The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-12-09
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Homelessness and Housing Committee met on Tuesday, December 9, 2025. Roll call recorded the body present, the statement of conduct was read, and October minutes were approved by unanimous consent. The committee reviewed a progress report on the Social Housing Study without extended discussion. A larger portion of the meeting covered a Phase One progress report on the Unified Housing Strategy, with staff presenting background, an inventory of over 20 strategic plans and 200-plus actions/policies, and a housing continuum graphic used to discuss where city responsibility should be concentrated versus left to other jurisdictions or the private market; figures describing categories, unit counts, and AMI gaps were presented but some were stated inconsistently across speakers. Discussion touched on market-rate housing, condominium development, affordable housing preservation, and coordination among city bureaus, Prosper Portland, Multnomah County, and Metro. The committee then took up a resolution establishing priorities for allocating approximately $20.7 million in unspent Rental Services Office funds, including proposed rent assistance, eviction defense, emergency housing vouchers, tenant education, and portfolio stabilization measures; figures related to rent increases, cost burden, and vacancy rates were also cited inconsistently. Extensive public testimony was heard from advocates, service providers, tenants, a landlord, and individuals with lived experience of homelessness. A proposed amendment regarding a public rental registry was later withdrawn. Votes occurred on sending the resolution to full council with a recommendation for adoption; the outcome is recorded in the vote ledger.
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0 Yeah.
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1 All right. Good afternoon. I call the meeting of the homelessness and housing committee to order on Tuesday, December 9th at 12 p.m. Diego, please call the roll.
2 Good afternoon. Zimmerman here. Dunphy here. Ryan, here. Morillo here. Avalos.
3 Present. Claire, please read the statement of conduct.
4 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.
5 Thank you. Committee. We have a tight agenda with four items on it. I'll just note I'm going to be very firm on our time. So everybody just keep an eye on that. I don't want to have to overcorrect and cut people off. So the first thing is we need to adopt committee minutes for the month of October. And these minutes are approved by unanimous consent. So are there any objections? Seeing none, the minutes are approved. Diego, please read item number two.
6 Item two. Social housing study progress report update.
7 So, colleagues, the purpose of this item is just to flag the update that we received last week from staff on the social housing study. This is just a progress report to keep the committee up to date in the work that they are doing to get us the deliverable next spring. We don't have time to discuss this progress report today, but I. But please follow up with my office if you have any questions after you get a chance to read it. And for the public who are listening, this memo is posted on the committee web page. Diego, please read item three.
8 Item three unified housing strategy progress report.
9 All right. So we have asked dca, oliveira and bureau staff to bring us the unified housing strategy deliverables as defined in the resolution we passed in August. I will note that while the resolution asks for a complete draft of the united of the unified housing strategy to be delivered this month, what we are receiving today is phase one of the ultimate deliverable, as it proved to be too complicated to complete in the few months they had since the resolution passed. Part of what we will discuss today a bit is what phase two looks like. Over the weekend, committee members received a copy of the phase one report that covers an initial inventory and staff analysis, which I hope you've had time to review. The presentation today is more of an overview and orientation to understanding what's included and an opportunity for you to ask questions. So if you have not had time to read, feel free to do so at your convenience and reach out to the office if you'd like to discuss further. Also in that email, I sent some questions for consideration that I hope we can discuss. I will note though, we do have a very long list and growing of testimony, and so I'm probably going to cut that discussion a lot shorter. These questions are the ones that we were going to be doing in the work session. Luckily we have the we will be rescheduling that, and that will be a more robust discussion amongst the entire council. So this is just a little preview of that discussion. High level, but we'll want to move on from there. And so with that I will hand it off to our panel. Take it away.
10 Thank you. Councilor Avalos. For the record, my name is Eric engstrom. I'm the director of the bureau of planning and sustainability. I want to just start out by expressing appreciation for the committee leadership, for the collaborative structure of this work. We're happy to lend staff expertise into this endeavor. And so appreciation there. Next slide. So we're going to just remind us all why we're here. Give some background. We're going to talk then about the overview of phase one of the work that you just mentioned. We have jessie connor and ariel kane here with the bureau of planning and sustainability and the housing bureau to talk about the that aspect. And then at the end, talk a little bit about our next steps and what that next phase might look like. Next slide. So you all probably recall that this got kicked off with a resolution earlier this year identifying criteria to guide the work to reflect city core values. Have it be implementation oriented with defined tasks and metrics, prioritize people experiencing homelessness. Align housing needs with different ages stages. Wages include consideration of different funding sources and highlight areas where maybe existing plans have inconsistent directives or and propose options for for how we might resolve that. So I'm going to turn it over now to michael to go to the next slide. Great. Good afternoon, chair Avalos. Committee members michael buonocore, interim director for housing, Portland housing bureau. And so I'm going to talk through a little bit about the project approach, which the team has developed into a three phase approach through summer of next year. And we are we are wrapping up phase one, which has involved a pretty intensive effort to kind of wrangle the many plans and policies and strategies that are relevant to this work, which includes not just housing, but also homelessness and shelter strategy and zoning code, sort of a wide approach, including climate goals and stuff. So we have a very comprehensive view of everything that will help to inform the strategy. Phase two is where the really substantive deep work goes. So assuming we we've gotten it fundamentally right for you in terms of how we're approaching the inventory, we will then move into collaborative discussions, policy analysis, any refinement that's necessary for the inventory using targeted stakeholder engagement to refine areas with tapping into subject matter experts as necessary, with the outcome of that being a final draft prepared for phase three engagement. And phase three engagement is really where we will sort of have the broad community engagement and help to inform what will be the final product that's presented for adoption, with implementation direction given to the city administrator. So this this slide is one we will return to later for facilitated conversation by chair Avalos. But it shows the spectrum of the housing continuum. And from homelessness services all the way through home ownership and in every stage of the continuum, the city does work that impacts some aspect of it, whether it's directly through housing investments, the work through Portland solutions. Again, zoning codes, policies broadly. So really want to recognize that and then figure out where we're sort of prioritizing the focus of this work.
11 Thank you michael jessie connor I use she her pronouns. I'm the senior policy analyst at the Portland housing bureau. We're going to move into the overview of our phase one work. So earlier this year in July, this committee held a discussion around a vision strategic framework and draft objectives. To achieve that vision for a unified housing strategy. This framing will be discussed in phase two in more in depth. But for now, I'm just going to kind of touch on these slides briefly highlighting what the vision and then the strategic framework around the five p's. So housing insecurity and homelessness can be successfully prevented when all portlanders have access to long term, stable housing they can afford. And to get that, our framework is to work with around actions and strategies, around producing housing, preserving vulnerable affordable housing, promoting equity and inclusion, preventing displacement and progressing environmental sustainability. Our phase one approach really included kind of three bodies of work, three steps of work, both identifying at the outset our existing strategic plans, policies, programs, as well as identifying any projects, initiatives or studies that are currently underway or in development. We then categorized all of those plans and individual action items in six categories that we pulled from the direction around areas of interest from the resolution. So those include funding, production and preservation, homelessness and shelters, stabilization, anti-displacement and fair housing, climate forward and of course, wages and workforce. And you'll see these and folks online can see them in the inventory sheet that we shared. Those are the large categories, the analysis. Then we also pulled some some key areas that the council was interested in understanding and getting a view of the landscape around different types of tenure. So that would mean is it a rental policy? Is it intended for ownership or homeownership or for individuals experiencing homelessness? Affordability is our targeted ami income level range or is it for general population? Are there any priority populations identified with a particular policy? What's the funding status of that geography? Many of our action plans and policies are citywide, but some of them are pretty geographically specific. For example, our new tif districts project status, their timeline, what associated metrics they have identified for measurements of success, and then some additional phase two considerations to help jumpstart some of those conversations as we get going at the variety of tables will be at. I'm going to hand it over to my colleague ariel from bts.
12 Good afternoon, ariel keen, economic planner with the bureau of planning and sustainability. So staff across the service area worked to review different strategic plans you'll see in the report, as well as in the inventory over different 20 over 20 different strategic plans are represented with 200 plus actions, goals, policies and programs. We looked at existing policies as well as existing programs and work underway. Much of the work underway is connected directly to those action plans as well. Staff started with the list provided in the resolution as a starting point for plans to review. This is a short list of those plans. The 2035 comprehensive plan is an important guiding policy with community identified goals and policies. The housing production strategy was adopted in 2024, and it's our state committed action plan for producing housing that's identified through the housing needs analysis, and we have our consolidated plan, which helps guide the region's federal formula grant spending, as well as advanced Portland, which is our equitable development strategy for across the city. We also took a look at different plans and programs that were not necessarily adopted through council. One of them is the metro regional housing coordination strategy, which is the metro region's essentially housing production strategy that jurisdictions have been coordinating across and that should be adopted soon. Additionally, the anti-displacement action plan foundation report building belonging framework and additionally the asian disability inclusive neighborhoods action plan, which were identified in the resolution. The next few slides are just looking through some examples of how the report is structured, and the type of plans and policies that you can find in both the report and the inventory. Each slide will show just the category. A brief description of essentially how many different action items or projects underway you can find, and then an example that highlights some of the analysis pieces that we pulled together and how that action or that plan might connect to other actions and plans. So for example, funding this section really illustrates the different resources that the city produces or has access to for production and preservation, as well as planning and programing. There's about 45 different existing action items and projects underway that we've currently identified. One of those examples is the west side tax increment financing. District plan is two different goals related to middle income housing and affordable housing preservation. They hit different affordability targets, but they're targeted in district four and to the general and low income population. It's also connected to the housing production strategy as well as the pro HUD, housing grant, production and preservation highlights that wide range of actions we take for the production of preservation of affordable and market rate housing. It's a pretty deep bench, so there's about 150 existing action items and projects that we identified. It includes projects like the east side area planning and rezoning project, which is partially funded in part from the HUD housing grant, as well as other funding sources from the state, and is connected to our housing production strategy work as well. Homelessness and shelter describes some of the immediate and near-term actions that we have associated with homelessness. Shelter and also permanent supportive housing has about 30 different actions outlined, and the policies and plans that you can find related to it range from the comprehensive plan through to the consolidated plan and the housing needs analysis, which identifies the housing the housing need for households currently experiencing houselessness. And then stabilization, anti-displacement and fair housing highlights programs and policies that help identify ways to keep households housed and maintain stable housing, and it contains about 30 different actions or projects underway. One of those is the affordable housing listing service, which will be integral into connecting folks to affordable housing that is affordable to them. It's connected again to the housing production strategy and the HUD housing grant. The climate forward section is focused on the climate work that the city has related to housing stock, both building it and supporting existing housing stock so that it contributes positively to our environmental and community health. The inventory contains around 48 different actions across the community and economic development service area. Just one example is the housing production strategy, mass timber and modular innovations, which is connected to the mass timber accelerator work that hb is doing. And then last but not least, the wages and workforce category really acknowledges that the city has a role in not just providing affordable housing access, but also access to living wage jobs and preparation for living wage jobs. And the inventory contains about 30 different action items and projects underway, and advance Portland is the guiding document, but connects also to federal formula grants that connect individuals to workforce training, and supports programs and partnership with work systems, inc.
