive of and reflects the diversity of Portland communities, neighborhoods, and the development review. Industry members are appointed by the city council to serve three year term, with the option for reappointment for one additional three year term. Next slide please. As I mentioned in the introduction, we're here today to recommend the reappointment of two track members and the appointment of four new first first term members, two candidates for appointment to the second three year term are jennifer sandhaus, and she represents major facilities landowners and elizabeth gomez home remodelers seat. There are four candidates for new appointments to your first year term. Longjiang citywide neighborhood interests seat brian montano, environmental conservation and Green building seat seth otto neighborhood coalition, a land use committee seat. And mary o'mara planning commission seat. The appointments of jennifer and elizabeth will ensure continuity and works on permitting, development, review and ongoing process improvement efforts. The four new candidates will broaden representation and bring additional professional expertise and community perspectives, strengthening their capacity to help improve Portland permitting and development review process. And now I will turn presentation over to ross caron, our liaison to track.
20 Good afternoon, council members. As I just stated, my name is ross caron. I am the liaison to the development review advisory committee, also our section manager for our communications code and policy development teams. Today, I'll be sharing a little bit of background on each of the six candidates up for appointment, as well as some high level information on next steps. All of the candidates are with us here today. In person, we have seth, elizabeth and mary rae, and then virtually we have with us lorne, Ryan and jennifer. So I'm going to start with the two first term members that were recommended for second terms. As stated, jennifer sandhaus. She is a senior manager of construction project management at Portland general electric with 15 years of experience in retail transactions and development, she has a sense of familiarity with the city's land use and permitting processes, including reviews of electrical substations, transmission lines, operations centers and other similar type projects. She's also the former board member at of rose city park neighborhood association, is currently a board member at beaumont softball little league. Next is elizabeth gomez. Elizabeth has been the president of of bridge city contracting since 2014. She is a member of the hispanic metro chamber board, and has held roles as the remodelers chair of the building industry association of Clark county, and served as a board member of the national association of home builders and remodelers. She's an active remodeler who collaborates with government agencies on development issues that affect the latino community and small businesses. Her application for second term draft member is supported by the Portland home builders association. And that takes us to the four candidates that were recommending appointment to first term, starting with long john long is a licensed architect with ten years of experience experience and currently works at scott with scott edwards architecture. She also is experienced in assisting non-english speaking property and business owners through the city's permitting process, and is interested in helping to increase community understanding of permitting and development review processes. Next is brian montano. He's a licensed architect architect specializing in health focused, sustainable and ethical construction practices. He holds a master's degree in architecture from the Washington alexandria architecture center, and has certifications as a building biology new build consultant, as a certified passive house consultant, as well as as a living futures accredited professional. He's the founder of of architecture and has broad experience with the city's permitting and development review requirements and processes. And then the last two members for appointed that were recommended for appointment of first term is seth otto. Seth is a professional with 20 years experience in land use planning, sustainability, and community organization. He's the past. He's the past. Land use and livability chair for creston kenilworth neighborhood association and was active in southeast uplift coalition. He has a strong understanding of the land use processes, both from from the professional side as well as as a community member, and he also understands how voices can inform and improve, permitting land use review processes. Sorry, community voices and neighborhood voices can inform permitting, land use and development projects. And then finally, we have mary o'mara. Mary raine is the vice chair of the planning commission and is the senior director of community development at central city concern. Her career focuses on affordable housing and community revitalization in the Portland metro region, including master planning for large scale public housing projects, mixed use urban development, and adaptive reuse projects. Mary raine has been designated by the planning commission for her appointment to this seat. So that's the end of my highlight of the candidates that we have in front of you today. And I just want to pause here if there were any questions for the candidates. Yeah.
21 Councilor Zimmerman.
22 First for the staff. And then I think for the one of the candidates, some of the candidates have articulated what looks like maybe a role that they're playing. Are we going to go into that at all in terms of they represent this type of thing we want to see on the track is, is that an accurate statement?
23 They are appointed to seats based on background and experience. Yes.
24 And filling a specific seat like the environmental seat. The development seat. Yes. Business seat. Right.
25 Right. Correct.
26 So with that, my question is to brian montano. There's a little bit in terms of the environmental conservation and Green building and the answers that I'm trying to understand his perspective with respect to how drac might interplay with design review. And I asked that from the perspective of first, I'm interested in how can drac help us get to a place where we're able to develop more quickly, more efficiently? And I have a concern that we have placed some aspirational requirements on what would otherwise be some of our most affordable buildings, and I'm trying to get a perspective, if one could share their perspective for how to balance those needs. Is every building that we build because it's supported by public dollars. For instance, for the most affordable units, does it also need to be a leed platinum building? I'm trying to get some perspective and philosophy around that type of competing interests, and how one chooses to balance those.
