Politics & Government
Review Of 4-22-25 Portland Homelessness And Housing Committee Meeting
Mayor Wilson says, "Homelessness is the most import political issue on the public agenda." Sets 12-1-25 as HIS ACCOUNTABILITY deadline.
John Roper, Policy and Planning Manager Housing Bureau, Describes Fair Housing. Josh Miller, Exec. Director Fair Housing Council of Oregon, talks about his organization and announces grade school student winners of Fair Housing Poster Contest.
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B. Item 2. Update on the Homelessness Response System Steering and Oversight Committee (Presentation)
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Eric Zimmerman, “you cannot fix problems without data.” Acknowledges new disturbing data from Multnomah county. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/johs/viz/MultnomahCountyHomelessServicesDepartmentDataDashboard_17447622060640/TotalPopulation See item F for more details.
Zimmerman says there is an imbalance in Metro Supportive housing services (SHS) funding. 85% of Metro homeless are in Multnomah county yet SHS funding formula sends only 45% to Multnomah county. This is wrong and needs to be fixed.
Zimmerman talks a lot about Metro’s SHS funding but does NOT acknowledge that he, the Homelessness and Housing Committee, the Portland city councilor and all 201 elected city councilors and county commissioners Cannot Find Evidence That Metro Has A Publicly Vetted REGIONAL Housing Policy and Plan.
A second voice for collecting data before you make a decision, councilor Ryan, “If you don’t know where you are it’s hard to know where you are going.”
There is no mention of Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/m... related to collecting housing data and the imbalance they expose.
Dunphy dips his toe into the Metro conversation by asking if all Metro counties will be included in the by-name data that is now available in Multnomah county. Zimmerman doesn’t know. A good start but not enough.
Morillo peeps into the future and says, “more and different types of persons will be coming into the homeless system because of federal government cuts within next year.” A good, accurate and useful observation.
C. Item 3. Mayor Wilson shelter plan update (Presentation)
Mayor Wilson: Unsheltered up from 5000 to 7000 over the last year. “Homelessness is the most import political issue on the public agenda.”
Wilson appears to be sincere in his efforts to end homelessness, he says by December 1, 2025. However, Wilson doesn’t encourage the Council to make and send him a homeless policy and plan which is their job. “By December 1st A bed for every homeless person in Portland.” We wish him well in his pursuit of this admirable yet extremely challenging goal. In case of failure we’d like to hear about his Plan B. We would have more confidence in Wilson if he acknowledged that his policy and plan is mostly if not entirely about PUBLIC HOUSING (Current funding plus 28 million).
Mayor Wilson does NOT acknowledge that he, the Homelessness and Housing Committee, the Portland city council and all 201 elected city councilors and county commissioners within Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, Cannot Find Evidence That Metro Has A Publicly Vetted REGIONAL Housing Policy and Plan. This is a huge deficit to his credibility.
D. Item 4. Affordable housing production and preservation (Presentation)
Helmi Hisserich, Housing Bureau Director, always misuses the term “affordable housing” instead of the correct term, PUBLIC HOUSING.
Hisserich, “Affordable housing is at or below 80% MFI is the Housing Bureau focus.” NO. NO. NO. THIS IS PUBLIC HOUSING.** Her incorrect and misdirecting institutional misuse of “Affordable Housing” was NOT challenged by any member of this committee. Without correction she will continue to cause confusion and obfuscate the truth. Don’t let the tail keep wagging the dog.
Danell Norby, Housing Investment And Portfolio Preservation Manager, “Affordable housing rental is built with tax payers resources.” That would be 24,000 PUBLIC HOUSING units. Many units at risk due to a wide variety of factors. Cheaper to maintain what we have rather than building new units. Her analysis: Dim prospects for the future.
Breonne DeDecker, Rental Services Manager. Expect decrease in “affordable housing due to federal actions.” She is referring to decreases in PUBLIC Housing.
Overwhelming, quickly delivered, graduate level with lengthy details very unlikely to be absorbed by graduate students, councilors and certainly not ordinary citizens. Deep, deep in the woods.
No presenter from the Housing Bureau was corrected by chair Avalos or anyone on the committee for deliberately misusing the term “affordable housing” when they spoke about PUBLIC HOUSING.
Zimmerman: “Affordable versus All housing.” Avalos continually using “affordable” where the subject is PUBLIC HOUSING. Dunphy: Uses “affordable” housing stock meaning PUBLIC HOUSING stock.
It is now obvious that Avalos, Zimmerman and Dunphy either cannot or will not use affordable housing and PUBLIC HOUSING to accurately communicate. This will render whatever arguments and decisions they make regarding homelessness and housing difficult if not impossible to understand much less defend.
THESE COUNCILORS ARE FOCUSING ON THE TREES NOT THE FOREST
E. Of the 14,864 people experiencing homelessness in February, nearly 6,800 were unsheltered, 4,860 were sheltered, and 3,208 were unknown. There were more people entering homelessness (1,384) than leaving it (881).