13 Okay. Thank you. Ariel. Okay, we're going to move into our vision for phase two. So phase two is focused on policy discussions, analysis and outcomes, including collaborative discussions with the mayor council. This committee, the project team refinement of the phase one inventory as needed. We may have missed some items. There are some items that may not be included on it, or we may have needed to make some adjustments somewhere. Identifying potential new strategies for analysis. So are there some gaps in policies or programs or strategic actions? The city is not currently signed on to that. We might need to look into critically. Part of phase two will will necessitate be necessarily important to prioritize highest priority action items in moving forward. We'll do, as michael mentioned, some targeted stakeholder engagement, where we will then consider incorporate feedback, culminating in a draft unified housing strategy for a public engagement roadshow. We will seek input, process, consider and incorporate that feedback in phase three. As mentioned, we've got a pretty high level timeline at this point, really sort of visioning a bulk of the work happening, you know, starting in January and moving through the beginning part of the summer before we enter phase three. I think this in addition to the to the housing continuum questions, I believe this is also an area where the project team would like some consideration and a gut check that we're on the on the right track and on the right path, but I'll turn it back over to the chair for our q&a portion.
14 All right. Committee. So a couple of things to note. I provided some questions ahead of time. Like I said, I'm going to pair those down a little bit just so that we can make some a little bit more room in our agenda. Since we have more testimony than I expected. That said, I think one other note is that this morning we had our first unified housing strategy table meeting that is, with the mayor's office. So the mayor leads various tables around housing, and he has created this one so that we can have this discussion with staff. And while we are having our policy discussions and shaping the vision here at council, I'll be bringing those to that group. And it'll just kind of be an iterative process. And then, yeah, so let's start. Why don't we start with any questions people have of the staff and of the presentation. And then I'll move us into some guiding questions. Okay. Not seeing initial questions of staff. What do you think or do.
15 You got some go.
16 For it okay. You don't want to add anything.
17 No I want to riff off what we're doing.
18 Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. So I think what I want to focus our discussion on here, let's. Well, you all have the continuum in front of you. Yes. Do I need to pull it back up or do folks have it okay? Yeah. Thank you. Go ahead and put it back on that. There we go. So I think the main question for this section is looking at this continuum. Where where do you believe the city of portland's responsibility begins and ends. Right. Where do we start? What areas do you believe have the strongest city role? What are areas on this continuum where we step back? So that's kind of the big picture question that I want to start us off with. You want to kick us off or no. That's great okay. Well I'm asking no, I'm asking you. Well counselors, counselors, this is a discussion for us. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have to.
19 Stay there. Thanks, chair. But I guess with respect to this. So the question I wrote down while, michael, while your team was presenting and by the way, thanks for stepping in. I appreciate that is, you know, on this slide, when I look at it right, I it's a stretch for me colleagues to think about the fb involved in shelter and homeless services. I don't think of them that way. I do think there's definitely connective tissue. Right. And there has to be the beginning of fb's role has to be looking at the end of the homeless services role. Right. And so I do think about that, but I, I fundamentally don't want to see fb align itself toward homeless services strategy. We've got other folks doing that. But the question I wrote down when this slide was up was toward the right hand side of this, of this where it says market housing, of how much work happens here. That was what I wrote down during the presentation. I also wrote down another question. You know, I have actually never had a housing bureau director talk to me about market rate housing. And so I worry about that. I worry because I've heard about preservation, I've heard about some of the other stuff. But the only person that's really ever talked to me about, from the city's perspective, about how we're tackling what I think is, for whatever reason, Portland has not become a place where we're developing market rate housing as well has been the dca and at times, Eric, as a director. So I would like to see more of a role there because I actually I think that's an important part. I come from the philosophy of and it's another question I have is part of the affordability crisis also relates to the availability crisis. And with the recent comings out about the 60% ami basically being the same as rent and 1900 vacancies, I've got a lot of worry in that affordable or. Restricted affordable rate versus naturally affordable rate. And what are we doing to saturate the rest of the market? I've said this for a long time, which is the those able to pay the market will trickle down. If the if that's not available, they'll rent. The things that my peers and I used to rent in northwest Portland, which were all built a really long time ago, and they're tiny little places, but they're great starter places for us. But now people in my peer group might be going back to those because of a lack of affordable or a lack of available units. So that's kind of where my when I saw this slide, that's where my thoughts were going. And and when I think I have not generally thought of them and maybe I should as a partner in my conversations about design review, permit review, timeline reform, I think of director engstrom, I think of dca oliveira. Should I also be thinking of the dhb? And I don't know that yet, because I haven't felt like that's been a book of business for y'all. So that's kind of my thoughts. Chair. I think it's a great beginning question.
20 Do you want michael to respond at all to you or.
21 Sure, sure, yeah. It helps the conversation. If that's your intent here.
22 I'm happy to weigh in on that.
23 Too, if you. Yeah. Go ahead.
24 It's my question, Eric. The short answer is yes. Councilor and I, I think there's a you know, there's a volume of work that fb is directly responsible for, and there is a degree all the way on the end to, to homeownership around that. And I think there is a real, genuine desire to recognize that we are part of a service area and that our our work with prosper Portland that supports economic development and our work with with planning around decisions that inform zoning and what shape neighborhoods will take. I think it's important that fb is is at the table and a thought partner as well as, you know, where there are levers that we can pull that, that we're part of that conversation and part of that intentional planning.
25 This may be rhetorical, but we'll see. I always I often use slabtown as an example of an area that I look at as what a great transformation. And damn, we left a lot on the table, right? I represent the area I've lived in the area, but a whole lot of buildings that didn't go very high. That's my take. Is be positioned to go to the director and say we object or we think we haven't pushed high enough, or we have some we have some mechanism in the city that is making people only build to the fifth story instead of the 10th story, particularly in our most dense neighborhoods. That's why I say it's rhetorical, because sometimes we have to ask, are we culturally set up to push the boundaries of our fellow bureaus? I would love to get to a place where ph. S job is to question every other facet of the city's organization about how dense did we get? How much did we get? Did we go far enough? I have never felt that to be the case, and I am really open to if I'm if I'm wrong on that. But if that culture exists, I'd like to know more about it moving forward as we do some of our other review. But that's why I say it's kind of a rhetorical one. You're like, two weeks in, man. Understood. Thank you. Councilor. But that's kind of where I'm welcoming the conversation.
26 Thank you.
27 Councilor. I'll just add that historically, the some of this has been kind of just a land supply question. And with the state requirement to move into a production strategy, we've shifted our our way of working, and it really needs to be more of a collaboration with that new framework than it has been just simply counting acres. So absolutely, it's a service area wide effort with all the bureaus and prosper as well in terms of their economic expertise.
28 And what I would add to that to councilor is that part of the us is bringing all of those partners together because they hadn't been working together. The way you described it is kind of how we were operating. So the goal by having ph and permitting and, and prosper in the room is so that those things can align. So when we have that conversation about those gaps, the right partners can weigh in with their respective areas. But then also they all feel like we're creating something that's unified and has like a shared strategic goal. So that's what I'm hoping we can get out of this. All of those partners are at those tables that I mentioned, including many more. And then what phase two will also include is not just our internal partners, but also us working with targeted stakeholders. So all of those that list of 200 and some documents that they reviewed, all of those have various stakeholders that they've engaged with to create those documents, those plans. And so our goal in phase two is to bring those people back together as we're trying to consolidate. Councilor Dunphy.
29 Thank you. Yeah. You know, I really appreciate this graphic because it does help, sort of I mean, while in many regards housing is far less linear than this, this is really good representation, at least from a government perspective, to say like, where do we fit? And I do think that it is clear that government broadly touches on all of the colors of this rainbow. But and the city of Portland currently touches everything from red to purple. And I think that this is also giving us the opportunity that this, this committee has had for a long time, and we've been toying around. The idea is, while we do touch on everything from emergency shelters to homeownership, should we and in my opinion, no, we should not. The housing bureau was created in 2009 specifically to clarify that there are and, you know, correct me if I'm pontificating in the wrong direction. But functionally, to clarify that the city has a role in the development of housing that the market does not meet outside of the services that the county provides, and that those non-market, serving constituent or constituents that the market does not serve deserve quality housing and the public has an ongoing responsibility to it. So I think that the the role of the housing bureau must be in that Green, the light Green to the dark Green, because the permitting bureaus are doing a phenomenal job of getting a lot of the house in order, working with planning and sustainability and some of the other public works and everybody who sort of touches the private sector. We are working better with our partners at Multnomah county and metro on this red, orange yellow area. But the city should be getting out of that line of business, in my opinion, because that is something that we are not well suited for. But those things in the Green section are really those are ten year projects right from the minute someone has an idea until a shovel goes in the ground, until a neighbor moves in, is like a 5 to 10 year process. And the bureau has to be, in a lot of ways, insulated to have that vision. Similarly to how I've heard arguments for why prosper Portland requires a degree of independence, because development of a big tower downtown takes longer than the four years that any of us will ever get in a single term. I also recognize, though, that the community desperately needs help in that Green section. We also desperately need help in that orange red yellow section, and we need to figure out how we are addressing all of these. If the housing bureau, in my opinion, belongs in that Green section, we still do need institutional capacity within this organization to support the red, orange and yellow parts. And we need to be clearer with our partners and other governments that we live in this space with this, these tools, and that the housing bureau is not a broad, one size fits all solution to the housing crisis, but rather a a focused, non-market planning tool to try and address the biggest, broadest community needs. So I think that this is really helpful to help visualize this. And I think that this process will also start getting us into a place where we can then start hopefully offloading some of our overnight shelters, getting clear answers about the question of what happens at 6 a.m. When that person comes out of a shelter and needs housing, and how do we get them into that housing? But, you know, for this. Yeah. So I appreciate this. I appreciate the way your team has been approaching this, really trying to comprehensively look through all the I mean, that's what the point of this whole thing was, is going through all the beautiful pdfs that we've put together over the last few decades and getting everything in one place so that we can say, what is the city's plan? This is our plan. So that was a long way of saying good work. This is helpful. And thank you all.