27 All right. Thank you. So is this can I just answer directly like this okay. So I appreciate the question. In terms of my role on the committee or how I see it, whether or not like every building would need to meet some specific certification, whether it's leed or otherwise, I feel that would fall to the determination of like, if my job is to to give guidance as to whether or not the the building of the project in question is is serving the intent of what the city has set out to do or not. I mean, so I think it has to come from somewhere else, whether or not the city needs to determine if they want buildings to be leed platinum. But where I'm trying to get to is Portland is set a lot of goals that have been. Very audacious in terms of what they're setting out. And I agree with the intent of almost all of those. And I think from the practical practicality side, which I think is what you're getting at, is to try to understand where things are, are the goals are being the goals are being set, are too far ahead of where we actually need to get to, and if if the city sets something like a specific measure in place, then my job would be to to determine whether or not that that project was in line with that. But I'm trying to take a seat back from like where my my personal stance is, which is I want things to be incredibly Green and really looking and tracking at where the materials and everything is coming from, but also make sure that it's something that can be buildable and actually serve the needs of the community, because otherwise we end up in a place of not having any development which isn't serving. I think the ultimate goals.
28 Brian, thanks for that answer very much. Appreciate. That's a thoughtful response to very competing sometimes and complicated priorities. So I really appreciate you being on to answer that to the staff. I can you please clarify for me again, does this body. Merely advise or do they have an approval position within the chain for a project.
29 Purely advisory body.
30 Purely advisory. And. I'd like to get a sense of the last time that they made significant recommendations in cleaning something up or making it easier for something to get built. Recently, the mayor and city council waived sdcs, for instance, but that was a top down approach. I'd like to know. It will give me an idea of whether or not the drac is feeding from the bottom up, so to speak. Here are the. I think, blue sky ideas that we think could change it versus is the drac operating in a fashion that they think, you know, we kind of got appointed with these things in mind. And our job is to keep things steady versus throw the whole damn thing out and tell us what needs to be fixed. Obviously, the way I've phrased that question, I have an approach, but I'm trying to get a sense for how much we get from the drac in terms of code revisions, if gutting of certain things is appropriate because they're they're in a position to really advise us. But I can't get a sense for like the last time I got like a drac memo that says, this is the thing that we think will help with this type of development in this neighborhood. Et cetera. Et cetera. I hope that kind of shows what I'm looking for a little bit.
31 We can get that information for you. Councilor top of my head. I do remember several years ago, prior to COVID, the demolition ordinance had a lot of feedback from drac. A lot of it came to the council from drac. So. But we will we will get you a more comprehensive list on that.
32 I think I'm going to actually pose that question. Maybe not to everybody, but I'm looking at three who are sitting in the room. I see three who are sitting in the room. I actually want to pose that question for like, how do you approach that work? Steady, steady as she goes. Small incremental changes or run at the wall as fast as you can so we can bust through it. And I'm hoping to get I want to know how that question lands with the three who I'm looking at that are standing here. I'd love it if you guys could answer that. It would help me a bit. To be fair, there's no right answer. I'm just trying to gauge, like, where are we all coming from? Right. These advisory panels, I think, are very important. And as I've grown into my seat, I'm also growing into like, what do I want to hear from members of the community who are coming to serve? So there's no right answer here. It just helps me get to know you a little bit better.
33 Great. Thank you so much for the question, councilor Zimmerman. For the record, my name is mary reno mayor. I'm the vice chair of the planning commission. I served as the chair of the planning commission prior to my role as vice chair. So I think I'm stepping into the drac with even an added layer of bringing the planning commission perspective to drac. I will say that at planning commission, our role is legislative. So it is a different perspective and role from the drac, which is advisory. But what I'm looking forward to is really bridging that legislative role with the drac. That's advisory. At planning commission. We're looking at high level and also kind of microscopic zoning change, but we're also discussing changes that have potentially the ability to unlock development potential. So an example is the housing regulatory relief package that we passed at planning commission a couple of years ago. And that was a process that I think, you know, on the ground. I'm interested to see if we are, in fact, realizing faster development approvals. Have we truly removed those barriers? Excuse me, to development that we were looking to achieve in that package? So I think it's a great question. I think on these committees, we're also balancing what's being brought forward to us as a city policy commitment. So as not being on track yet, I can say I'm looking forward to it and appreciate the question.
34 Hi, my name is elizabeth gomez and I am a builder and a remodeler, and we do quite a bit of business for the city of Portland. Several diverse projects which include the housing authority, we do commercial build outs, we do tenant improvement storefronts, restaurants, residential. So what I have primarily worked on for my first appointment is latinos make up about 40% of the construction industry, and they're very. Underrepresented. And what the city of Portland has done well is they have responded to this. And, you know, we've really been trying to prevent bad actors in the industry. And part of the way we've done that with the building department is all of the paperwork is now in spanish, and it's accessible. And so the applications are accessible. The instructions are accessible, and they're in other languages as well. And what we're seeing too is now there's a lot more inspectors who are bilingual, which is huge. So there's a lot of movement that we've had in that direction. The biggest thing in my industry wouldn't the biggest challenges that we're trying to address, of course, is affordable housing and zoning, but we're trying to. Really address how we can make adus possible for homeowners. And so there's still a lot of gridlock there. And we're trying to navigate that and figure that out as we move forward. But multi-generational living is huge, and a lot of people are priced out of homeownership opportunities. But beyond that, we have an aging population. The boomers are aging, and we don't have the housing to address that. And we don't have the modified homes to address that population. And adus is a great way to keep them aging in place in their home and with their families or friends. And so those are things that I would personally like to see. How can we move this forward and just make this an easier process?
