The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-06-10
Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (5,028 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are not yet identified (colors just separate consecutive turns). Auto-captions can contain errors — check the recording for anything that matters.
Session summaryEditor-reviewed
Portland's Homelessness and Housing Committee met on June 24 (referenced in the session record as June 10, per the transcript's introductory roll call), convening with attendance confirmed for committee members and staff, followed by a standard statement on public testimony procedures. The session focused on a presentation of the North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy, marking its 10-year anniversary, delivered by Portland Housing Bureau staff. The presentation covered investment totals—described as over $130 million in combined funding sources—directed toward displacement prevention, home repair, home ownership assistance, rental housing development, and land acquisition. Figures presented included assistance to nearly 1,300 families for home repairs, 16 households achieving home ownership through the preference policy, and 877 affordable rental units developed across 11 buildings, with data on preference-policy applications and rent burden also presented. Members of the Northeast Oversight Committee offered remarks on the strategy's history, ongoing affordability challenges for Black families, and comments regarding engagement with the current city council. Public testimony was opened following the presentation, though no council action was taken on the report itself. If any votes occurred, outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger.
AI-drafted from the session's auto-captions, reviewed by an editor — describes the discussion only; recorded votes live in the vote ledger. Captions contain errors.
0 Latin. [music] oh, [music] hey. Heat. Heat. [music] come on. Come on. [music] hey. [music] heat. Heat. I'll wait for the picture. [music] and cheese. Where'd you get that? Is there a spot nearby for that? Oh, yeah. You want one? No. No. No. [music] ready. Okay. Good afternoon. I am going to call the meeting of the homelessness and housing committee to order. Tuesday, June 24th at 12:16 p.m. Diego, please call the role. Brian, here. Zimmerman duny here. Avalos, present. Uh, all right. And then ashley, please read the statement of conduct for council committee meetings. Welcome to the meeting of the homelessness and housing committee. To testify for this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance in the committee agenda at ww.orland.gov/countsil/aggenda/home homelessness and housing committee or by calling 311. Information on engaging with this committee can be found on this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes 1 hour prior meeting. In person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals might testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise. Your your microphone will be muted when the time is over. The chair preserves order. Destructive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up or interrupting others testimony or community deliberation will not be allowed. If you cause disruption, warning will be given. Further disruption will result in an ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee might take a short recess or reconvene virtually. Your testimony should be shall address the matter being considered when testifying. State your name for the record. Your if your lobbyists identify the organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you. All right. Thank you, ashley. So today we've got a bit of a switch up and let me just start by acknowledging um how frustrating it has been I know for um our presenters today who are going to be sharing the north and northeast uh neighborhood housing strategy report. Um and we had to delay a little bit and we're hanging on to quorum with uh councelor duny. Uh uh unfortunately we had just folks had emergencies and so we were almost going to lose quorum. So, we're not going to do the second half of the meeting um which was to talk about the unified housing strategy objectives. I will push that to the next one. Um so, we will just focus today on the report. Um and then we also I'll just note we are going to open it up for public testimony after we um discuss it. Um and I'm we're doing that because we're not taking any action on the report today. We're hearing it as a presentation, but we wanted to open it up for the public to provide comment since it's not going to the full council. So with that, diego, can you read the first item? Northnortheast neighborhood housing strategy. All right. So this item comes to us from the Portland housing bureau, and I'm going to go ahead and hand it off to staff to get us started. Come on up. Kick it off. Right. Yes. Let me pull up the slides. Okay. Go ahead. Uh, good afternoon. Helme hiseric, director of the Portland housing bureau. And I'm just going to uh read a few remarks and then I will step back. [applause] the presentation that you will see today is the 10-year anniversary of the northn northeast housing strategy, and it's a project that I take no credit for. All of the work that you will hear about took place before I came here, but I'm using my privilege as the bureau director to speak today because I want to share my perspective on this work. Before I came to Portland, I worked in the city of los angeles for 25 years where like Portland, communities of color were raised through eminent domain to make way for freeways and stadiums and hotels. After major transportation investments were made, rents and home prices skyrocketed from public investment while pushing out lowincome apartment dwellers. Very often books were written about the loss of historic communities of color with pictures of once vibrant neighborhoods. And very often people pledged to do better in the future. But over the course of 25 years, I never saw a system focused on bringing people back to a community after they were displaced until I arrived in Portland. That is why I'm particularly impressed by the work