30 Councilor I heard you say city there, and I want to just emphasize that we're seeing this as a city citywide planning effort. Really. So don't think of it as a bts plan or a housing bureau plan. It's a city strategy.
31 Which also I didn't thank you guys after the presentation, I was rushing. So thank you, by the way, for your hard work. Councilor Morillo.
32 Thank you. Chair. Avalos. Yeah, thank you so much for this presentation. I think with regards to the question of what the city actually is supposed to have oversight over, I just think about our history and the fact that the joint office of homeless services wasn't created until 2016, when we realized we had to work with the county to address some of the problems facing our city. And then Portland solutions wasn't created until 2024. So some of these programs that we have and how we address homelessness really are relatively new and not something that has ever been in the city's bucket before. So I would say that on that graph that we have of the housing continuum, the gray house all the way up to the yellow house are things that I would expect to be resolved and talked about and worked through within the joint office. And then Green to purple is what the city of Portland housing bureau should be focusing on the most. I will say that because we have taken on this bucket, I worry about the services and the people that will fall through those services if we suddenly stop helping with them. So I don't really see an easy solution for that. And it really that keeps me up at night. And at the same time, I'm not sure if we're necessarily the best equipped to handle, you know, the homelessness services all the way through the supportive housing for people because public health. And I think a lot of those questions are actually fall under public health and the county's jurisdiction. But I really think that the city should be in the business of looking at the more innovative, long term housing solutions. So I'm really excited about the light Green and dark Green here, community or social housing, and then below market rental opportunities and ownership. Yeah.
33 Councilor Ryan.
34 Yes. Thank you. Chair Avalos I would I'm answering the question that you asked. I didn't come to this meeting thinking that was the topic, but I appreciate the question. I tend to agree with some of the statements made about the Green area. I also think that we have a lot of responsibility in the blue and the purple, because, well, let's put it this way, government can do government doesn't lead in those two areas, but government can sure get in the way from those two areas being fruitful. And so we have had a lot of pushback from those who want to invest, want to build housing, that we made it really difficult for them. And so we have accountability and responsibility in the last two areas as well. I think that the reason we've become more active in the spaces, yellow and below is because the community has asked for that. There's been obviously some philosophical differences between the county and the city. Those are always evolving on how we deal with our unsheltered homeless population. And so in those crises, the mayor and this is mayor's plural, and the community has pushed on the city because our brand, one is one, is much bigger than the county's, or one blames us for anything anyway. And so the county is supposed to be in this area. But in all due respect to the county, and I've been on record about this many times, they haven't always shown up to do what is necessary in terms of outreach for those that are suffering on our streets. And so since we're the jurisdiction that gets the heat on what's happening in our public right of way, we've been increasingly forced into that area. And that's where we continue to have what I think is healthy tension, and I hope that we continue to have that. So to answer the specific question, I would say that it's it would be nice to live in a world where there was a lot of role clarity, and we don't live in that world all the time. We also have more local government entities than most areas, so most places don't have metro than the county than the city. Most cities are moving to mergers between cities and counties, and they don't have metro. So I think that we have to live in this world of more challenging systems, just bureaucratic systems. And then from that, we find how difficult it is for us to get into efficiency and role clarity to deliver results. So I think this is a constant tension. I believe it's smart to have the entire continuum irregardless. So I appreciate that. Sometimes I get confused on do I go beyond the what tier and do we do the outreach? That's at the beginning part, which I think the county continues to fail miserably on outreach. All you have to do is take a max train from on the yellow line out to gateway. You can see the lack of outreach for those who are living on our streets. It's quite sad. And so I just want to get that in there as well. So I hope that was helpful. In terms of the question that was asked of us at this time.
35 Okay. Thank you. I'll respond. For my part, I think I share a lot of what everybody has said, especially as it relates to looking at this continuum and the Green up. I agree that while in the blue and purple we haven't, that we don't have ownership of generating those things. We absolutely can be in the way. And it's important for us to create pathways for and partnerships with the private market to make those things happen. I think, importantly, what the Green shows us is our responsibility to fill the role that the market is not ever going to be able to. The market is driven by different factors than what we are and different responsibilities. And so I think that's the biggest gap. And as we continue to see the market is not meeting the need, I think the number was like between 0 to 30 ami we are short over 4000 homes for that, just that group of people. And so that also speaks to kind of what you were saying, councilor Zimmerman, where it's like there aren't enough homes for people that could be in those higher income levels and therefore they're buying down. And that's just squeezing even further. And now we don't have enough. We have 4000 less than we need for folks in that 0 to 30. So I really see our role as taking a lead in that. And importantly, this isn't just housing bureau, right? I think prosper has a big role in all of this, especially in the blue and purple. And then, of course, as it relates to getting out of the way, if you will, so that we can spur that kind of housing development. Yeah, I think those are my initial thoughts. We've got a little bit more time. I'm going to give us about ten more minutes here if we want to keep going. You know, part of this discussion. And again, we were going to have this exact discussion at work session. But I'm having it here just so we can start to tease out our direction. I'm curious if, folks, let's dive a little bit deeper into the parts that I'm hearing. People are saying, we have a role in where do we think we should concentrate our limited resources, right, to make the most impact within the part that I'm already hearing is emerging, what we feel is our role. Where should we deprioritize or increase priority? And then councilor Dunphy kick us off.
36 Well, you know, I mean, there are a ton of really relevant conversations that I think we can play a part in as leaders, but not necessarily as policymakers. The conversation at metro about a renewed services bond or going out for a new housing bond, and the allocation formulas component of that data is really important to a lot of these conversations. And we now have, you know, since the last supportive housing services bond went out, we can demonstrate that the need in Multnomah county is so much dramatically higher that data should be really driving our conversations. We also have this report that has been going around about the vacancies in the affordable housing that we have been building. We know that we have been incentivizing and directly building the wrong kind of housing for decades. Right. Not only do we have this 60% ami being about $150 more than an apartment in powell hurst issue, but we also know that there are a lot of there's a lot of housing that has been built at the luxury end of our spectrum. In 19 unit buildings that are designed at the 200% of ami, and some of those are still sitting empty as well, because the buildings still pencil because of our generous incentives, I think we need to be really focused on, I mean, broadly, I think we need to be immediately focused on making sure Portland gets our fair share of any new bonds, either about built environment or services. I think we need to be laser focused on getting every single one of those existing apartments filled, and if that means buying down the rents or figuring out what the financing on it is in order to make those pencil, we need to do that. I also think we need to be turning a lot of our attention towards our affordable housing stock more broadly, because I've been hearing from a lot of the community development corporations that they are struggling and are at risk of even potentially folding in some cases or merging in order to maintain that availability. And we know what isn't working right now. We have a lot of experience understanding what where we've been putting a lot of our efforts and not getting good results. I think we just need and I think we need to. I guess, ask a question about, you know, when we had our housing bond, we exceeded all of our goals. We built more units than we said we were going to, but a lot of that came in the form of building units that were less affordable. And we have to decide as an organization, as a, as a city, whether we go an inch deep and a mile wide or a mile wide or mile deep and an inch, whatever. You know what I'm saying? Because it may be to the public, less attractive for us to build fewer units that actually meet the need, rather than getting a lot of units. And nobody can do that, and then nothing feels like it's getting better. I think that from the again on this perspective, the arguably yellow to Green, that really should be what our book of business should be. We should be focusing on, you know, recognizing that 60% makes sense because it's light and we understand we have all these incentives, we have all these programs. But really that's not where the need is. And how do we drive those costs down to meaningfully move our population off the streets and also to stabilize our populations who are living in the communities? I think that's the only way we're really going to actually get meaningful progress. And, you know, again, we've we've demonstrated that we can build a lot of units just are we building the right units and where are we building them?
37 Councilor Zimmerman.
38 Thanks. Appreciate all that. Councilor Dunphy. And I think that this question for like the future is it's really hard. And so one aspect of my philosophy is I'm looking for some innovation. Right. And another part of my philosophy is a recognition for who exists in our community to that to that end, I think, you know, we keep talking about the the purple or the Green or the red on that on that chart. I think it's a great chart for that conversation. And I know that you all have some work you're doing with respect to social housing. And I think for those who watch from afar, they would judge our political spectrums and they'd be like, why is Zimmerman there on that? And it's a recognition, I think, that there are members of our community who will never afford their rent or their mortgage, and that is a part of life in America, part of life in Oregon now. And so I'm clear eyed that that group of people exists in our community, and we have a duty to them. So I do think there are some places where we're going to have some toes in the water. In the more yellow and red section of that graph, and I'm really comfortable with us being in that area for for those people who I'm really kind of sick of the conversation always being about percentages of ami, there are some people who are never going to pay a dollar for their rent, and I think that's okay to admit if they are healthy, you know, all things relative but healthy, meaning that their their homed, that the services that they need to be able to maintain that are there. And one of those services being a house, I get that I don't expand that really to a huge further point of that ami spectrum. But I do believe, like this idea that we always have to be getting some rent for a unit is challenging for me. When I think about the most at risk of falling out of the system. So that's where the social housing part, I get it, we're going to own some stuff, we're going to run some stuff. I'm I'm there. The magnitude of that is where the real question for me goes. I've lived in the pearl district. It's the first place that I was able to purchase as a very young person. I think part of the reasons I was able to purchase as probably the cheapest unit in a building that had everything from my $40,000 a year to the millionaires, I'm sure that were my neighbors. In the building was a variety of units and buildings and. We stopped building condos in Oregon over the last ten years, and we've started taking some work over the last couple of years to change the laws that the legislature, when it comes to how you settle out, how and this is very nuanced, but it is important. It's why it's one of the reasons why we stopped building condos. But condos is why I was able to be a homeowner in my mid 20s. I could not have been a single family house owner in my mid 20s. I reflect on that because it was in the neighborhood in the pearl district, where I think at the time it was like 45% of the the units in the district were subsidized affordable housing unit rentals, and the others were market rate. But part of market rate is small. A small unit in a condo complex can be naturally affordable. It was naturally affordable for me is how I would have put that. It's a good mix. I like that when I think about perhaps the 60 to 90% ami. This is a long way of getting to my last point. Chair. One of the most challenging conversations I've had with the housing bureau since being in office has been the housing, the the affordable preservation, and it was noted in this presentation that it's happening mostly in district four. Right. My district downtown makes a lot of sense. It's challenging for me to make that make sense when the rent, the natural rent is the same damn number. And so I'm challenged by the economics of that, and I'm very much open to like, what philosophy are we applying? I don't feel like I've gotten more than just a quick one liner on it, and I would like a deeper dive, but I bring it up because as I think we are making state law changes that could make condos a thing that we see developed again. And since I think they are an integral role for beginning homes, some of this preservation work, if the city combined with the approach that we're seeing in social housing, if there is an ownership model expansion, if we can really blow our minds in terms of portland's role in terms of the ownership model expansion, I believe the ownership model is the model for economic security. And so if I believe that, I've got to be asking, how do we insert or get out of the way when it relates to that ownership model? So I'm thinking about that. They're not fully formed thoughts yet, but I am hoping that what are the possibilities that exist with that, with some of this preservation work that isn't really preserving deeply affordable units, it's just preserving old units were afraid are going to get turned into luxury units, because right now they're kind of the same amount of rent each month for the people who live there. That's been a challenge for me to understand the bureau's work, and I'd like to learn more about that going forward, but also how we expand and and look at different types of ownership model versus the single family home ownership model that we you know, we did I was an appraiser. I went to many of them. They were great, I loved it, it made a lot of sense for those owners. Now we have to think a little differently. Thanks, chair.
