Politics & Government
A Moment Of Truth. Portland City Council FAILS Housing Credibility Test
Voters can use this framework of questions to understand and hold accountable any elected official's claimed knowledge of housing policy.
What do you have? What do you want? How much does it cost? How will you pay for it? Every voter can use this simple framework of questions to understand, evaluate and hold accountable any elected official’s claimed knowledge of housing policy.
Regardless of where you live in Oregon you can assess the credibility of your local elected officials with regard to housing issues in their districts by asking them:
A) How many housing units in each housing category are in your district?
Find out what's happening in Portlandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
B) How many housing units in each housing category do you need/want in your district?
C) How much will it cost to acquire those units?
Find out what's happening in Portlandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
D) How much public money are you willing to spend to achieve your goal?
Below is an excerpt from an email sent to all members of the Portland City Council and their responses as of August 1, 2025.
Dear Portland City Councilors, please answer the following questions related to housing issues in your district. Answering these questions will give you, your colleagues and your constituents useful information about your housing knowledge, transparency and accountability. To establish your housing credibility it is necessary for you to tell us what you know about the housing inventory in your district, how many units you think need to be added in each housing category, how much will that cost and what are you willing to do to pay for it.
All twelve city councilors campaigned in support of personal transparency and accountability. It is a dereliction of your duty and an insult to your voters [Councilor Dunphy****] to abstain from voting on important matters such as the Budget and an act of political cowardice not warranting reelection to public office. The same criteria applies to being either unable or unwilling through self-inflicted ignorance, incompetence or fear to tell the voters what you know, what you want, how much you say will it cost and how much of our tax dollars you are willing to spend to achieve your housing goals.
1.
A) How many housing units are there now in your district within each of the following housing categories***:
<=80% MFI? [Overloaded or Underserved? See https://www.portland.gov/civic... and https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/m...]
81-120% MFI?
>=121% MFI?
District 1 Councilors*
Candace Avalos, I don’t know.
Jamie Dunphy, I don’t know.
Loretta Smith, I don’t know.
District 2 Councilors*
Sameer Kanal, I don’t know.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, I don’t know.
Dan Ryan, I don’t know.
District 3 Councilors*
Tiffany Koyama Lane, I don’t know.
Angelita Morillo, I don’t know.
Steve Novick, I don’t know.
District 4 Councilors*
Olivia Clark, I don’t know.
Mitchell Green, I don’t know.
Eric Zimmerman, I don’t know.
B) How many housing units are there now in your district for each of the following housing categories that meet the definition of Affordable Housing**:
<=80% MFI?
81-120% MFI?
>=121% MFI?
District 1 Councilors
Candace Avalos, I don’t know.
Jamie Dunphy, I don’t know.
Loretta Smith, I don’t know.
District 2 Councilors
Sameer Kanal, I don’t know.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, I don’t know.
Dan Ryan, I don’t know.
District 3 Councilors
Tiffany Koyama Lane, I don’t know.
Angelita Morillo, I don’t know.
Steve Novick, I don’t know.
District 4 Councilors
Olivia Clark, I don’t know.
Mitchell Green, I don’t know.
Eric Zimmerman, I don’t know.
2. How many housing units are the optimum in your district for each of the following housing categories:
<=80% MFI? [Overloaded or Underserved? See https://pdxedu.maps.arcgis.com... and https://docs.google.com/spread...]
81-120% MFI?
>=121% MFI?
District 1 Councilors
Candace Avalos, I don’t know.
Jamie Dunphy, I don’t know.
Loretta Smith, I don’t know.
District 2 Councilors
Sameer Kanal, I don’t know.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, I don’t know.
Dan Ryan, I don’t know.
District 3 Councilors
Tiffany Koyama Lane, I don’t know.
Angelita Morillo, I don’t know.
Steve Novick, I don’t know.
District 4 Councilors
Olivia Clark, I don’t know.
Mitchell Green, I don’t know.
Eric Zimmerman, I don’t know.
3. What is your estimated cost to bring the optimum number of housing units to your district for each of the following housing categories:
<=80% MFI?
81-120% MFI?
>=121% MFI?
District 1 Councilors
Candace Avalos, I don’t know.
Jamie Dunphy, I don’t know.
Loretta Smith, I don’t know.
District 2 Councilors
Sameer Kanal, I don’t know.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, I don’t know.
Dan Ryan, I don’t know.
District 3 Councilors
Tiffany Koyama Lane, I don’t know.
Angelita Morillo, I don’t know.
Steve Novick, I don’t know.
District 4 Councilors
Olivia Clark, I don’t know.
Mitchell Green, I don’t know.
Eric Zimmerman, I don’t know.
4. Will you ask to be included in the next FY budget proposal the dollar amounts you answered to question 3 above or submit a budget amendment for the same purpose and dollar value?
District 1 Councilors
Candace Avalos, No.
Jamie Dunphy, No.
Loretta Smith, No.
District 2 Councilors
Sameer Kanal, No.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, No.
Dan Ryan, No.
District 3 Councilors
Tiffany Koyama Lane, No.
Angelita Morillo, No.
Steve Novick, No.
District 4 Councilors
Olivia Clark, No.
Mitchell Green, No.
Eric Zimmerman, No.
5. Now that the legislature has adjourned, how much money will come to your district from housing bills for each of the following housing categories:
<=80% MFI?
81-120% MFI?
>=121% MFI?
District 1 Councilors
Candace Avalos, I don’t know.
Jamie Dunphy, I don’t know.
Loretta Smith, I don’t know.
District 2 Councilors
Sameer Kanal, I don’t know.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, I don’t know.
Dan Ryan, I don’t know.
District 3 Councilors
Tiffany Koyama Lane, I don’t know.
Angelita Morillo, I don’t know.
Steve Novick, I don’t know.
District 4 Councilors
Olivia Clark, I don’t know.
Mitchell Green, I don’t know.
Eric Zimmerman, I don’t know.
If these answers do NOT inspire confidence in anything the Portland City Councilors have to say or do about housing, they shouldn’t.
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.
*
**
Public Housing, Means Test (<=80% MFI) + Government Subsidy (any government, kind, amount) + Rental Agreement.
Affordable Housing, A mathematical calculation, i.e. Mortgage/Rent + Taxes + Insurance + Utilities <= 30% of household income.
Most Public Housing is NOT Affordable Housing.
***
0-80% MFI (Median Family Income)
Private developers will not build in this category because there is no profit to be made, unless there are government subsidies. This category is known as Public Housing** because, realistically, building units in this category only happens with government financial support.
https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/m...
81-120% MFI
There is a need for rental and for sale housing in this category. To make these units affordable** governments must incentivize developers with financial, regulation and other inducements. These are market rate developments. Means Tests cannot be required.
>121% MFI
This is private developers main focus because it provides the highest return on investment. There is no shortage of housing in this category. Governments need not and should not expend resources here.
****
Final Budget Approved 6-18-25
Aye - 11
Nay -
Abstain - Dunphy
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