of the northnortheast housing strategy. The effort to restore the opportunity for displaced community members to return to northnortheast Portland is very significant. It is not a pledge to do better. It is an action. It is not lip service to an idea. It has been a steady commitment over a long period of time to direct human resources and financial resources and community to a northnortheast Portland so that families who lost their foothold can come back and thrive. So that black homeowners who lost generational wealth can return and be part of the community community that gentrified them out. Importantly, this work has been led by people of color who come from the community. And though many people have been involved, including elected leaders in Portland, researchers, public agencies such as prosper Portland, and many many community organizations, there are a few people I would like to acknowledge today. First, I want to express my appre appreciation for leslie goodllo, who is the executive manager of operations and equity at the Portland housing bureau. She has been a steady guiding hand from the city who has maintained the focus of our team at the Portland housing bureau on the northnortheast housing strategy. And just as an aside, on my very first day as director, she pllopped it in front of me and a week later said, "have you read it?" she is a public servant in every sense of the word who has committed to implementing this initiative since it started 10 years ago. And I want to acknowledge the hard work of the team at the Portland housing bureau who implement the home ownership programs, the repair programs, the multif family finance and development programs, and the northnortheast preference policy and the admin team who show up every month at the oversight committee for in northnortheast Portland to create space for community dialogue and to report on the status of the work. And I want to express my gratitude for dr. Steven holt, who has volunteered thousands of hours over the last decade as chair of the northn northeast oversight committee. He has managed a monthly meeting in full transparency and late nights ma over uh discussing complex topics and having often difficult conversations and also to the entire norththeast oversight committee who has given their time and intelligence to this mission. Portland should take pride in the northnortheast housing strategy. It has gotten some national recognition. It is truly a unique and profoundly important body of work that has few places with similar circumstances have figured out how to implement. I am working to draw lessons from the work that has preceded me here. Uh and I feel privileged to be able to join the monthly meetings and hear the conversations taking place. It is a real example of the accomplishments that happen when people of color lead and when leadership begins with love of Portland, love of community, and an unwavering belief that we can change the course of history. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you very much for opening that and your comments. Uh I'm dr. Steven holt and I am the chair of the oversight committee and um it's a privilege to be in the moment and uh I feel like saying we finally made it to this place. We've been at this now for uh gosh several months trying to get into this space and as you identified the meeting has been changed a few times. Now we're here. Um it is with kind of mixed emotion that I sit in front of us having historically had the opportunity because of the significance and breadth of this work um to meet with the entire council. Of course that was prior to our new um council and and um uh the shifts and changes that have happened. It was our hope that we'd be sitting in front of the full subcommittee to have this conversation because of the weight and the gravity of what we're talking about. I will briefly introduce and contextualize what we've done and why for 10 years I've committed myself to this work and the significance of keeping it a priority. Um, you may or may not know I'm a native to the city of Portland. My parents go back to vanport and we're in the vanport flood. My mother was in third grade uh when the vanport flood happened. She then moved into albina and lived in the albina area when um emanuel was being built and was again displaced by emanuel. My father was displaced by i5. Um, and I could go through the long and sorted history that we know uh of Portland and the number of times that that portlanders, black portlanders specifically, were removed from their places of dwelling that where businesses were housed, etc. In fact, williams alone from killingsworth to um broadway had 300 blackowned businesses. Our family was one the rocket station on williams and killingsworth which is no longer. I could go through the history that brings us to the value of why this is so significant. The generations of families who lost the opportunity for legacy and longstanding wealth and the ability to put their children through college through pulling and leveraging the equity and homes etc etc. We know the purpose and heartbeat behind the northn northeast uh housing strategy is to not only bring attention to the issue but to create a pathway and a strategy to resolve some of the issue. Um many times what people do is complain and talk about and identify the need or the problems but not always do they come up with solutions and strategies to address it. That's what this has done. This has come up with a strategy to begin a process of addressing it. By no means is a is it a panacea to solve all the problems, but it does create a pathway to address it. And I think a pathway that has garnered incredible success from a group of volunteers that have given themselves time and energy and effort to hold accountable what the city has said is a value and what nonprofit partners have attempted to provide. My concern today and why my emotions are mixed is because of the first thing I said. What the city has said is a value. Uh for years I have repeatedly use this phraseiology that we must make promises made, promises kept. Promises made, promises kept. Um it is true about the city of Portland. U part