39 Thank you. Go ahead, councilor Ryan. Got a couple more minutes.
40 Yeah. I see people arriving to testify in the next item. So let me just answer your question succinctly. I think we should ease access for building housing. I think we should help convert market to affordable existing housing. I think that I'll stop there because the rest is kind of bleeds into the next item. And there's a lot of people here for that. Okay. Thank you. So again, I'm pushing us into this part of the continuum where we could actually be helpful to get some more supply.
41 Okay. Agree. Councilor Morillo I want to close this out.
42 Yeah, I'll be super quick. I really appreciate councilor Zimmerman's comments about the fact that there are some people in our society that are never going to be able to afford rent, and what it means for us as a government to have a responsibility to care for our community and to make sure that they're happy and healthy. And I think, frankly, that helps everybody else too. So appreciate that. I, I also agree with councilor Ryan, and I think and councilor Dunphy, we brought forward a resolution to address code changes, to make improvements, to make it easier to build in Portland. Councilor Zimmerman and I are bringing forward a design review thing tomorrow for full council. And so I think that we do have a responsibility to address how we make building easier in Portland. But I really, really want us to focus on things like social housing, land banking, just making sure that we have a forward vision about what it means to create more housing that is going to be inherently affordable and outside of the market, because right now we're just seeing skyrocketing rents, and there's really no one in my generation, none of my friends, even folks who have pretty great careers that are able to afford a home anymore. And so I think that I would love to see us really go all in on social housing and land banking and those types of things. And I know councilor Clark and a few other folks on council have also expressed a lot of interest in that. So that's where I would like to see us focus. And I'm very excited to hear all the testimony that I think we'll be getting from the audience today. So thank you.
43 Thank you, colleagues. So as I mentioned at the beginning, this was a preview. We're going to have a bigger discussion as a full council. And then I will keep you guys posted about the discussions at the unified housing strategy table. And make sure that your voices are reflected in that process. Thank you for the presentation, diego. Please call the last item.
44 Item four establish city council's priorities for the allocation of approximately 20,700,000 in unspent rental service office funds, and urge the mayor to reflect these priorities in the proposed budget.
45 All right, so a little level setting here. The council last month was informed by dca donnie oliveira that the housing bureau discovered close to 20.7 million in unspent funds with the rental within the rental services office, my office was already preparing to introduce a resolution. I was going to be doing it today as well. In response to the loud and growing demand of our community that they're making to help keep people housed, we were already prepared to urge the mayor to increase funding in the next fiscal year for projects and programs that we know work, and can help stem the tide of growing homelessness we experience once a month. But the discovery of these unspent funds gave us the perfect opportunity to act with urgency and fiscal responsibility. It is literally what these fees were designed to do, and the moment is right now. So we are very eager to meet the moment. My office has worked closely with councilors Dunphy and Smith, dca, oliveira and bureau staff, as well as a number of community partners to identify a proposal for how these funds can be allocated to slow the inflow into homelessness. And before I turn it over to my co-sponsors for their remarks, I want to make a note for public testimony. And there are a lot of eager folks here. I have changed it to 90s so that we can make sure we hear from everybody. So I don't have to cut people off and not be able to hear from the last half of testifiers. And please do I encourage folks to submit any more in writing and know that this is committee. It's going to have to hopefully eventually go to council where there will be more opportunity to speak on it. So with that, I'm going to pass it on first to counselor Dunphy and then counselor Smith.
46 Thank you. Yeah. You know, first I just want to say this is the good kind of budget surprise, but still not one that we want to see as a general rule. You know, the city council should absolutely have a better accounting of where these dollars are. But right now, in a moment in which the federal and state situation is getting worse for renters, that the assistance that we have, this is certainly, as I said recently, this is not enough to stop the hemorrhaging that is happening in our community, but it is a unique opportunity for the city of Portland to help control some of the bleeding. This is a. An opportunity that we will hopefully prevent people from falling into homelessness. I just keep coming back to the fact that we have spent hundreds of millions pushing into billions of dollars responding to our homelessness situation. We have amazing professionals working in all these different directions, getting up to 1100 people a month off of the streets and into housing. And yet 1400 people are falling into homelessness every month, and there are 1400 people every month having that scary conversation about that deadline coming forward, when they know that they are going to be out on the street and having to make those hard choices. If this can help prevent those conversations from happening, if we can help people from being forced into economic displacement. What a what a what a opportunity that we get to have for our community as we round this this year out. So I'm really thankful. And I'm also just I want to second appreciate councilor Avalos and councilor Smith that this is a effort being brought forward by the district one councilors primarily. I know that my the rest of my colleagues are enthusiastic to to learn more and be supportive. But district one, east Portland, we just need we just need our help. We need extra assistance. And things are different east of I-205. As we said, the permanently affordable housing that we have been building for decades is functionally market rate housing in our district. And so we know that the need is greater than we can possibly meet. But this is an excellent first step, and I'm enthusiastic to be a co-sponsor on this. So thank you.
47 Thank you, councilor Dunphy and councilor Smith. Welcome. Go ahead.
48 Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. Committee members. Madam chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. I rise in strong support of the slow the flow resolution sponsored by councilor Avalos, cosponsored by councilor Jamie Dunphy and myself. Together, we do believe that preventing homelessness is the most critical step we can take in the broader continuum of care. As councilor Dunphy Dunphy also often reminds us, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of what cure? Month after month, more portlanders fall into homelessness than we can house. If we only treat the symptoms, we will never solve the problem. Today, we have nearly $21 million in funds to allocate. For too long, we've relied on incentives from developers only to see the cost of living outpace wages by the time new housing is built. Meanwhile, nearly 2000 affordable units sit vacant, while thousands of our neighbors sleep outside or cycle endlessly between shelters and day centers. That is totally unacceptable, madam chair, the resolution is designed to assist tenants living in small, family owned rental properties with their rent payments. It allocates vital resources to the working and renting community of Portland. By supporting small landlords, they can manage their expenses without resorting without resorting to evictions. This approach enables tenants to afford their rent, which in turn sustain local businesses. As a result, families can remain housed, stable and engaged within their own communities. We cannot wait for another budget cycle or another fiscal year. Portland needs relief now. Every delay means more people pushed into a crisis. This resolution is about dignity, fairness and keeping our neighbors housed. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the slow the inflow resolution. Let us act with compassion, with urgency, and with clear understanding that prevention is the smartest, most humane path forward. I think councilor Avalos, for her leadership, councilor Dunphy for his partnership, and all of you for your commitment to addressing the most needed crisis of the day, homelessness and housing. Thank you, madam chair.
49 Thank you. Appreciate you, councilor Smith and councilor Dunphy, for those opening remarks. So we're going to go ahead and get into the presentation. My chief of staff, Jamie, will be doing that. And then we will get into we have, I believe, one amendment that we want to discuss before we open it up to testimony.
50 Okay. Perfect. And, madam chair, I just want to say that the county did in 2016, we handed over the homelessness department of the city of Portland to Multnomah county. And that is why we don't do homelessness anymore in the iga recognizes that. So that is something that we need to change if we're going to keep the entire continuum going forward.