35 Thanks. So I am proposed to serve in the land use and livability position representing neighborhood organizations, and I have experience in that. I've lived in Portland for 20 years and been active in my community. In my day job, I am a consultant for mall foster and we're environmental engineers, scientists, planners, and I lead a team of planners that do community economic development work around the state, very familiar with the roadblocks that permitting can present the challenges associated with that. And so, at the risk of sounding incredibly cliche, one of the seven great habits of effective people that served me well in, in both my personal and professional life, is to seek first, to understand, then to be understood. And that's generally the philosophy I bring to my work in the neighborhood, my work with clients, I work with community. And that's what I'll bring to the dirac.
36 Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you, mr. Chair.
37 Thank you councilor. Thank you councilor. Counselor. Ryan.
38 Yes, thank you, councilor Dunphy. Good to see all of you. I have an attachment to this group. It was in 2021 that we got the famous audit that repeated the same audit from ten years before that, and ten years before that, that we struggled when it came to permitting. We struggled when it came to customer satisfaction. With that, you and your former director leaned in and we built a task force, and we included all five offices, and we established data sets that didn't exist before that. So really, I want to just hear, are you continuing to focus on the improvements of permitting in our city?
39 Absolutely. That's that's an ongoing thing. This is the we started that continuous improvement effort and we're continuing with that. So we I would gladly share the metrics that we developed that are online. We can send it to your offices. So that effort is moving forward.
40 You you took that softball and ran with it. Thank you. I do think we're lacking that update on the data sets. At least I am. So I would like them. But I'm sure a lot of my colleagues on this committee would appreciate those updates to see to see the honesty in terms of how it's going. I've always said I don't even I don't love it when they go down, but it's information. It means we probably need to look at that and study it and figure out what we're doing wrong to improve that category. So I wanted to also just comment on let's see, I really appreciate eric's question. So I don't need to ask that one again. But how do you view the role of track when it comes to customer service for people in the development process, either from the first time or having years of experience? Because what I heard all the time when I was overseeing as a commissioner for two years at bts, is that we make it so difficult for those that are new to building, to navigate the system, and the only ones that were able to navigate it tend to be large organizations that had skilled, highly paid professionals that knew how to navigate the system in a way that was took some time and some professional development to achieve. So we were leaving money on the table at that time. And I just want to hear what your viewpoints are in terms of that customer service lens that needs to consistently improve, and I would love to hear from the people who have been on track. Thank you both for being here. And of course, anyone that would like to address that.
41 I'll address it.
42 I'm really looking more at the culture of track itself. So hearing from the volunteers, thank goodness. And thank you again for stepping up to serve. I'd like to hear your perspectives on that.
43 So the value of being on track, I'm endorsed by the building industry. And I kind of feel that their comments and their experience and their challenges and their ideas. And so the great thing is we have communication points that point, people that we can go to and say, hey, here's an idea. Can you help us? How can we make this happen? How can we implement it? This is good for you and this is good for us. And we've seen a lot of progress as far as that's concerned. I know that I've been involved with years ago, the rollout of the permitting system online, and just going through that and letting them know where pinch points are and what can be improved, and that was helpful for me. And then that was helpful for the industry as a whole, because then you have me going back to people in the industry and saying, this is how we're going to be doing this, and this is what we have to look forward to. And the city is responding to your comments and your ideas. And so there's a lot of value in it. And I think that, you know, because everyone in the building department has the same intention, they want to do the best they can and get everyone through the process as much as they can. But there is a lot. So, you know, one of my biggest challenges is Portland is full of trees. And so we have to hire arborists for almost every project just to come sit in a lawn chair. If we're digging a fence post, you know, so there's things like that that are really challenging. And for a small business like myself to pay an arborist, you know, $240 an hour to be on site while you dig a fence, post it. It's a little extreme, but I understand. Yeah, I understand that we are trying to preserve trees as well, and I do value trees in the city scape, and so I get it. But it is it creates a hardship for smaller businesses. And it also produces bad actors because there's a lot of people that just don't have the money to do that. And you have to pass that off to your customer. And as you know, when most people hire a contractor, they go lowest bid. And so if I'm bidding this person for, you know, environmental testing and trees and all this other stuff, I'm automatically adding 3 or $4000 to a price tag. So it's there's a lot to consider.
44 Well, thank you so much for that answer. I'm reminiscing that you were my last recruitment. I'll never forget that phone call. And I think your answer just reminded me why I was so delighted that you'd be on this panel. Can you and I will never forget the lawn chair comments that you just made. Can you give me an example of how that could improve? How could we get the same result without having someone sit in a lawn chair? I had to say lawn chair again and get paid that amount of money. Why? They watch people work.
