Politics & Government
Councilor Green’s Homeless And Housing Proposals Demand A Closer Look
People living in District 4, indeed, all residents of Portland, should pay close attention to Mitch Green's November 2026 campaign platform.
Councilor Mitch Green* flew to Vienna for a six day boondoggle junket ostensibly to study Viennese housing programs on the taxpayer’s dime. Green supports allowing illegal camping on Public Property. Green does NOT know how many housing units in the three housing classes i.e. 0-80% MFI, 81-120% MFI and >121% MFI there are in his OWN district. Green does NOT know, now that the legislature has adjourned, how much money will come to his district from housing bills for each of the three housing categories. It takes a lot of chutzpah to publicly display contempt for voters demands to remove all those illegally camping on public property and exhibit indefensible ignorance about housing statistics in his own district and then claim justification for a six day paid government holiday to “study” housing abroad. Unbelievable. This is the kind of unjustified, self-important, costly political stunt that undermines citizen confidence in our new form of city government.
Merely supporting illegal camping on public property is not far enough for councilor Green. His latest homeless policy pronouncement declares that the Portland City Council’s budget adopted homeless policy and continuing unchallenged support for mayor Wilson’s interpretation of how to carry out the Council’s Homeless policy is a “bad, cruel, and failed policy.” **
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Green claims that, “Portland has pursued a failed policy of criminalizing poverty.” Homelessness is NOT a crime in Portland. However, regardless of whether or not it is enforced, illegal camping on public property is a criminal offense. That “Portland” Green refers to is the Portland City Council which has complete and total authority and responsibility to establish homeless policy and ensure that the mayor executes that policy. Which is exactly what is going on now.
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Green says, “the only real, lasting solution to homelessness is to provide deeply affordable housing for ALL.” (Deeply = <30% Household Income?****) And, that the Council “move aggressively towards a Social Housing model— high quality, permanently affordable housing that will serve the vast majority of Portlanders, from the unhoused to the middle class.”
Councilor Green apparently missed the essence of the message I delivered to the Council on September 17, 2025. “There is not enough money nor political will to provide permanent homeless public housing AND preventative homeless funding AND temporary homeless accommodations AND clear and clean ALL illegal campsites for ALL the currently unhoused population of Portland.” *** Addressing the needs and costs to provide Green’s utopian quest for “permanently affordable housing” for ALL Portland households with Median Family Incomes between 0 and 120% MFI is another matter entirely.
Whenever councilor Green wants to advance any of his homeless and housing policy proposals all he needs to do is gather 4 votes to put them on the council agenda and then 7 votes to passage. Press releases more suited to a congressional campaign than governing Portland with its balanced budget requirement is not the path to success.
People living in District 4, indeed, all residents of Portland, should pay close attention to Mitch Green’s November 2026 campaign platform regarding Housing and Homelessness. District 4 voters need to ask themselves if they would vote for a candidate who:
A. Uses public funds to pay for a boondoggle junket and European vacation disguised as a “work” trip.
B. Embraces appalling self-inflicted ignorance of Housing statistics in his own district.
C. Does not acknowledge the ownership and accountability the Portland City Council has over homeless policy.
D. Advocates for illegal camping on public property.
E. Publicly fantasizes about spending ALL of Portland’s treasury and then some on “permanently affordable housing” for ALL Portland households with Median Family Incomes between 0 and 120% MFI.****
Richard Ellmyer
Portland resident since 1975.
Oregon Voter since 1971. NAV, Non Affiliated Voter. Citizen Activist.
Campaign manager and legislative assistant to state senator Bill McCoy 1980-1981.
Campaign manager and senior staff to Multnomah county commissioner Gladys McCoy 1981-1984.
Celebrate North Portland award 2016 for Volunteer Work and Service with Political and Social Issues Impacting North Portland.
Certified Oregon Change Agent by Governor John Kitzhaber 2011.
PSU Senior Adult Learner, Spring 2021 - Public Participation GiS, 500 level class
PSU Senior Adult Learner, Spring 2024 - Planning and Housing Markets, 500 level class
Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last twenty-three years than all other journalists and elected officials combined.
Project Champion and Data Wrangler - Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/m...
GIS for Activism conference, May 23, 2022, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
Richard Ellmyer - How I, A Citizen Activist, Used GIS To Effectively Tell A Necessary Yet Unavailable Truth About Public Housing
30 minute Video https://media.pdx.edu/media/t/...
Lifelong Learning at PSU by Jennifer Jordan-Wong.
LET KNOWLEDGE SERVE THE CITY [Section] “Richard used a course he audited at PSU to create a citizen activist mapping tool to benefit Oregon residents, stakeholders, and policy makers…His interest in mapping as a tool for change began when he noticed that public housing was not being distributed equitably”
Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Its target audiences are elected officials, journalists and civically engaged citizens. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus. Contributor: Patch news.
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Councilor Mitch Green
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AFFORDABLE HOUSING is a mathematical construct defined as, Rent/Mortgage + Insurance + Taxes + Utilities <=30% Household Income. EVERY house, condo and apartment is AFFORDABLE to someone.
PUBLIC HOUSING is a class of housing defined as, Means Test (<=80%MFI) + Government Subsidy (any government, type, amount) + rental agreement. Developers will NOT build in this category because there is no profit in this sector unless government uses taxpayer’s i.e. the public’s money to make it profitable. Thus the name, Public Housing.
MOST Public Housing is NOT Affordable Housing.