51 I appreciate that. Thank you. Jamie, take it away.
52 Hi. Thank you. For the record, my name is Jamie evenstar. I am chief of staff for councilor Avalos. I want to make a quick note that we have a number of community partners here that we worked with to testify. And we will also have a oliveira Portland housing bureau staff and budget office staff here and available to answer questions after testimony. I only have seven minutes, so I'm going to blaze through this next slide, please, to the great evan hofer from dunphy's office. Thank you so much. First, it's important to know what we can spend the unspent fees on. This is from a memo we received that explains the uses of the funds. In short, all funds go into a reserve called the housing investment fund and is administered by the rental services office. It currently pays for our staff and all the projects and programs they currently provide, but in general, these funds can be used to support the city's housing initiatives that serve to develop or preserve affordable housing, or to help low to moderate income individuals access housing. Next slide please. And given that these funds were accumulated from landlord fees, the fact that they are one time dollars, and given that we are in a current crisis of people experiencing homelessness, we realize that we were in a win win situation here. If we focused our recommendations on the immediate need for stabilization, and that also most directly benefited landlords who contributed to these funds because as business owners, they also want the rent paid. Next slide please. Just as a reminder, because you've all received this info many times, the inflow to homelessness outpaces the outflow from homelessness by an average of 200 people a month, which means we for all of our efforts to get people out of homelessness, we aren't doing enough to prevent homelessness to begin with. It's like shoveling water from a lake without before we've dammed the river that's feeding the lake. We need to go upstream. Next slide please. I'm going to focus most of our time on the recommendations instead of all of the whereases of the resolution. But in general, these are some of the facts that the resolution describes. First, rental prices recently increased at twice the national average. We got these statistics you'll see in the resolution from a redfin report in 2022 that showed that in the year 2021 to 2022, rents increased in Portland 39%. We've had many people reach out to our office thinking that is a typo. It is not. It is just a very shocking number. Nearly 50% of renters are cost burdened, meaning that they're paying at least 30% of their income on rent and 24% are severely cost burdened, meaning they're paying at least 50%. The vast majority of evictions are due to nonpayment of rent. Wages aren't keeping up with economic realities, and federal and state resources are being drastically cut. And the takeaways for us are that this is not a drug addiction problem. This is not a mental health problem. This is not a laziness problem. This is an affordability crisis. Next slide please. So our recommendations focus heavily on as upstream from homelessness as possible as we can get. So we're going to go through those each in detail for you. But as a general overview of our recommendations, what you're going to see from us is that $9 million are being recommended for direct rent assistance in three main buckets before eviction, during eviction and after eviction, we are also recommending $9 million in emergency housing vouchers to head off what we see as an impending disaster for 426 households in the very near term, and we'll be recommending about 2.7 million in remaining dollars to go towards additional stabilization efforts. Next slide please. So the first, the number one item on the recommended list in the resolution is rent assistance for tenants. This would be new funding that the housing bureau would send out to community partners, much like they did during the COVID era. From what we've heard from administration, they do have current staff capacity to distribute these funds. So our recommended funding amount is $4 million distributed over the next two and a half fiscal years, 500,000 for this current fiscal year and 2 million for fiscal year 26, 27, and 1.5 for 2728. Next slide please. Number two on the list on the recommendation list is rent assistance and rapid rehousing. For tenants facing eviction. This is an expansion of a current program that the rental service office already has called the eviction eviction defense program. We're providing as much funding to this program as current kind of legal staffing can take on. This would include the addition of rapid rehousing dollars to get folks into other housing, should they not be successful in mediation. There is less in this bucket in general because it is already funded. We expect this would be supplant current funding levels instead of taking it over. So the recommended funding amount is 2 million over the next two and a half fiscal years, with 500,000 of those dollars coming online this fiscal year and 750,000 for the remaining two fiscal years. Next slide please. Number three on the list is rent assistance for individuals experiencing homelessness. So the mayor has been making really important efforts to focus on filling vacancies with people in shelter who need housing. And we would like to support those efforts because, again, the biggest barrier for people in shelters getting back into housing is not drug addiction or mental illness. It's the cost of rent, even when they have full jobs. So the recommended amount for this bucket is $3 million, 1 million of which would come online in 2526. And the remaining are distributed over the last two fiscal years. The reason why we're recommending a larger than you've seen, a typical amount to come online this year is because we've heard very strong advocacy from our partners who provide shelter shelter providers who are saying they are facing very severe cuts and their capacity to get shelter or get rent assistance dollars out to folks who are in shelter is going to be severely limited. Next slide please. We are going to skip number four and get back to it. Number five on your list is emergency housing vouchers. We are recommending $9 million of new funding to be provided to home forward, starting in fiscal year 2627. This 9 million covers all 426 households that represent some of the most vulnerable in our community, the federal government has recently told home forward that they are eliminating the emergency housing voucher voucher program, and so they have requested a one year off ramp to help find alternative housing funding sources and to buy some time in case there are more positive changes in the federal government. We've asked for harmful home forward to provide us more info about what that looks like, and I know christina dirks is here to answer any questions that you may have about that next slide, please. And so finally, these last few items are what remains of the $2.7 million in the unspent fees. Number four on your list is a right to council pilot. This was a recommendation from the housing bureau, specifically because they'd like to get a little more proactive in their eviction defense program in order to reach out to folks who are in specific geographies and make sure that they have direct access to counsel and these rent assistance dollars. So we're recommending 1.5 million for fiscal year 26, 27. Number six on the list is tenant education, landlord tenant education. This is also a request from the Portland housing bureau. It's expanded funding to make sure that landlords and tenants are understanding their rights and responsibilities, and have transparent access to that information. We're recommending $200,000 for the next fiscal year. Number seven is affordable housing portfolio stabilization. Again, this was also recommended by the housing bureau. You've heard us talk about this before, but we have affordable housing providers, particularly in the north northeast preference policy catchment area, who are experiencing extreme financial issues due to vacancy and turnover concerns. And they have some early plans on how this money could help address that. We're recommending 750,000 for next fiscal year. And finally, we are recommending down payment assistance for tenants ready to purchase at 250,000 for the next fiscal year to get a few folks into permanent housing. Next slide please. And finally, in thinking as upstream as possible and in recognition that the registration fees are bringing in approximately 2 million more each year than is currently budgeted, which is why we've experienced a surplus, we would like to recommend the creation of a revolving loan fund that will give us the ability to build capital for the purchase of land and market units, for conversion into non-market housing. Last slide. That's it. Thank you very much. I'm happy to come back up to the table after testimony concludes to answer any questions.
53 Thank you Jamie. Thank you, Jamie councilor I just want to check do you want to introduce an amendment? But then do you have a question? Councilor Zimmerman okay, let's do councilor Zimmerman's technical question, and then we'll bring your amendment in and then we'll do testimony. Go ahead.
54 Jamie, it's for you. Thanks for the presentation. You've laid it out quite clear. There's one part I wasn't clear about, and I want to ask. I don't think the mayor's supportive of this. And here's why I'm asking the question. You said requested by the housing bureau on a couple of these items. Is that a request that maybe we saw last budget that didn't get funded, or was that a new request with respect to this money? And I'm just trying to square those two things. If the housing bureau is requesting something that their boss is not supporting, I'm trying to understand what your language meant here.
55 Sure. It's based on a memo we received a few hours before we had to submit this resolution on what their recommendations were there. We've made kind of there's a bit of a collaboration, timing misalignment, but those are those are the same amounts of recommend or same recommendations they are making. I think we may differ on dollar amounts and timing of those dollar amounts, but these are programs and projects they would like that money to go towards as well.
56 Great. Thanks for clarifying. Yep. Thanks, chair.
57 Councilor Morillo.
58 Thank you. Chair. Avalos I have a very small amendment which I believe diego posted already. Is that correct? I see a nod. Okay, good. So it should be on the website for you, but it's a very small change to part six within the resolution. And I just want to add in the line that this will also support city development of a publicly available rental registry. So I can read the whole thing. If you'd like to see the new one, it would just read landlord tenant education expanded funding to provide support for landlords implementing tenant protections, parentheses. Resources like education and guidance. Parentheses expand landlord tenant education. And then this is the amended portion. Support city development of a publicly available rental registry. That's where it ends. And an informational campaign so tenants know their rights.
59 Thank you.
60 Oh well. And I think you did. You want it to be friendly or.
61 Yeah. If you are willing to take it as a friendly amendment. I was hoping that would be the case.
62 Councilor I'm an agreement. Sounds like you are councilor Smith. Do you accept that as a friendly?
63 Yeah, I just don't understand. We don't have a registry now. Is that the issue?
64 No. We do or wait.
65 Expanding it. We have a registry, but it is not public. And I think that having it public will really both be beneficial to tenants and to landlords. So that's part of the the aim with this.
66 Few years out of date.
67 Yeah. There's that.
68 Why don't you let that sit and we'll come back to it. Sound good okay. That way we can get right into testimony. Okay. So with that, let's jump on in. Diego, if you want to call our first couple. And as I mentioned, I've reduced the time to 90s so that we can ensure to hear from everybody.
69 Thank you. First up, patrick gehring. Christina dirks, sarah fisher. We have this name crossed off, but I just want to call it just in case, chris olson and followed by michael spurlock. Sarah will be joining us online shortly.
70 All right. Please go ahead.
71 Chair Avalos. Councilor. Thanks for hearing me. I'm patrick gehring, I'm the chief program officer at work systems. I want to express my support for funding for affordable housing, for rent assistance and wraparound services. I want to share the results of a city funded employment project that's wrapping up this month, that we've been involved in. The peer worker program helps portlanders in the homeless continuum of care, who want to do peer support and recovery work. In this pilot, job seekers were placed into peer support. Internships, where they work for 20 hours a week, were paid 17 an hour, and worked for 300 hours. I'll be speaking to these results and we partnered with krystal delahanty. She's the executive director of pdx saints, and she'll also be testifying today in this pilot. We had 22 people that we placed from the homeless continuum of care into paid internships, in peer support positions, 15 people, that's 68% successfully completed their internships in peer support. Six people quickly realized that they weren't ready for work. Can I keep going? Eight people were hired into peer support positions, including five at pdx saints and three more at other partner organizations. Five were hired into jobs outside of peer support occupations. One such person changed her mind from wanting to do peer support job to early learning, got into our program for internships at preschool for all internships, and now works at a preschool for all center. She's able to do it with young children because she has a preschool for all slot.
72 Thank you.
73 Good afternoon. My name is christina dirks. I'm the director of policy and planning at home for the housing authority for Multnomah county. I'm here today in support of this resolution, which recognizes the importance of rent assistance as the quickest and most effective way to support housing affordability and stability for renters. And I want to express my gratitude for the inclusion of the emergency housing voucher offramp fund as a priority investment. The eehv program, as we call it, was established by HUD in 2021 as a critical COVID era response to homelessness. Households received eehv vouchers through referrals from our local coordinated access system and internal domestic violence transfers within home forward. These eehv households were not awarded these vouchers through waitlists. Rather, they were awarded based on need and vulnerability as identified by our coordinated homeless response systems. As Jamie mentioned, we have currently 426 households supported by this program. They are some of our most vulnerable neighbors. Nearly 90% of these households have incomes below 30% of area median income. 85% of these households heads of households are older adults or people with disabilities, and more than half of households are bipoc renters, and the average household is four individuals. So lots of kiddos in this group of folks in this spring, all housing authorities nationwide that administer the voucher program were notified by HUD that the funding would end early for this program. And so based on our projections, we have funding through the fall of 2026, and then we will no longer have funding to support these households. And we know that these households are once homeless and they are at imminent risk of homelessness once again. And through this off ramp.
74 Fund, sorry, we're we're out of time. Sorry to rush you, but I want to make sure to hear from everyone. Next up. Sarah.
75 Hi, I'm sarah fisher. I pastor hope and bread church that meets in Montavilla park. Most of the people we serve at hope and bread are longtime portlanders who became homeless for a whole range of reasons that could happen to any of us. One piece of bad luck, the death of an income earner, an uninsured injury or illness, job loss, family loss, or simply having the rent raised beyond what they could afford. In short, most of the people I know who are homeless got there because they could no longer pay their rent. Yes, we have a serious drug problem in our city, and yes, many unsheltered people suffer from mental illness. It only takes a little bit of empathy to imagine how your own behavior and substance needs might be impacted by the prospect of a night on the sidewalk, or, for some of us, a night in a congregate shelter. We've all heard the quote attributed to desmond tutu, and also to saul alinsky that says, there comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in. I urge you to support this resolution, because it keeps a whole lot of people from falling into the river of houselessness. I've said it before and will say it again our city will never be renewed and revitalized until every portlander is treated with dignity and is safely housed. Thank you.