45 So that was actually.
46 Should have been arborist. I'll tell.
47 You what that was actually for early childhood development project over in southeast Portland. And the tree was far enough to where we didn't, you know, there weren't visible roots. And I think that, you know, to trust a contractor not to hit tree roots would have been it would have sufficed. So I don't know if there's a way I don't know what other cities are doing. But when we do like locates, for example, for utilities, I don't know if there's a way we can have someone come out and locate a root and say, oh, here's a root. Sorry, guys, it's time for the lawn chair. You know, I don't know if that's something that would work or not, but it seems like that that's something I would have to think about a little bit more. And I mean discuss with people in my industry. But I feel there's a lot of examples like that where it just creates extra time, extra barriers. And, you know, we have to pass that off to homeowners. And that really increases the price of home affordability and their ability to be in their homes. And in this case, this was a nonprofit early childhood education. Developmental school. And, you know, we were already giving them a nonprofit rate. So for them to have to go through those extra steps, it was a little disheartening.
48 Would you say that the culture at drake allows you to have these kind of conversations and staff is there, and you can socialize this and start to get to the bottom of how we could do continuous improvement work.
49 I think so, definitely. But I feel like in the city of Portland, within the city, we need more problem solvers, or they need a little bit more freedom to say, okay, how are we going to think outside the box on this?
50 Yeah, I want to give anyone else a chance to answer the customer service focus, since that was by far the number one complaint when I was overseeing bts.
51 Sure happy to. Thank you, councilor Ryan. So in addition to my role on the planning commission, my day job is as the senior director of community development at central city concern, where I oversee our real estate portfolio, including our real estate development team. So I do bring the perspective of a large organization, but I will say that our projects range from anything from very small tenant improvements and some of our program spaces, up to large mixed use developments. One of the things that I've noted in our development process is when we have city funding coming in through the Portland housing bureau, we are assigned a permitting liaison, and the customer service experience is exceptional. When we have that liaison to help us guide through the permitting process. When we don't have city funds coming in, say it's just state funds or federal or other sources, often we're self-funding out of building reserves. We're not always given that same level of customer service support, and we don't always have the resource to hire an architect. Again, it's project specific. So then it's my team or facilities team navigating the process. So one thing that I would like to advocate for, especially for providers of affordable housing and critical social service, is that regardless of the fund source, when we're looking at taking on a project to improve the livability of our housing communities or our clinics or our other services, that there's some sort of flag that is indicated early on in the permitting process, and of course, not just for central city concern, but for all of the organizations providing these types of services. So again, I'll be a new direct member, but that is something that I've experienced and I'd like to advocate for. I also have a home improvement project currently, and I will say I'm bringing a little bit of that experience as going through the permitting process. My husband and I are just self managing, so I have lots of good ideas to share from that experience as well. But really looking forward to diving into that.
52 Thank you. I'll just say mary, the last example is very relatable to many portlanders, so please speak up. Did you want to add anything?
53 I think I just want to state for the record that development services and the permitting process can be intimidating, even for seasoned professionals. So it doesn't. You don't have to be a newbie. I don't I don't have perspective on the track yet. I'm looking forward to gaining that. I will say, I think customer service comes from culture, responsibility and accountability and to the degree to which we can influence that. I think we will try.
54 That's a big picture question for staff or for anyone that's up there. And that is when we're looking at reaching development goals. And we're clearly having a rough year. Even with the sdc waiver, I'm noticing some uptick in smaller units, you know, eight to maybe 19. We know that's a magic number, but we're not seeing many permits being pulled. In general, when you're looking at those goals, how do you think the committee should measure the effectiveness of regulation and how the regulation meets those goals? And that probably is where, mary, you have a lot of insight because you're kind of come from the regulatory side to a certain degree with the other committee. Now you're on the building side.
55 Yeah. And just to clarify, councilors, the question around how are we measuring the success of the sdc waiver and other regulatory changes, just based on what we're seeing in the permitting pipeline?
56 Yeah, it's kind of an open ended. That would be one. I just think we're how effective are we in effectiveness of our regulations that we impose and when we're reaching our development goals. So it's really that rub that takes place.
57 Yeah. I think.
58 It's a great place to have that debate would be at drax.
59 Absolutely. And I think, you know, in development there's certainly market variations. Right. So for affordable housing, we actually will not see an sdc related impact because affordable housing is already benefits from a waiver. Right. So if I was to be posed with that question or if that came to me at track, I would want to understand what are the types of development that's occurring in these smaller. Right. Are they I'm assuming they're market rate. And is there a financing reality. Right. That's outside of the permitting process, but also needs to be raised as a barrier for development. Yeah.