of the articulation is that it's a city where everybody can live. But it's not it's not a city where everybody can live. That the majority of black families and black individuals can't afford to live in the neighborhoods of the city of Portland. So, we say one thing and we're doing another. The emphasis and the importance of this kind of work um I don't think can be overrated and um my mixed emotions is and I there are things we can't control and I know that there are circumstance that have happened today when we came to this meeting but to have been at this for the last six months attempting to have a time to have dialogue to interact about this uh leaves me kind of in a bittersweet I'm glad we're here. Uh I wish it had been different. Lastly, I will say what you're going to hear today as uh miss goodlo goes through the details, but you're going to hear about what's been accomplished. You're going to hear about the incredible things that have been done. I will say now what I will say again, this is really a beginning. While we celebrate what's been accomplished, it is by no means the end of what needs to happen. This is a city where black families can't afford to live and I think that's something for us to think about. I will speak to more specifics and give an opportunity for my oversight committee members who are here to are uh express uh they'll have a few moments to do so. Uh john Washington to my left is to my right appreciating their time here and I don't know if um michila has gotten on and jillian siraj thank you jillian for making it. These people have given themselves to this work because of the high value and I appreciate their voice and their investment. And so you see the list of the names and I highlight and appreciate everyone who has been willing to month after month, week after week, year after year uh give themselves to advance this work. So miss ditlo, if you'll begin to walk us through the specifics of the report and then we'll have some comments and I'll bring my thoughts back together with where we are and where I think we should go. Good afternoon. Uh leslie goodllo, equity and business operations for the Portland housing bureau and project manager for northn northeast housing strategy. Um I just want to acknowledge our oversight committee. These community leaders are guiding accountability and ensuring the strategy remains community rooted. They represent a wide cross-section of lived experience, professional expertise, and historic ties to the neighborhood. So, in 2015, we made clear promises to prevent displacement, restore home ownership, and expand affordable housing. In 2025, we're proud to show significant impact and measurable outcomes while also naming the work that remains. First off, uh, so far since the inception, we've invested over $130 million of tiff, tax increment financing, cct, construction excise tax, short-term rental fees, and metro bond funds directly into strategies tied to displacement prevention, home ownership, and rental housing with even more leveraged through partnerships. Um, here is a map of the investments that have been made into the northn northeast housing strategy. The blue circles are open rental. The um square, the blue squares are rental in the pipeline. The yellow or orange or I'm not sure what color it is on your screen, uh, are open home ownership. And then um the square orange is home ownership in the pipeline. Our the first goal of the strategy is preventing displacement. Over $12 million has gone toward home repair and stabilization efforts for longtime residents. Critical in keeping people housed and in their communities. Almost 1300 families have been assisted with critical home repairs. Phb provides both home repair grants and loans and the loans are forgivable after 15 years. Grants are managed through contracts with our community partners. And this this is a quote from one um person who we recently assisted in November of 2024. Everything died on me. I had just retired and was receiving disability assistance when the furnace stopped working. I had no heat or hot water and was so cold I started wearing all my clothes to stay warm. My space heater was dying on me and eventually it caused an electrical fire. My doctor helped me get into a hotel and shortly thereafter I developed kidney failure. With the house needing so many repairs, I wasn't sure I would be able to live in my home again. A home my father built in 1968 after being pushed out of albina with eminent domain. The folks at phb and the Portland water bureau were like superman. They came to the rescue. Sorry. Connecting me with so many nonprofit agencies. I am so grateful. And this is what we did for her. She got a new kitchen, flooring and wall finished by phb home repair, cabinetry by rebuilding together, new flooring. The carpet was from 1970s. A new water heater from community energy project. A new furnace from verde. New garage floor. New paint throughout the home from rebuilding together. New garage doors from phb home repair. New roof from phb home repair. New electrical panel and service from phb healthy homes production. Insulation from community energy project. And interior doors and knobs from phb home repair. The next strategy is creating new homeowners. Over 13.08 million in tax increment financing has been invested to support new homeowners, primarily black portlanders with historic ties to north and northeast Portland. These investments have funded down payment assistance and affordable housing development. The down payment assistance amount has increased three times since the launch of the housing strategy initially set at $60,000 per household that was based on housing prices in 2015. The current assistance within the interstate urban renewal area is $150,000 which reflects the impact of rising home prices and interest rates. Down payment assistance loans are structured structured as no interest no payment loans up to 20% of the loan being used for home improvements and that portion is considered a grant. Loan forgiveness begins in year 15 with 50% forgiven followed by 3% forgiven each year thereafter until year 30 when any remaining balance is fully forgiven