76 Just checking for chris olson. Nope. Next. Michael spallek, molly hogan, aaron brown, aman. Rutherford. Green.
77 Please go ahead. Should I wait for nope. Please go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. And thank chair Avalos and councilors. My name is michael szporluk. I have done work with broadway corridor steering committee with dlcd, Oregon housing needs analysis, and the climate friendly and equitable communities. And I've also done work with the united nations on the right to adequate housing. Councilor Dunphy asked the question, are we building the right housing? And I can very clearly and confidently say, no, we are not. We've talked a little bit about the affordability crisis, and that's absolutely very real. But we have not really dug into the accessibility crisis as well. We know that there is a severe lack of accessible homes in Portland and in Oregon more more broadly. And that severe lack means that housing choice is compromised for persons with disabilities and their families. Inaccessible housing means that of poor quality means that it's inherently unsafe. We know that homeless persons are disproportionately persons with disabilities, whether it's a physical disability or a mental health disability. And so we need to do more work on supporting these communities. We also know that Portland is an aging city, and Oregon as a whole is an aging. There's an aging demographic. The highest increase in in our demographics will be those over the age of 80. We know that age and disabilities correlated, and so we need to do a lot more specifically for that for our populations. Thank you.
78 Thank you. Whoever would like to go go ahead.
79 Okay. Hello, council. My name is molly hogan. I'm the director of the welcome home coalition. We are a multicultural alliance of organizations and individuals working on a housing justice movement in our tri county region. And as you all know, last week we delivered a petition to you, all signed by over 2000 people with three petition demands. And so we're here to enthusiastically support the slow the inflow resolution and thank councilor Avalos, Dunphy and Smith for bringing it forward. Our first demand is about eviction prevention, because we know that we need to stop people from falling into homelessness. We're also really pleased to see the city stepping in to address what the trump administration's harm. So I just want to reiterate that the trump administration has made a new mandate that cost money and local money, or that federal money be spent on funding emergency shelters. And so we'd like to see our local leaders really ensure that you're using federal dollars to fund our emergency shelter systems and use our local money for the things that the federal money won't allow spending for, which is long term rent assistance and short term rent assistance. All the rent assistance and support services. And we also want to uplift that in our finding home report that had the input of over 600 people experiencing homelessness in our region showed that a majority, 75% of people, said they can afford to pay something for rent. And that is huge, because that means our public dollars can go farther, right? We hear stories about folks stuck in our shelter system that actually does have $700 a month income. They could pay 200 and rent and have public dollars cover the rest. Right. And that allows our public dollars to help more people. So I'll just cut it short for time and just say yes, please move this forward. We're so excited to see this come to a January full council, hopefully so you can start getting these dollars out into the community and really making a material change in people's lives and most importantly, move people from our shelter systems into permanent housing and not create a bottleneck. What we're seeing now, thank you.
80 And hi, my name is aman rutherford Green. I'll piggyback off of what molly said. I'm a person with individual live experience. I just want to get more help and more help for the people that I been around. So I work hard, work three jobs and I'm still unable to afford the rent. Child support is real high for me. Got two, two, two children that's still minor and I'm just struggling trying to pay the rent with three jobs, so I'll keep it short and let the next person speak. Thank you Avalos, for having us.
81 Thank you. I see we have aaron online.
82 Good afternoon. My name is aaron brown and I'm the board president of Portland neighbors. Welcome. We are a grassroots, membership based organization committed to making Portland a place where housing is a human right and where every resident and future portlander has a safe and stable home they can afford. We fully support this resolution to prioritize funding and investment in rental assistance programs in an increasingly tight housing market, we need to ensure that Portland families facing economic instability and precarity are able to stay housed. The bulk of this funding goes to initiatives that studies show are cost effective in helping families avoid homelessness, and to initiatives that intuition suggests are morally sound. As a grassroots organization focused on promoting housing abundance and affordability, we understand the need over the long term to build more housing to ensure we have more places to live for portlanders. We also know that in the short term, the targeted investments included in this resolution are a critical lifeline to communities facing housing instability right now. We are delighted to see both of these initiatives undertaken in tandem from the Portland city council, and will continue to support these overlapping efforts. It is deeply convenient for all of us that the investments we can make to support the victims of america's dickensian economic and housing inequality are also the investments that provide the most immediate stability, support and care for our neighbors that need it the most. We deeply appreciate the leadership from councilor Candace Avalos and our east Portland colleagues, Jamie Dunphy and Loretta Smith, to reach out to housing policy experts to put this resolution together. Portland neighbors welcome is proud to be a member of the welcome home coalition, an entity that deserves tremendous credit for assisting in the development of this. This is exactly the sort of government collaboration with community experts that make for effective public policy. We urge your support for this resolution. Thank you for your time.
83 Thank you.
84 Next we have michelle ann hornbeck, crystal delahanty, sandra comstock, robbie farah. Robbie will join us online.
85 It's michelle here.
86 Michelle was here.
87 All right then let's go with crystal.
88 Thank you for having me. I'm crystal delahanty. I'm the founder and executive director of pdx saints. I'm also here representing welcome home as a steering committee member. Last week, I did a coordinated housing assessment with a man in his mid 60s. As we finished the intake, we learned that he is disabled. After a lifetime of work in this city, he receives a small social security disability check, but the rent is too high. With no rental history and poor credit, a deposit is completely out of reach and he's not unique. Tonight, hundreds of people like him are sleeping in bus stops, doorways and the cold. Many of them are homeless for no other reason than the rent is too high, assistance is limited, and there's no one left to call in their life when things fall apart. While I commend this, this neighbor needs immediate rental assistance, engaged case management, and wraparound support so that when he stumbles, there is someone to call. While I commend the mayor for his tenacity, he is not listening to the people. He is not listened to advocates. He is not listened to housing providers, and he has not listened to people who have done this work for decades in this city. Instead, he has surrounded himself with yes people and rejected anyone, asking him to look at the whole picture of safety and human stability. We are grateful that this committee is putting the work to listen, and we implore you to take these conversations and these personal human stories to shape not just your votes around this resolution, but also as you come into this next budget season, next year, in a time when we are seeing thousands of people enter homelessness annually, we have to stop it by focusing on rent assistance, eviction defense, supportive case management and workforce development for individuals in our city who belong to us, who are not just the homeless. As the mayor shared in a meeting last night.
89 Thank you. Go ahead. Sandra. Next.
90 Am I next? Okay. Sorry, I'm sandra comstock. I've been a small business owner and landlord. I'm founder of a sorry, an editor of hygiene for all. And spend my free time sitting on about how half a dozen committees and coalitions. Why to listen and understand the many moving parts and where we can improve our housing and homelessness system. I'm here today to support the resolution to find rent assistance. I mean, fund rent assistance, because where the whether the public knows it or not, we are facing a tsunami of evictions in the next year, a cataclysm foretold. If elected officials don't start listening and planning with those in the trenches. If we don't start rowing together, our beloved community, our beloved Portland, will go down. Last night at 5 p.m. After working my tail off on a HUD nofa for funding announced less than two weeks ago, a nofa that upended all the priorities from the previous year. Last night at 5 p.m. Three days before the proposal was due, HUD canceled the nofa this kind of chaos waste and getting the rug pulled out from under us is the shock wave rushing toward our city. Right now, the cataclysm is gathering force. Now the tsunami is on its way. Either we begin rowing together, or we will double evictions and numbers on our streets. Let's roll up our sleeves, listen to one another, and start acting like a team to batten down the hatches so we can move our neighbors out of the danger. Thank you very much.
91 Thank you. Go ahead. Rabbi.
92 Hi. Yes, my name is rabbi farah and I only stress the rabbi part this time because I am running for governor. So we got to get this right. I'm going to speed run my comments because I had prepared comments. But I really want to speak from the heart. As somebody who has faced housing insecurity since I was 17 years old, the gray and red area on your list should not exist. They are a capitulation that the systems that exist failed. Emergency housing is not a solution. If you have ever experienced housing insecurity, you know this. There was a question about what does someone do after 6 a.m. Whenever they're kicked out of that shelter, they hustle. They hop from bus to train to library to public bathroom to public charging station. They are harassed and intimidated multiple times a day. Maybe they stop by tpd to have a shower and do laundry. If they're lucky, they go to their gym. They find free food at the soup kitchen. They spend their entire waking day surviving the next minute. The statistics for queer people and femmes and women on the street is 99% of us experience sexual assault of some kind within the first three days of housing insecurity. And on the housing market. Housing is a human right, not a commodity. And beyond that, as long as the floor of the market is no house, we will continue to have homelessness. This is basic economics. So thank you, councilor Avalos, for bringing this resolution forward. It is incredibly important and crucial and vital. Thank you for the urgency.
93 Thank you.
94 Next we have bronwyn carver marie table. The next name is crossed off. But I just want to double check sharon mirren followed by erin meechan and andy miller. And mary will join us online shortly.
95 The first name you called was bronwyn, right? I don't see. Or are they online? No. I go ahead.
96 Hello.
97 My name is erin meehan and I'm actually a resident in Gresham, but I also participate in lots of arenas for affordable housing. Not only am I on the housing stability council, have I worked for kat on the board of community alliance of tenants. I have a housing voucher and I actually have affordable housing and my rent is still too expensive. I appreciate everybody's comments. Thank you for putting this forward. Housing stability, stabilization and eviction prevention is the big one of the biggest cut budget cuts that we had this last session in Oregon for the state, for the city, for the county, and along with rent assistance, the Oregon law center, as well as housing stabilization programs such as tenant education, huge component community alliance of tenants hotline helps a lot of people mediate between the tenant and the landlord. Knowing the rules. Knowing. Understanding what. What to write, how to write a letter, what what their rights are is very, very important. You know, the other thing too, the rabbi just spoke of is unless you've actually experienced it, you don't understand it. And when you are faced with a housing eviction or eviction notice, you freeze. It's a horrific experience hustling on the street because you're because you're couch surfing. It's a lot of work. So I do appreciate what you guys have put forth. I hope that the rest of the state takes account of it. And please continue to work with members of the community. Welcome home coalition. I'm also a member of that. Just great groups that will help and get feedback from those that have experienced this. Thank you so much for your time.