60 And I just want to end with if you want to do that, I have a special one for you elizabeth, if you'd like.
61 Oh, we also have brian online. Who is brian?
62 Sorry, brian.
63 You're welcome. Also, jennifer, if you want to jump in after brian, answer the same question.
64 I just wanted to further the the idea of the liaison from the perspective of not just the person that is applying for the permit, whether that's professional or homeowner or someone that hasn't gone through the process, I think is a really great idea, and I think you would it would help from the consumer side, but it would also really help from the side of, of navigating things on in between the different departments within permitting. And I know a lot of that has been worked on with the the recent revisions in that process. But it also, I think, would really get to this need of. Just one of the previous questions of like, how do we deal with this? The you know, it was the lawn chair analogy, but there's so many examples of that where there's things that seem like they're really excessive in terms of the process that has to happen to meet some intention that most, I think would agree is a good intention. And if it's not killing trees that we don't want to kill, it's like, well, that's a good thing, but how do we get there without going through a lot of hurdles that that often seem redundant in the the specific cases and having a liaison on the permitting side that might even extend to the inspector side, where the city is taking a role of we have set the the codes and we have our ordinances in place of what we're trying to achieve for development, and that is our intentions of what we feel is going to be good for the city from the permitting department standpoint. Then if they take on the role of saying, we want to help people meet those standards instead of where it often ends up being that you're submitting a project and you're told it doesn't meet those standards, and then you have to figure out how to go about and do that. And it can get nuanced and complicated. And that's where I think a lot of people find the system to be daunting. And even, you know, oftentimes dissuaded from submitting a permit altogether. I've definitely had clients where we've gone through that process with where it's it's like, I don't even think it's worth doing this for the size project or what you're trying to do here, because the amount of money it's going to cost for you to hire all the the diverse professionals to do all these things, it just becomes out of the question. And if the city took a different role where they said, okay, these are the things that need to happen and you don't have to hire all these professionals for this small project, but you need to get us this specific information. And then actually, homeowners themselves could do it. Or even if it is professionals, it's a lower number of them that would then meet those same standards. So you're not necessarily having to reduce the the quality or the intention behind the values that you're trying to to meet as a city, but you're lowering the the burden upfront for achieving those. Thank you.
65 I just have this one. It's kind of specific to you because the nexus in all economic development data between Multnomah county and Clark county is really distinct. There's nothing like that nexus in our country right now. And so you bring a lot of perspective to the table on that. What can we do in Portland and Multnomah county that would help us narrow that, that wide gap between economic development and Clark county? That's a really long answer, I bet. And Multnomah county, Portland, give us a couple of nuggets on that.
66 Some people aren't going to like these answers.
67 That's why we have meetings. So democracy needs like truth. So yeah.
68 I think you would have to criminalize drugs again. And I think you would have to beef up your police department. And. The schools need a lot of investment that they're just not getting. And. There's been huge investment into our waterfront area. And Portland has a better waterfront area, like what happened. So, you know, I was born and raised in Portland. I went I graduated from high school here. I went to college here. I lived downtown for ten years. I lived in chinatown, old town, the pearl. I just it's not recognizable to me anymore. And I left the downtown area in 2010. And then I moved over to like 30th and killingsworth area, and I loved it over there. And then I left that area in 2014. So it there's been a lot of changes. And I think one of the things is we had every intention to do the right thing by decriminalizing drugs. I personally voted for that. And I, I think one of the things is we never put the parameters around it, like how it was going to be done, where it was going to be done. You know, in europe they regulate these things. And so we reference the european model like we're going to do what they're doing. And it sounded great. And you know, I think there's a lot that needs to be adjusted there. Because what we have now is a city that a lot of people just don't feel safe in. And families like they can't bring their kids and walk them around and parks, they aren't the same. And so but Portland is a beautiful city. I love this city. I want to give back to this city. I want to invest in this city. What it invested into me. But in short, that's my opinion. That's my observation.
69 Thank you for your courage and also for your lived experience. I just want to end with the comment and that is, I hope that you do see more opportunities for legislative role. One of the more challenging practices that you're all doing at the bureau is to clean up the code clutter. We started yapping about that in 2020 and it's been really slow. But I think those of you on track probably know where there's some dated codes that have been replaced by others, and how when you experience that as a builder, you can give that those suggestions to staff to hopefully expedite the process that brings efficiency to the operations. Thank you.
70 Thank you, councilor Ryan. I have myself in the queue. I just I'll make this quick. We are here to appoint you all to a leadership position, and I think it is our expectation that you lead. You're not a rubber stamp. You are not there to fill a chair. This is a new form of government. But we are still building the, the, the, the walls of this building. Right. We are still figuring out what worked in the old system and what doesn't work in the new system. I am not a builder. I have not pulled a permit to build anything of note, but I'm very interested in making sure that this system is one that gets to yes, which is, I think, what you are all sort of implying that we want to have a system that gets to. Yes. And so I am going to be looking to you either collectively or individually, to identify when those roadblocks are in full view and when our good intentions have limited our ability to actually act. And I'm very open to if you just see something but don't have a solution to helping us understand where to look for those. And if you do have a solution or a best practice from somewhere else in the country or whatever, it might be very open to having those conversations. I would love to have it. A regular presentation, come to this building, to this body, and tell us about how things are going from your perspective and ways we can improve it. And if you're the minority on the the committee and your you see something, but the rest of the group doesn't seem particularly inclined towards it, I would make myself available. I'm sure any of our colleagues here would be open to having those private conversations as well, about how we can get to a system that is as justifiable, we can justify and is actually leading to good things. Because I fully believe that every dumb roadblock we have was put there because of a good intention, and it only now, with this new form of government, are we really able to see how those compounding good intentions are leading to bad results. So please come to us. If this is a housing emergency, let's act like it's an emergency and let's focus on the results, not the process. So I'm going to turn it to councilor Avalos. I see your hand in the queue.