through a partnership with prosper Portland which provides supports for families earning 80 to 120% of ami. We have helped 16 households achieve home ownership. These homeowners are a direct result of the restorative intent of the northn northeast preference policy. Each home purchase represents a family reconnecting with the community, reclaiming stability, and creating opportunities for generational wealth. This slide uh illustrates the funding sources that have supported these preference policy home buyers, showcasing the layered investments made possible through tiff and other resources. This is a map of the preference policy families and where they have purchased homes highlighting the geographic spread and community impact of the policy. We uh the cct and str funds are able to be used citywide and um the um tiff as you know is only able to be used within um the district. So, we were able to assist folks in purchasing outside the urra um because we felt that being a homeowner was was the most important thing and being in the district was the second most important. The next strategy, creating rental homes. Rental housing represents the largest area of investment under the northn northeast housing strategy with nearly 95 million allocated and more than 300 million leveraged through public and private partnerships. This investment has supported the development of 11 buildings delivering a total of 877 affordable rental homes. Of those 739 units are are subject to the preference policy prioritizing applicants with historic ties to the neighborhood. Units excluded from the policy include permanent supportive housing, projectbased section 8, and on-site manager units, which have separate regulatory and leasing requirements. This is a list of all of the buildings and the number of units and how much was invested in each. Um how much phb investment was and then the leverage dollars for each building. Strategy four, land acquisition. Land acquisition, we have invested over $12 million which insert ensures long-term development capacity and preserves future opportunities in areas where market pressures are strongest. We have started construction on um the two um additional properties um and dr. Dr. Daryl milner is currently open. So that was the first property that we purchased. The northn northeast preference policy is designed to give priority to families with historic ties to north and northeast Portland. Applicants may receive up to three points for their own displacement history and an additional three points for a parent, grandparent, or legal guardian. Households whose family homes were taken through city action or imminent domain received the highest level of priority. In 2024, more than a thousand individuals applied to join the home ownership wait list. Of those, 411 successfully verified their preference points, bringing the total number of verified home ownership applicants to 850 since the policy's inception in 2015. The rental application remains continuously open with over 7,000 individuals having applied for preference points to date. In 2024 alone, 2,213 individuals submitted rental applications. Despite significant investment, affordability remains a critical challenge for many families, particularly black families. A two-bedroom unit remains financially out of reach. The chart on the left compares the median income of a threeperson african-american household with the 60% and 100% area median income benchmarks. So the blue at the top is the 100%, the orange at the bottom is the median income for black black family of three and then the 60% is the gray. And so black families are falling below a 60% um income. The chart on the right illustrates the rent burden faced by african-american families even when renting a two-bedroom unit priced at 60% ami, demonstrating how deeply unaffordable housing remains for many. Slide 18, drawn from phb's 2024 state of housing in Portland report shows that black families have only one neighborhood in outer southeast where a two-bedroom unit is considered affordable. This underscores the need to align our policies with current income and market realities to ensure equitable housing access. Our newsletter revived in 2021 reaches over 12,000 people per quarter. It features home buyer stories, partner highlights, and development updates. Pigb staff um also participate in community events and host info sessions year round. The next few slides detail critical shifts in how phb supports families through expanded renter protections, home repair outside the uras, asset preservation, and increased mwsb and workforce participation. Key highlights to empi emphasize. Phb now applies citywide approaches to displacement prevention. The renter services office has supported thousands through eviction prevention and legal assistance. Ban the box and the fair ordinance have improved screening equity and security deposit pilot supports render transitions into preference policy units. Economic and structural supports. Land ownership, economic opportunity, and tax policies have all been reconsidered in service of equitable access and neighborhood retention. We continue pushing for policy flexibility and s systemic change. And now I'll pass it over to john Washington for his comments. Hi, good afternoon council. Well, you know, that was a surprise, leslie. Thank you very much. Won't be up. But uh um you know, it's a I I really do have a um a real special place in my heart for this committee. You know, the northeast oversight committee plays a critical role to ensure accountability. And I think that for me that's really important in this process. Um not just in access to housing, but in the quality of life, those moving into affordable housing. This committee helps hold builders and property managers to a higher standard and I think that that's really critical when you can see the momentum and the growth over a period of time. Second, there's nothing more powerful than watching someone who has struggled finally achieve the American dream. And I use the word struggle and more than it's it's it's more than just a roof. It's a life-changing milestone that ripples into generational wealth