Review Of 5-27-25 Portland Homelessness And Housing Committee Meeting

A. Item 1 Update on the Homelessness Response System Steering and Oversight Committee (Presentation)

Zimmerman: Details of nothing new.

B. Item 2 *Amend Building Regulations Code to adopt State of Oregon 2025 Edition of Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code (amend Code Section 24.10.040) (Emergency Ordinance)

Staff Presentation: Passed

C. Item 3 Require the City Administrator to assess and align existing plans in the development of a unified housing strategy for the City (Resolution)

Portland has worst housing crisis outlook in nation [You wouldn’t know that from watching the Homelessness and Housing Committee.]

A new report from LendingTree paints a grim picture for first-time homebuyers in the Pacific Northwest, ranking Portland as the metro with the worst housing crisis outlook among the nation’s largest 100 cities.

https://www.kptv.com/2025/05/28/study-portland-has-worst-housing-crisis-outlook-nation/

Chair Avalos IGNORS Voters, Land Conservation and Development Commission, Metro Regional Government and dire housing news stories: “I’m new here. I don’t know what’s been happening during the last couple of years.” Really? Then why is she on the Portland City Council and more importantly why is she chair of a committee that is dealing with housing and homelessness* which are incredibly complex subjects, the priority of voters and the issue with the highest public profile? Candace Avalos is disturbingly under qualified to be the presumptive leader of homelessness and housing matters for the Portland City Council.

Chair Candace Avalos has:

1. Presented a Resolution which is an internal plan to make an actual action plan later. The Resolution is all about encouraging government employees of different jurisdictions to talk amongst themselves. So what? This is a throwaway Resolution with no consequences.

2. Never mentioned the PUBLIC’S PRIORITIES regarding homeless policy and actions which are:

#1 Get all those illegally camping on public property removed from those properties.

#2 Provide immediate temporary shelter followed eventually by permanent Public Housing for the homeless as resources and the public mood and values will allow.

3. Never mentioned the rights of the majority of Portlanders, residents and business owners, who are not homeless.

4. Never showed that she knows the difference between Public Housing and Affordable Housing.

5. Never mentioned the Land Conservation and Developing Commission and Goal 10.

6. Never mentioned the idea much less Metro’s authority over REGIONAL housing policies and plans.

7. Crowded her committee’s agendas for five months with staff Dog and Pony, Show and Tell presentations which should have been done in work sessions. Committee meetings should be reserved for discussions among members about their goals, policies and plans for dealing with our homelessness and housing crisis. Proposing action item that require a vote must follow these conversations and debates.

8. Presided for five months in and we are still watching On the Job Training.

9. Displayed an unacceptable ignorance of the subject matter and the role of the Chair which threatens the credibility of the entire City Council.

10. Ignored the inevitable, soon to be arriving dramatic increase in homelessness caused by a myriad of misguided if not mean spirited Federal decisions. This reality will not disappear just because Avalos doesn’t put it on her committee’s agenda.

11. Refuses to come to grips with what happens on Dec. 1, 2025 should Wilson’s homeless plan fail.

12. Failed to mention that if no amendments are put on the table to withdraw or redirect Wilson’s 25 million dollar homeless budget inclusion then by default ALL councilors will have put themselves in Wilson’s homeless accountability policy boat.

13. Offered no pushback to mayor Wilson’s statement, “The fastest method to build housing for every income level is to unleash the pent-up capability of our private sector.” NO. We do NOT want to build for “every income level.” As Chair of the Homelessness and Housing Committee Avalos should know that the mayor is wrong. There is no such thing as “pent-up capability of our private sector to provide temporary shelter for the homeless. There is no such thing as “pent-up capability of our private sector to provide permanent housing to <=80% MFI households. Why? Because there is NO PROFIT to build these structures without government subsidies. Portland government should be supportive of Metro policies and plans to increase the rental and for-sale properties of housing for the 81% to 120% MFI households within its jurisdiction. Portland government has no business being involved with housing construction in the >=121% MFI range.

14. Offered no challenge to councilor Zimmerman who said: “Building More units is the goal” Avalos failed to follow up and challenge Zimmerman with, What kind? For whom? Where?

15. Never mentioned the Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/maps which are a unique and valuable resource for identifying Public Housing locations and statistics for Portland Councilor Districts, Portland Neighborhoods, Metro Councilor Districts, all Oregon counties and more. There is no evidence that Avalos is even aware of these maps much less used them.

5 AYES referred to city council.

D. Avalos needs to be removed as Chair of the Homelessness and Housing Committee. As long as she presides there is no reason to believe this committee can provide leadership to the whole City Council on matters of Homelessness and Housing. Any four councilors can place an item on the council’s agenda. This could be a route to improve the council’s credibility with regard to fulfilling the public’s expectations. The entire City Council, NOT the Homelessness and Housing Committee, will be judged as responsible and accountable for Homeless and Housing policy, plans and execution. The result more than the process is what voters will judge. The optics of tents on public property is a sure sign of government failure. The public will notice.

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/maps

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/1_2vrzokta

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”

https://psucollegeofed.wordpress.com/2022/09/23/lifelong-learning-at-psu/?fbclid=IwAR3S9Pff0mBGeT6Ha8dQeAqL0nAqU7QzZ-0pJC_oTQJxBWlAb2fdXzdE0w4

officials, journalists and civically engaged citizens. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus. Contributor: Patch news.