71 Hey there. Thank you. Thanks, councilor. By the way, for chairing the committee today. Whoops. And that means the cat jumps on the keyboard or on the keyboard. Apologies. It's chaos over here. So thank you all so much for your leadership and your commitment. As you have heard from my colleagues already, we are very interested in really partnering with you all, learning from your experiences so that we can continue to do the legislative work that this new form of government demands, and it's really going to require y'all's input. So thank you for that. I wanted to also just note that for councilor Ryan, we took down notes of what you were asking for because we already have pad planning to come on November 18th. Most likely to discuss the impact of the budget and all these other things as it relates to pad. So we'll just add those questions that you had to that list of things for them to present on. And then that's a flag for any of the rest of you. If there are other things that you want us to make sure that they present on, please just email my office and we'll get that on the agenda. Thanks.
72 Thank you, councilor Avalos. Councilor zimmermann.
73 Just echoing the the I hope you'll bring stuff to us call. I think that's important because we're not in a position to always dream it all up. Right. So looking forward to that. And I hope that I can insert this as an invitation of furthering the idea of how do we get to the place where those who have a successful record of developing in Portland can eventually move to a development of bond review or development upon or permit, excuse me, permit upon review or permit upon name the thing. Really looking forward to that. And I don't always know the right steps, so I look forward to your expertise. But I, I just wanted to welcome some of the points you all have made about where you're coming from in your experience. Right? I'm a person who is very excited about residential infill. And the first three people in your world who I talked to to maybe help me do that said, don't even try. You don't have enough money to withstand the timeline that Portland will put you through to do this, but you could do it anywhere else. That was pretty sad statements, and it was common amongst everybody because as a normal guy, I put myself in normal guy category. I thought that's what residential infill was all about, and I worry that we haven't gotten aggressive enough to be able to do the adu, to be able to do the residential infill in a most meaningful way, except at those who have already cracked the nut to know how to get through the system or have enough finances, meaning big groups, big corporate, big development instead of individual to be able to get through the Portland timeline. So I think we have some real, tangible things we can improve, but it's going to take your expertise from your panel. Thanks a lot for being here. I'll be supporting everybody.
74 Diego, do we have anybody signed up to testify?
75 We do not.
76 Colleagues, are there any more questions for our panel or for staff who are here seeing none? I would entertain a motion to have the report document number 2025 409 be sent to the full council with the recommendation to be accepted.
77 So moved.
78 Second counselor. Wait, I didn't see that was councilor Ryan moves, and.
79 We sounded like.
80 I was just off to the side. Councilor Ryan moves the report be sent to the full council with recommendation. Councilor Zimmerman seconds. The motion has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Will the clerk please call the roll?
81 Zimmerman. Hi, thanks for serving.
82 Dunphy.
83 Hi, Ryan.
84 Thank you all so much.
85 I Morillo.
86 I.
87 Avalos. I with five ayes. The motion carries and the report will move to the full council with a recommendation to be accepted.
88 Thank you all for being here today.
89 Thank you, thank you. Diego, will.
90 You please call the next item?
91 Item three homelessness and housing. Community feedback.
92 We are now going to hear from community members about their concerns, ideas or feedback regarding homelessness and housing issues. Diego, how many people do we have signed up to testify?
93 We have six individuals signed up to testify.
94 Great. Then we will have three minutes apiece. And can you please call up our first few folks?
95 First up, sarah fisher, followed by andy miller, philip berlin andy will join us online shortly.
96 Welcome.
97 Hi all. My name is sarah fisher. I'm an episcopal priest. I pastor a church that meets outside and district one that is made up mostly of people who live outside. And I am speaking on my own behalf. I am here as someone who loves our city. I have lived in every quadrant of Portland over the past 40 years. I believe that our city will never be truly restored and revitalized until all of its residents have access to the safety, security, and dignity that every portlander deserves. I am here as a person of faith who fears for the moral fiber of our city. Last month, our mayor was quoted as saying, the weather is going to be our friend, referring to his hope that colder temperatures will force people to choose emergency shelters, even when such shelters are known by people on the street to be unsafe and traumatizing. Where I come from, hoping for suffering as a pathway toward shelter that lacks safety and dignity is morally reprehensible. Our city is investing millions upon millions in a poorly staffed shelters and a sketchy reunification program with no clear plan for long term housing solutions for people who are currently homeless. Individuals and families. I can only conclude that the mayor and those who support his plan do not actually care about the people who are suffering and dying on the streets, but care only about the appearance of the streets themselves. So long as those living in extreme poverty are out of the way, their dignity and safety is of no consequence. We voted in a city council to be a check on the power of the mayor's office, not a rubber stamp. I implore our council, and particularly this committee, examine your hearts and then raise your voices and your power of the purse to defend and protect our fellow citizens suffering on our streets. And in closing, I will say again, our city will never be truly restored and revitalized until all of its residents have access to the safety, security, and dignity that every portlander deserves. Thank you so much.