and lasting economic impact. And third, but we must also ask ourselves, is the American dream dead? 50 50 years ago, we believed in a future where we could own homes, run businesses, and pass something on to our children. Today, the dream feels like it's out of reach for far too many. We're not doing enough as stewards of this community to restore home ownership as a priority. We hear excuses about construction costs, material shortages, but the truth is home ownership is still happening for those who are fully who have full access to resources. It is our responsibility to rebalance the dynamic through courageous legislation and real leadership. So, thank you very much. Thank you, john. We're attempting to get another committee member uh on to uh share. While we're doing that, achilles. Uh thank you very much, achilles montas. I'm a 41-year north Portland resident and being so proud to have been um part of this committee. Uh continue to protect um our neighborhoods uh as I see um more of the displacement still happening. So, we're trying definitely to try to protect that especially with this high cost of u property rents uh or housing. So, definitely extremely extremely proud of this committee and being part of it. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate that. And then uh miss jillian siraj. Hello. Uh my name is jillian siraj felton. I work in affordable housing as a developer. I'm the housing director for an organization called community partners for affordable housing. And I've been on this committee longer than I've had that job or title. I've been doing this work for 10 years. I uh this work is incredibly moving. I think the story that lesie told of someone that was helped by these policies is incredibly moving and urgent and critical. And I just want to express I think dr. Holt expressed earlier a level of disappointment and lack of engagement with the new city council with this committee. This work is important at a time where it couldn't be more important. If we are truly a liberal progressive city, then we are progressive for everybody, not just people who look like me. To not show up to any of our committee meetings so far since the new city council has been elected. To not have full attendance here in this meeting, it is a little heart-wrenching. This work may seem like a drop in the bucket to write the wrongs of the past, but those wrongs were based on a system of white supremacy. And we cannot move forward into a future of equality if we do not address the sins of our past. The northn northeast housing strategy has been used as a model in other cities. We are the prototype. We created this model and other cities have used this strategy in order to help black folks in their cities also gain access to affordable housing, affordable home ownership, and to return to neighborhoods that they were pushed out of. All of these policies work because of the system of white supremacy that was in place. Because of red lining, we have a history of black folks living in a certain neighborhood and then because of progressive and intentional displacement, we have folks who want to move back there. It is critical work at a critical time and I cannot encourage enough for more engagement from the city council and from this committee with this work. It is not it is not unimportant. It is transformative. It is progressive. It is the values that we possess that we profess to have. This committee is doing that work. And it's I think it's time, you know, it's time that we really show up for the people we say we're going to show up for. Thank you, jillian. Thank you. Let me pause you one quick second, diego. I apologize for the interruption, chair abalos, as well as to our presenters. I just needed to make a quick note for those that are listening online to the youtube stream. Um I recommend you're going to see in a moment um that we will be ending a duplicate stream because there's two running at once. So I recommend navigating to today's homelessness and housing committee agenda page. That is Portland www.Portland.gov/countsel/aggenda/homelessness- gv/counsel/aggenda/homelessness- and-housing dash committee. Uh once the stream is down, you'll be able to refresh the page and you'll be able to click on the link towards the top of the page and you will be updated to the current youtube stream. Thank you. Thank you, diego. Please continue. Oh yeah, thank you very much. Uh we are trying to get sheila, miss sheila holden on uh linkedin to our meeting. Uh jillian, you almost took the words out of my mouth as I was going to wrap up my thoughts in regard to before I talk about our uh recommendations uh in regard to the noise around this committee that uh the work that's been accomplished. Not that we're looking for any kind of celebration, but we are looking for the support that then an investment that uh continues to cause this work to go forward. We have been in a position of being a voice and advocate for those who don't have voices and those who haven't had advocates uh to take advantage of opportunities or even know that opportunities exist to help support and create pathways to home ownership or safe places of dwelling. That's not a civil right. That's a human right that everyone should have a opportunity to be safe and taken care of and invested in. And as stated, uh, not to continue to beat the same drums, but as stated, the absence of engagement or interaction with current leadership has been, um, loud and concerning. Um, I will conclude that the history of the work must not have been known that somehow in transition of communication, there wasn't the continuation of the work that this committee has done. When we initiate initially um launched it was under the leadership of mayor charlie hails and we talked about a variety of investments that uh are of significant concern for support that if we're going to create home ownership, if we're going to create uh rentals, then we also need to do something that uh creates a pathway for economic improvement and economic development. There has to be an on-ramp. The two go hand inand. Then we must look at our educational system and we had great dialogue about that.