New data released Wednesday by Multnomah County officials show a stunning local reality: 14,824 people living in the county were homeless as of February. Of those, 6,796 people were living outside, in a vehicle or in some other place considered unfit for human habitation. That’s more than double the homeless population recorded in the federally mandated point-in-time count conducted in January 2023. And it is an increase of nearly 3,000 people over more granular estimates from the county in January 2024. Moreover, the new data make clear that homelessness is increasing every month in Multnomah County, even as leaders have in recent years sheltered and housed more people than ever before.
This is BEFORE an observable and expected dramatic increase in the homeless population in the next six months to a year and beyond when reductions in staff and program funding, caused and authorized by congressional Republicans and copresidents Musk/Trump, for housing changes to take affect at the federal level. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, previously endorsed an end to the federal housing voucher program (Section 8).
Despite every conceivable technology onboard, clear skies and warning messages galore, the S.S. Portland Titanic continues to steer directly at full speed into a Mt. Hood high housing crisis iceberg.
I don’t recall any members of this committee or any member of the city council campaigning on a platform of, “I will avoid taking any action on homelessness or housing policy and plans as long as possible to avoid personal accountability.” Nevertheless, that is how they are behaving.
Wilson and Avalos, who share the same homeless policy/plan, now have a bit less than eight months to remove about 10,000 unsheltered homeless off of public property and into Public Housing. We wish them well. Ten other councilors are still waiting for somebody else to fix the top most important item on the public’s agenda.
F. All 201 elected city councilors and county commissioners in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties were asked: Can you produce any evidence that Metro has a Publicly Vetted REGIONAL Housing Policy and Plan? All 201 elected city councilors, including Portland, and county commissioners in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties indicated: NO, I CANNOT. There is NO surprise here. Why? Because Metro does NOT have a Publicly Vetted REGIONAL Housing Policy and Plan.
The results of this poll are very troubling. It means that Portland city councilors have been doing the peoples’ business with Metro while they were either IGNORANT of or IGNORING the fact that Metro does NOT have a Publicly Vetted REGIONAL Housing Policy and Plan. This disturbing exposure speaks volumes about the quality of our elected leadership in Portland. Will this new revelation of massive individual incompetence substantially decrease voter confidence in these officials and local government in general? It will and it should.
What can our Portland city councilors do to redeems themselves?
Let’s start here with two obvious actions which focus on Simplicity and Personal Accountability.
1. Portland city councilors must contact all Metro councilors and:
A) Tell them to Immediately begin the process of establishing a REGIONAL Publicly Vetted Housing Policy and Plan for which METRO is accountable for executing.
B) Send them their ideas, in writing, for REGIONAL Publicly Vetted Homeless and Housing Policies and Plans.
C) SHOW UP TO TESTIFY when the issue is put before the public for comment.
Anyone that does NOT show up to testify must resign explaining to their colleagues and constituents that it was too much work and too much trouble to be accountable to the voters that put them in office to address those voters’ top political priorities, homelessness and housing.
Here is a plan to immediately deal with only the homelessness crisis part of the larger housing policy issue. It begins by acknowledging the primary goal of Oregonians everywhere:
#1 Getting all those illegally camping on public property removed from those properties.
#2 Providing immediate temporary shelter followed eventually by permanent Public Housing for the homeless as resources and the public mood and values will allow.
This goal can be achieved at NO COST to Portland. Considering Portland’s imminent massive budget shortfall it would be fiscally irresponsible to ignore this solution. It also works in perpetuity regardless of how much the homeless population increases.
The “first dollar” of any and all Metro housing spending MUST be directed toward achieving these priorities. Failure to achieve these goals as soon as possible will meaningfully reduce the public’s confidence in all the governments and elected officials involved. As it should.
Metro must immediately declare Equitable Distribution of Public Housing among the three counties within its regional jurisdiction as its overriding and guiding housing policy. Equitable Distribution of Public Housing will be achieved when Clackamas county (3%) and Washington county (5%) achieve Public Housing unit parity with Multnomah County (11%).
Metro must immediately exercise its regional authority, through additional intergovernmental agreements and/or state legislation, if necessary, to remove all illegal camping on public property in Multnomah County and transfer those involved to sanctioned Public Housing sites or detention centers in Clackamas County. Each individual transfer shall be counted as an additional Public Housing unit for purposes of parity evaluation.
Metro must immediately agree to pay for all police and other services required to move homeless persons from public property in Multnomah county to temporary tent/pod/other sanctioned Public Housing in Clackamas County. These sanctioned Public Housing sites must include all necessary services also paid for by Metro.
All Metro housing bonds, tax funds and staff resources shall be refocused on this effort.
G. Citizens and elected leaders throughout Oregon have overwhelmingly and unequivocally made homelessness the top most important item on the public’s agenda. Mayor Wilson told the Homelessness and Housing Committee, “Homelessness is the most import political issue on the public agenda.”
We are more than three and a half months into 2025 since these councilors took office and still this committee, and the council as a whole, continues to deliberately avoid taking action on the most important item on the citizens’ agenda. This is not inspiring confidence in the councilors, the process and our new form of city government. Ordinary Portland voters know little nor care about the Homelessness and Housing Committee. In time they will hold the entire Portland City Council to account. Wise councilors, especially those six councilors up for reelection in the next cycle, will not wait nor count on the Homeless and Housing Committee to bring successful homeless and housing resolutions to the full council in a timely manner.
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”
**
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.