98 Thank you.
99 And good afternoon, council president and members, and thanks for the opportunity to share today. My name is phil berlin. I serve as the homeless housing supervisor with self enhancement. My career in social services began in a faith based shelter in downtown Portland. I saw firsthand that shelter can be a place of safety and dignity, but it's only the beginning of the journey, and my time with housing team, I've helped many individuals and families take the next step toward securing permanent housing. At the same time, I've come to understand that without continued services to help them retain that housing, the journey often ends where it began. That's why alignment is everything. When our system works together, when shelter, housing, placement, retention and eviction prevention are coordinated, we create. We create real exits from homelessness. But when those are siloed, the system breaks down. Right now, we are seeing the damage of a misaligned system. Shelter in placement aren't working in tandem, and as a result, we are over relying on shelter that's created bottlenecks, longer stays, fewer exits. It's not just ineffective, it magnifies the problem. But now, with the upcoming HUD changes shifting 70% of federal funding away from towards shelter, away from permanent housing, we risk deepening that misalignment even further. This is not the solution. The solution is alignment, a system that moves individuals and families from homelessness into shelter, then into permanent housing with the tools and resources to help them retain that housing. I urge you to proactively allocate our local funding now, in anticipation of the HUD changes, to prioritize permanent housing placements and retention services. This investment will counteract the imbalance and bring much needed alignment to our system. Together, these programs ensure that when someone's entered shelter, they do not have to stay there. Let's build a system that works together and moves people forward. Thank you.
100 Thank you so much, andy.
101 You may begin when you're ready.
102 Thank you. Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee. I'm andy miller, executive director at our just future. We're a nonprofit in east Portland that provides a range of housing and homeless services, including shelter, housing placement, homelessness prevention, and affordable and supportive housing. And you're going to hear a lot of common messages in this hearing from those of us doing this work on the front lines, and we urge you to really pay attention and listen to these messages. Invite us back for more dialog. We appreciate the city's commitment to expanding shelter capacity. We, our organization, our shelter provider, and believe in the need for shelter as part of a response to the continuum. Sorry, as part of a response continuum, but I'm here today to urge balance and to call for a revised approach that strengthens the entire homeless response system. Our investments in housing placement and eviction prevention and new supportive housing simply must keep pace with our investments in shelter expansion, or we risk warehousing people in an already strained shelter system. Currently, we're seeing the impacts of the state's divestment this year from eviction prevention leading to more preventable homelessness. We're seeing folks in shelter longer and longer due to a reduction in placement resources, and we're seeing how HUD changes that. The last testifier spoke to will radically scale back our local housing placement resources next year. In that context, doubling down on planned shelter expansion beyond what we may be able to afford and sustain in coming years feels dangerously myopic and more political than strategic. Every eviction we can prevent now, every household we can move into housing from current shelter placements keeps an already funded shelter bed open for the next person who needs it. Prevention is the most cost effective, humane and efficient intervention we have, and we're seeing those resources decline precipitously. We urge the city and this committee to take a leadership role in system building and cross-jurisdictional resource mapping so we can invest our limited and currently threatened resources more productively into a balanced, effective local system and continuum across time, across times when resources fluctuate. Finally, as a shelter provider, our just future has moved away from overnight. Only barebones models of shelter towards trauma informed, community based shelter that provides safety, stability and real pathways to housing. As the city rapidly expand shelter capacity, particularly for families and women, we are deeply concerned about the lack of clarity we're hearing about how new programs and new shelters will uphold community shelter standards and domestic violence screening protocols. These are not minor administrative details. They met their matters of safety, compliance and dignity. Our community needs a balanced approach to homelessness, one that prevents homelessness whenever possible. Shelters humanely whenever necessary, and ensures people can quickly back into housing. Thank you.
103 Thank you andy.
104 Next we have brandy tuck. Anna konicki, laura galeano, de lovato, brandy and laura will join us virtually and you may begin when you're ready. Brandy.
105 Hi everyone. I'm brandy tuck, and for the last 18 years I have been the executive director of path home. We're a nonprofit whose mission is to empower homeless families with children to get back into housing and stay there. For over 30 years, we have been operating shelters, helping families move into housing, and preventing homelessness for families who are about to lose their homes. I feel compelled to share some of my knowledge and expertise with you all. As I see the city of Portland going against evidence based practices for what works to address homelessness, shelter ends homelessness for exactly zero people, and it's also the most expensive intervention you can take to address homelessness in our community. It can cost even as much as 50,000 to $100,000 per year for every shelter bed that operates in our community, shelter can be an effective part of the homelessness system if and only if there's housing placement. Out of shelter. Path home has been using this model of increasing our shelter capacity over the last ten years. By moving people through shelter quickly, we moved them through shelter and into housing, thus opening up more shelter space for new people to move into shelter. When you don't have housing placement out of shelter, people get stuck in the shelter and they can't move on. It degrades morale and causes behavioral issues. Plus all the people who are on the street and all those people who are being evicted from their housing and becoming homeless. They don't have anywhere to go because the shelters are full of people who have been staying there for a long time. With any pathway out. I know that the words housing first have been politicized, but housing first is an evidence based practice that has worked across the world to reduce homelessness. In fact, it is the only homeless system intervention that has actually reduced homelessness in any community across the nation, even for the highest acuity. People who are addicted to substances and suffer from mental illness. Housing first works. But it's housing first. It's not housing only. You have to move people first, move them into housing. Second, provide rent assistance, and third, provide long term supportive services. The city and the county only fund those first. They fund moving people into housing and providing rent assistance. They have not funded. The third, and the most critical component of this evidence based model, which is providing long term supportive services and treatment. So our model hasn't worked locally, but that's not because it doesn't work. It's because Portland hasn't implemented it correctly. And now instead of fixing the model, we're spending millions of dollars opening more shelter beds. Unacceptable. We are one of the only communities in the country moving away from national best practice rooted in evidence. Please stop politicizing a national best practice and focus on moving people into housing, helping them keep that housing and stop opening more shelters that end homelessness for no one and cost more money than just housing people in the first place.