98 Marie. Feel free to unmute yourself when you're ready.
99 Do you want me to start?
100 Yes. Thank you.
101 Good afternoon. My name is marie tival and I'm in full support of the proposals described today. I also want to ask you to reverse the current prohibition against handing out tents and tarps to our houseless neighbors. It is a literal death sentence. As reported by opb, the total number of people living outside or in a vehicle has risen by more than a thousand to nearly 7500. And even if the mayor shelters are full, that still leaves thousands of people outside fully exposed to the elements. A trusted provider of homeless services reports that our houses neighbors have to keep moving due to aggressive policing and being checked like crazy for outstanding warrants. Without tarps, they can't keep their home and possessions dry. I'm sure you can't imagine going camping, quote unquote, without a tarp and a tent, but somehow we expect our houseless neighbors to keep their home possessions dry during an atmospheric river event. I have the word camping in quotes because, of course, no one would choose to live outside if they have somewhere else to go. In November 2024, the mayor said handing out a tent in a person's time of great need is like putting a band-aid on grant on gangrene. It is not helping at all. Admittedly, that's a very low bar and I fully expect you all to do better. Thank you.
102 Once more for erin. Oh, sorry, andy miller, if you can hear us, andy, feel free to unmute.
103 Thank you, chair Avalos and members of the committee. For the record, my name is andy miller. I have the pleasure of serving as the executive director of our just future, where your partners in east Portland providing emergency shelter, rental assistance, eviction prevention and affordable housing. We deeply value our partnership with you in the city. I'm here to recommend two important modifications to the resolution before you, if you will, a yes please and a yes. But first the yes please. We urge you to prioritize immediate investments to get and keep people housed. We urge you to quickly direct current year dollars to eviction prevention and to housing placements out of shelter. Our shelter to housing placements are being hit right now by a $4.5 million cut in state funding flowing through Multnomah county. Providers are making holiday time layoff plans and pausing placements from shelter as we speak. These aren't future impacts, they're happening today. We urge you to deploy every available dollar immediately to fill that $4.5 million gap, so people can continue moving from shelter into permanent homes to stay focused on housing. And so our funded 24 over seven shelter beds can be made available to the next person in need. Second, yes, but the programs in the resolution are all valuable work. We would support a normal budget times, but as you all know, these times are anything but normal. We're facing unprecedented funding cliffs across federal, state and local sources before we lock in multiyear plans for this critical, flexible funding, we urge you to adopt a clear, shared resource map. We respectfully recommend. A city led summit includes Multnomah county, metro and the state and service providers to map resources, including expiring one time funding. We want to be a partner with you in developing this resource map. We know a reset is coming, and we urge you to consider that reset before allocating these funds too far into the future.
104 Thank you.
105 Next is waylett thomas, followed by becky strauss, state representative lamar wise, ceyhan mckelvie.
106 Let's just go with who's at the table first okay.
107 Thank you. Chair Avalos, members of the housing committee becky strauss I'm an attorney with the Oregon law center. We're a nonprofit law firm whose mission is to achieve justice for low income Oregonians by providing a full range of the highest quality legal services. I submitted written testimony, so I want to focus on one particular part. We are supportive of this resolution and really appreciate the leadership from district one. This is the homelessness response that we want to see. Oregon law center runs an eviction legal defense program, and the housing bureau, through the rental services office, funds a portion of that work to focus on Portland households. Our contract pays for two attorneys and one paralegal. They field calls from thousands of tenants per year, connecting them with legal education materials, referrals to rent assistance, partner programs like clear clinic and metropolitan public defender, or place tenants evicted directly with our office for legal advice and representation in eviction court. Portland tenants who are facing eviction can call us. They have a notice, or they're been filed in court from their landlord. They can call the eviction defense project for help. We do our best to help everyone, but we cannot help everyone. Anyone who has ever been to eviction court in Multnomah county knows that we cannot help everyone. There are about 1000 eviction cases filed per month in Multnomah county. Around 90% of those are because those households could not make the rent. So in the aggregate, those cases contribute to monthly inflow numbers. And at the individual level, they are stories of hardworking families with children, domestic violence survivors who are traumatized through an eviction process where help was not available when they need it. These targeted investments can help improve that situation. It would mean that rent assistance availability wouldn't cut off so soon each month. It would mean that we could staff up and help more people in a targeted and strategic way, and it would prevent hundreds of evictions per month. Thank you so much for your leadership.
108 Thank you.
109 Okay. All right. Good afternoon, council members and neighbors. My name is lamar wise, and I'm the state representative for house district 48, serving southeast Portland and north Clackamas. I want to thank the district one councilors for bringing this resolution forward at such a crucial time. I'm here today as someone who has watched too many families in our community slip closer to houselessness. When you sit with people facing eviction, whether it's parents choosing between rent and medication, or seniors cutting meals to keep their lights on, you understand that houselessness isn't just a sudden event. It's a combination of issues portlanders are facing. We know the data. Nearly half of Portland Portland renters are cost burdened, and many of them severely cost burden, paying more than half of their income just to stay housed. Evictions are on the rise, pushing thousands towards instability. But behind these numbers are real people workers, students, elders, folks who deserve better. This resolution is about stepping in early. Invest in the tools that actually stop houselessness before it starts. Emergency rent assistance, eviction, defense mediation, rapid rehousing, and support for tenants who just need a little bit of help to stay stable. And it allows us to act now. Early intervention doesn't just keep people in their homes, it preserves neighborhood stability, reduces trauma and eases pressure on shelters, and affirms a basic truth. Our community is stronger when we protect people before they fall into crisis. So let's move with urgency and I support this resolution. And thank you again.
110 Thank you. Go ahead.
111 Good afternoon, chair Avalos and members of the committee. My name is sahar mckelvie. I'm the director of advocacy and engagement for ci self enhancement inc. And I'm here to express support for this resolution because it addresses some of the most critical needs that we see in our system. And I completely understand the dynamic of $21 million is not enough to address all of the critical needs in our system, and any pushing and pulling on this money gets us into a place where we're trying to measure the scope of someone's need, and I don't think any of us want to do that. I strongly support the ability to provide dollars for eviction prevention. I strongly support the ability to ensure that people with vouchers that need them desperately are able to keep them. I strongly support the idea of being able to create additional pathways out of shelter, because that is a tremendous need. But the strongest thing that I support is the ability to take every step that we can to rightsize all of our funding streams in a way that aligns themselves into a system that is addressing our need at the maximum level. We can't address every need. We don't have the dollars for that, but we have to be able to maximize every dollar that we have. And the way to do that is to ensure alignment with all of our different treatment options. And one thing that I would want to say to that with these dollars specifically is it is literally and figuratively raining right now. We need dollars. Right now we need eviction prevention. Right now we need to ensure pathways out of shelter right now. And I would recommend doing that with these dollars and prioritizing those as soon as possible. And looking at future budget years to rightsize and align funding in future budget years. Not trying to correct those problems with these dollars right now. Let's use these right now when our need is exceedingly great. Thank you.
112 Thank you.
113 Next up, andrea knight, followed by nick savi, jung ho, brian hoop. Andrea, you're welcome to unmute and begin when you're ready.
114 Hello. My name is andrea knight. I am a tenant education specialist for community alliance of tenants. I work on the hotline talking with people facing evictions. I've heard firsthand the accounts of how people face evictions due to nonpayment. Some get sick or injured, some had family circumstances. Some are just simply working more than 40 hours but still not able to afford their rent. I hear their stories all the time and it breaks my heart every day. I'm here today to plead that the monies that have been found be put towards rent assistance programs and tenant education so that we can help people stay in their homes. This winter. Hundreds of families face nonpayment eviction in Multnomah county alone. We as portlanders need to approach the issue of homelessness on many fronts, including rent assistance, which can help keep folks housed. I plead for those who cry on my shoulder, wondering how they'll keep a roof over the heads of their families, I plead for those who lost a single paycheck due to unforeseen circumstances. I plead for those who are drowning in these challenging economic times. Please, please, please have mercy on these people. Help them out just a little to get over the rough patches. That life sentence. Thank you for your time.
115 Thank you. Are there other folks online or no.
116 We have jung ho. You're welcome to unmute and begin when you're ready.
117 Hi, my name is jung ho, and I'm here as a Portland renter as well as the tenant education and support director at community alliance of tenants cat. We're also a welcome home coalition member, and I'm here to support the proposed resolution. So cat serves and advocates with renters by educating and empowering tenants to demand safe, stable and affordable homes. We serve around 2000 renters annually through our hotline. As you just heard from andrea, including legal assistance, referrals, rent assistance, and service navigation, as well as other services, a majority of renters we serve have an extremely low income folks with disabilities, elderly, black, indigenous, and people of color, immigrants and refugees, and our hotline specialists. They speak to tenants every week that need help paying rent, and tenants who face evictions, helping a household pay their largest expense, which is rent at a time of emergency, prevents the impacts of eviction. Emergency rent assistance is proven to stabilize house households and also prevent homelessness. But the reality is there isn't enough rental assistance.
118 Funds to help who needs it.
119 It's an unfortunate and common outcome that a renter would. We have referred to an agency for rent assistance, then calls us back and says, hey, I've been notified that the the funds have run out for the month. So organizations such as cat, other tenant support organizations, we successfully use emergency rental assistance coupled with tenant education, legal services and referrals to improve housing stability. And so we thank you for the opportunity, of course, to give testimony today and for your service to the most under-resourced and vulnerable communities. Thank you so much.
120 Thank you. Go ahead. Brian.
121 Chair and members of the committee. My name is brian hoop, executive director of housing Oregon. Thanks for the opportunity to comment. Housing Oregon supports the council resolution and urges prioritization of the allocation of these funds on rental assistance, rapid rehousing and longer term rental vouchers. Housing Oregon is the statewide association representing 147 mission driven affordable housing providers and allied businesses working to ensure Oregonians have stable, safe and affordable places to call home regarding access to rental, rental assistance and vouchers. We also need to work together to simplify regulations for current processes for accessing funds. Some of the challenges our members have identified as barriers to quickly placing folks in the housing and preventing homelessness include waitlist issues and rules for accessing funds for eviction prevention deposits and move in costs. And we appreciate the inclusion of resources for affordable housing portfolio stabilization. We urge you to direct the city's governmental relations team to join us in advocacy at the state legislature for increased bonding capacity for portfolio stabilization to save the nonprofit organization providing affordable housing. And the need for these issues is the need for these resources is an issue our members have been discussing this fall since being invited to speak with the mayor at a community forum this past August to address how to fill vacant units for individuals transitioning out of the city funded nighttime shelters. So I've submitted more additional comments about that issue. And thank you for the opportunity to share comments and for your leadership on this issue.