106 Thank you randy.
107 Good afternoon.
108 For the record, my name is anna krenitsky. I'm the executive director of community warehouse, your local nonprofit furniture bank. We furnish homes for thousands of families transitioning out of homelessness each year, and we get to see the amazing work our region service providers, including many folks speaking today, are doing in rehousing. And we also get to see the barriers to get back into housing once it is lost. I'm here today because I'm concerned about the city's focus on expanding shelter capacity. While system wide cuts devastate prevention, rehousing and retention services, all the supports that keep people housed and move them out of shelter shelters are necessary, but they are not housing. Their best function is as a step along the path out of homelessness. In 2024, only 1 in 5 people exiting Multnomah county shelters moved into permanent housing, investing more into the system without rebalancing resources to provide people with a pathway into housing would be both a moral failure and a fiscal one. Housing first, as randy mentioned, the most evidence based approach we have proves that as close to immediate as permanent possible access to permanent housing with supportive services works best, costs the least, and causes the least trauma. Shelter costs more than rehousing and far more than prevention. We just cannot afford to spend more. Helping people recover from homelessness spend more helping people recover from homelessness than it would cost to prevent it. Our mayor's approach of no one sleeps outside. Every door is open is noble. But in this new environment, with significant cuts to prevention and rehousing at the state and federal levels, and more cuts coming at the from the county, the disheartening reality is we cannot serve everyone the way we are doing with a system we have. And ultimately, if we have limited resources, the most effective place we can put it is into prevention. Keeping people from becoming homeless in the first place. The number one indicator if someone will experience homelessness is if they've already experienced it before. Keeping people housed means drastically fewer downstream costs. This is an opportunity for the city of Portland to take a leadership approach and rebalancing its investments to align with both our community values and evidence based housing best practices. I encourage the homelessness and housing committee to look holistically at the resources we now have in the system and prioritize prevention, placement and retention in proportion to shelter spending. Our community sheltering strategy needs to prioritize sufficient resources for placements out of shelter, which will also open up more shelter beds, as many have mentioned. Otherwise, we're investing in a warehousing model. We have a more diverse and representative city council than ever. Please center the voices of frontline providers and people with lived experience in your decision making, and commit to sustaining people in housing rather than in shelters with no pathway out. Thank you.
109 Thank you anna.
110 Laura, you may begin when you're ready.
111 Thank you. Good afternoon, chair and councilors. Thanks for this opportunity. My name is laura galeno de lovato. I use she her pronouns. I'm the executive director of northwest pilot project. We provide housing placement assistance, retention services, and eviction prevention to very low income older adults in Multnomah county. I want to be clear, we are not a shelter provider. We look to our partners like path home, like our just future and many others to provide the shelter services that are very important to many of our clients. But like my colleagues in service to vulnerable communities, shelter is not housing and investing in an imbalanced way. More to shelter than to housing, more to housing than to shelter is not the right approach. We need to recognize that shelter is a part of the continuum for many of our clients who are homeless and living in a tent, a shelter is a great first step to housing placement, but those shelters must provide on site case management, and there must be resources for housing, housing placement resources like rent assistance are critical and we need more of that. As my colleagues have pointed out, the best and most upstream solution to homelessness is to prevent it in the first place, and the devastating cuts at the state level to eviction prevention are really going to take a toll. The city has an opportunity to take a stand on eviction prevention and invest in that as a evidence based, effective homeless prevention strategy. I also want to point out a couple other things, because many of my colleagues have said what I wanted to say, I really believe that the city has the opportunity and the obligation to work hand in hand with Multnomah county, regardless of whatever differences may exist. As it stands now, the Portland solutions department appears to be very duplicative of what Multnomah county is doing, and I think that that, in and of itself, is an inefficient use of time and resources. I would urge this committee and all of city council and the mayor as well, to reconsider how to evaluate the work that Multnomah county does, alongside of the work that the city is doing to eliminate duplication of services. Lastly, I think we are all have to remember that we are facing some very big cuts city, state, county and at the federal level, and we must remain nimble and ready to respond to ensure that our focus is on the people who we are serving, the vulnerable population who are going to be hit the hardest. Lastly, service providers are in this to serve their clients. Leverage us. Talk to us. We are here to be part of the solution. Thank you.
112 Thank you laura, and thank you everybody who came to testify. Very, you know, perfectly timed comments, because we are figuring out the mayor has a goal of hitting his shelter plan for December 1st. We need a plan for what happens December 2nd. And there's a lot of work to be done in this committee is going to play a key role in that. Thank you all for spending your time to come testify. Diego, is that everybody who has signed up to testify?
113 That's correct.
114 Fantastic. Colleagues. Anything else? For the good of the order? No. Then our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4th. Stay tuned for updates on that meeting's agenda. I will adjourn the meeting of the homelessness and housing committee at 1:14 p.m.