122 Thank you.
123 Next, we have danelle stevens, john collins, camilla adams, loyalty hustler.
124 I come here and I appreciate all the people. I just went to the dentist so half of my jaw is frozen and I'm I'm actually a landlord and I have been for 30 years in Portland. I have small I have converted three houses to duplexes. And I would like you to make sure you make decisions based on good data. I think 39% increase is not my existence. I didn't increase rents 39%. And 1649. What does that represent? Did you take into account the the more expensive homes and apartments that have been built? Did you take into account utilities? Last month I paid $822 for two for a water bill in a duplex. Did you take into account the increase for landlords in taxes? Did you take into account the increase those kinds of data? I mean, I am sympathetic, I've never evicted anyone. I have people come back to town and ask me if I have any rentals available. I'm a good landlord. I'm not. Please don't trash all the landlords in this process.
125 Thank you. Before you go, can you state your name for the record?
126 Oh, I'm sorry, danielle stevens.
127 Thank you danielle.
128 And some of you know me in another way, but I'm my other job is being a landlady, so thank you.
129 Thank you. Danielle.
130 Camilla, you're welcome to unmute and begin when you're ready.
131 To say something.
132 I think you're getting some feedback. Camilla.
133 Sorry. Can I move really quick? Because there's doing maintenance on my house. But thank you, council members, for this opportunity. I am also a renter, but my name is camilla adams. I'm the owner of mimi's fresh teas and a housing advocate. I used to do housing specialist work for over ten years, so I see how this the lack of resources impacts renters. In a staggering statistic that I came across that black women are disproportionately evicted and we just need additional help and resources. So I'm in support of this resolution. We do need rent assistance. However, I do urge council chambers to make sure you have oversight on who you're sending the rent assistance funds to because as a former housing specialist, I was helping a lot of clients participate resources and in collecting rent assistance. And some nonprofits denied people when they have the funding. So I do think that oversight is vital when you are sending resources out to local nonprofits. And it's not all nonprofits. Some of them do really good work, but the one that I was previously working at denied people for several bad reasons. But anyway, I am in support of this resolution. Thank you, councilman, and thank you.
134 By thank you.
135 That's the end of my list. But for folks in the audience, if you didn't hear your name called and you registered for testimony, if you could just raise your hand.
136 I saw one more on the list. Am I or did you not read?
137 Or is it loyalty? Hustler? Yeah, yeah. They're not online loyalty. Oh, come on up.
138 Diego. I think there was another person raising their hand as well. Come on up.
139 If you want to come up to me at the clerk seat.
140 All right. Hello, I'm john collins, and I want to talk with everyone a little bit about caring. Have you ever walked into a store and asked for help? And the cashier just pointed you in the direction of the item? Have you ever been greeted at the door and had an employee who walked with you to the back of the store and made sure you found it? Have you ever had a teacher that didn't care and one who truly did? Have you ever had a lawyer who didn't care? Someone speaking for you in court when you had so much on the line? And have you ever had one that cared, one that fought for you and made sure your voice, your voice was heard? Have you ever had a loved one in the hospital with their life on the line, and the doctor didn't seem to care? Have you ever had a doctor who cared? Stayed with you, answered every question and treated your loved one like family? That difference can mean life or death. Have you ever had a friend or neighbor that didn't care? And then one who truly did. We currently have friends and neighbors living on the streets in Portland. I am homeless, living in a shelter and working full time. I currently spend about a couple hours a week doing homeless outreach, and every week I get at least one person into shelter. In Portland, we go to concerts, trail blazers games. We go to rallies, parades, and protests. And if you think about it, all of these last a couple hours. I'm asking everyone in Portland in the month of December to spend a few hours doing homeless outreach on our streets in Portland. Thank you.
141 Thank you.
142 Last up, we have waylett thomas.
143 Okay.
144 Hello. I'm a living testament of just going from homelessness to being housed. I spent most of all last year in the shelter, and as much as I love the staff there, those shelters remain empty. And the people at the shelters don't really help people like myself. Going from homelessness to like housing due to the fact that they don't have the resources to do so, and due to the fact that they don't have the experience to do so. So like I'm here today asking the councilman to just invest that money into, like into the shelters rather than open up more shelter beds and, and just putting a band aid to what really the situation is. Portland is very progressive, but it's still operates in the 1946 law in like 1946 with the racism and and you have people like me who lost housing due to the fact that I opened a HUD case against my, my prior landlord. So it's like I'm a living testament of.
145 Just.
146 What it means to like, be resilient. But it's like we still need these funds put into the shelters so people could be like, okay, well, our shelters are put into like rental assistance because the shelter operates like the jail system I spent most. I spent two months in the jail due to a dv situation this year. And it's like comparing how shelters. Operate and how the jail system operate. It's no different. So it's like people don't want to be in shelters. And I and I say that because I didn't want to be in the shelter. But I got denied eight times for housing. And it's crazy because I work in housing. So I knew I was blacklisted.
147 And you so much for telling your story. I'm so sorry that I have to rush you, but I appreciate you telling your story. Thank you.
148 That concludes testimony.
149 Okay, let's get on in. Councilor Morillo.
150 Thank you, chair Avalos. You know, I see we have five minutes left of our time here. And I think that it's really important to get this resolution through. So I think the the amendment that I proposed might be, might need more time to be discussed. So I would like to just withdraw it at this time so that we can vote for the underlying resolution and really appreciate all the testimony that came in today.
151 Thank you. Sounds good. Okay. We are in open discussion. I don't see any hands. Right. Councilor Zimmerman?
152 Thanks, counselor. I'll tell you what. When I asked the question about where did the rental registration fee go a few months ago, I never thought it would be the most valuable question I've asked in my career. $21 million under the couch. So that's awesome. But it also, you know, gives us some choices. And so I think I'm listening through this and. I'll just say one of the parts that gives me the most pause is the home forward dedication here. Given the amount of vacancy that we're seeing there, given that they're not a Portland only entity. And I'll just say that the 426 homes helped with $9 million is about a year's worth of rent at the average rent in Portland of 1731. I guess my expectation would have been higher on the outcomes, because rent assistance is not 100% of one's rent, and so 426 is not an acceptable number for me for 9 million. So that's what I'm thinking about a little bit through here. And I am weighing that against the Multnomah county. You know they don't actually separate out their their rent assistance with their transition, but they're in about the $156 million bucket, if you will. So I'm thinking through some of that as we as we go here. I do appreciate the some folks. I will say I'm not exactly sure what the work systems connection testimony was about or where this program fits that I wasn't understanding that whatsoever. So I don't understand that, but I am also, I'm reminded a lot of representative sanchez a few years ago at our legislative breakfast at Multnomah county, really challenged us at the county to think about what the threshold is for rent assistance, because we really expanded during the pandemic. And she says, as a person who gives out rent assistance from her day job, she was really challenging us for like how that system has grown. So meaning we hadn't really tooled it in a way that seemed that we could articulate who is qualifying, what is the threshold for qualifying, how is it given out? And I know that only I think only one person really kind of mentioned that today. But that's where I'm thinking in terms of like, is this enough bang for the buck? Because I also am thinking about a few development projects that I know are targeted at the 60, 80, 90%, even below ami for development who need to get over. So that's kind of where I'm thinking colleagues. But I appreciate this coming forward and also deeply appreciate everybody who showed up today. One year of rent assistance versus, you know, decades worth of building a new capacity since given our last conversation, most of our conversation was in the Green and the purple and blue area. To me, I took that as a lot of capacity discussion. So in those two choices, that's what I'm I'm weighing right now today.
153 Understood. Councilor Ryan.
154 Yes. Thank you, chair Avalos I realize you want to vote on this in like two minutes. Great. First of all, thank you for all the testimony today. I really appreciated the testimony from home forward, which reminded us how we got here in terms of revenue from HUD during COVID, when the ARPA funds were distributed across the county to provide rent assistance, legal services, we were all on board with that. The big issue then was getting money out the door. After some fits and starts, fb became a trusted partner to get those funds out to many of the providers. Many of you who testified today. So my question is, besides getting money out the door, how does ph measure success? What types of consistent accountability data tracking do we do with the providers so we can access, think, analyze, and learn from the data and get better results? I'm not hearing any of that. And so I don't think in my opinion, we have to make a decision on this today. I think we should take a little bit more time to be aware of the problem, to analyze and accept the data and learn from it, and then with that reflection, then take some action. So since I am pushed today to vote on this, I will definitely be a no, because I don't think we've done the proper steps for us to get to a better yes for those who are suffering on our streets. And thank you to all the testimony. I really appreciate the person that said we should all spend some time doing outreach. We're failing miserably at outreach at the county, and I also want to thank the one landlord who was brave enough to come here today. And I always am reminded, our best low income housing in the history of the city has been from small land, small landlords, and you've always been the backbone of low income housing. I see you, thanks.
155 Thank you. With the q exhausted, I'm going to move us into a vote. Let's see. I would like to entertain a motion to send the resolution 2025 478 to full council with a recommendation it be adopted.
156 So moved.
157 Second.
158 Moved by councilor Dunphy, seconded by councilor Morillo. Let's move into a vote.
159 Zimmerman.
160 I'm actually shocked that this is all the discussion we have on this. No.
161 Dunphy I.
162 Mean.
163 Right, no.
164 No no no no.
165 Sorry.
166 I it's my name, but I didn't hear you.
167 That was one. Nay, Morillo.
168 Thank you so much to my district one colleagues, for really centering the people who are most impacted at this time. I am very proud to support I vote yea.
169 Avalos.
170 I appreciate that this feels rushed. I know that we had limited discussion. I do think it's important to move it to the next step, and I'm definitely interested in talking with you all about some of those things you raised as we look at the council, bringing it to council. So I'm open to that discussion, but I'm going to vote aye.
171 And with three eyes and two nay votes, the motion carries to send the resolution document number 2025 478 to the full council with a recommendation to be adopted.
172 Thank you.
173 Sorry. Clap more. Okay. This is our final committee meeting of the year. Our next one is January 13th. We will be doing a lot of things there. Let's just keep going. That's it. Goodbye.
174 For.