Politics & Government
Review - Portland 3-25-25 Homelessness And Housing Committee Meeting
No member of Portland's city council is prepared to be personally accountable for setting their own housing goals, policies and plans.
A. Item 1. Update on the Homelessness Response System Steering and Oversight CommitteeMore wandering in the bureaucratic weeds with no mention of homeless goals, policies and plans.
B. Item 2 Require the City Administrator to study alternative housing financing and ownership models and deliver a report of findings to Council (Resolution)
Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich introduced the concept of “Social Housing” as her choice of the study under consideration. She defined it as non-market rate, permanently public or community owned housing where ownership may be included. “Social Housing” is a kind of permanent rent control that raises means test eligibility well beyond 80% of MFI. The definition of “Affordable” housing in Vienna is NOT the same as it is in Portland.
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Vienna $57,000 average annual income.
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Portland $47,000 average annual income.
Each city has vastly different revenue, taxing structure, historical precedents and culture. 1% of federal income tax revenue is shared with Vienna dedicated to housing.
Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich choose to compare Vienna to Portland which is like comparing apples to lawn furniture.
No member of Portland’s city council is prepared to be personally accountable for setting their own housing goals, policies and plans. There is no chance they would be willing to stand behind their own Social Housing goals, policies and plans. Social Housing is so squishy that it would be impossible to hold anyone, bureaucrat or elected official, accountable even if they were willing to publicly announce their own social housing goals, policies and plans.
Instead of unattainable foreign models of housing policies that Hisserich knows is make work for which she would never be held accountable, Hisserich should have been studying and collecting data on the effects of city, county, state, federal funding and personnel decisions that will soon come to pass drastically increasing the number of homeless on Portland public property. A gross misjudgment.
Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich showed a slide which read, “20,000 affordable housing units needed.” What it failed to say was, AFFORDABLE FOR WHOM?
Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich claimed that, “Affordable housing is the most expensive to build.” NOT TRUE. Actually, it’s PUBLIC HOUSING <=80% MFI that is expensive to build because there is no profit for developers in this housing category unless government kicks in enough to make it worth their while.
Hisserich confused the conversation by deliberately and craftily using affordable housing, market rate housing, social housing and municipal housing but NOT Public Housing. Nevertheless, both councilors Zimmerman and Morillo used the term “Public Housing” during the debate. Good for them. A good start. The next step is for them to challenge Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich and their colleagues, if necessary, to use Public Housing and Affordable Housing correctly when speaking in public about housing matters.
The Portland Housing Bureau has been the tail wagging the Portland City Council dog for far, far too long. The old commission form of city government protected the Housing Bureau from any serious scrutiny for decades. No longer is any member of the Portland City Council required to protect the Portland Housing Bureau budget or its personnel from inspection, challenge and exposure to the light. This is a very good result of our new council form of city government. NO FIEFDOMS.
C. Item 3. Amend Affordable Housing Code to add prohibition of anti-competitive rental practices including the sale and use of algorithmic devices (add Code Section 30.01.088) (Ordinance)
Citizens and elected leaders throughout Oregon have overwhelmingly and unequivocally made homelessness the top most important item on the public’s agenda.
#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.
Stopping the use of software used by property owners to help determine apartment rental prices is not anywhere near a major concern for most voters. Which begs the question: Why is this item the top priority for the Homeless and Housing Committee?
Now that this motion has passed to the full city council it can and should use this opportunity to redirect the conversation to how quickly can the council get to address the PUBLIC’S TOP CONCERN?
#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 ordinance certainly appears to be addressing an important issue, Price fixing. Nevertheless, it is nowhere near the top housing issue priority of Portland voters.
Councilor Morillo acknowledged that homelessness will get worse. Yes. Go on. Keep reminding your colleagues.
Councilors Ryan and Zimmerman correctly observed that there was no urgency to pass this ordinance.
D. The following conditions exist which demand urgency of action which, nevertheless, this committee has publicly and indefensibly ignored:
1. League of Oregon Cities support for House Bill 3876*
2. Federal government cutting personnel and programs that will greatly increase the number of homeless.
3. POLL saying local and legislative elected officials are failing to successfully address the homeless crisis.*
4. Portland estimated budget shortfall, $100,000,000.
5. Multnomah County estimated budget shortfall, $100,000,000.
6. Margaret Salazar, CEO of Reach, says that “for decades since the community development corporation’s founding in 1982, its bread and butter has been to rent out single-family homes at deeply affordable prices. But that’s no longer financially feasible for the nonprofit, due to inflation, high interest rates, and the lingering effects of the pandemic. This portfolio has become increasingly unsustainable due to the myriad issues.”
Why isn’t staff researching and reporting to this committee and the entire city council about what the cumulative effects of these circumstances are likely to be?
Why is there no conversation about the dramatic increase in homelessness in 6 to 9 to 12 months and beyond and how this committee should prepare for that eventuality?
E. Three months in and this committee has yet to address homelessness goals, policies and plans.
City Councilors who are not on this committee and who are concerned about the indefensible lack of a city council homeless policy need to gather four votes to bypass this committee which clearly is not ready for prime time legislative action.
F. No one asked this question: Why is mayor Wilson the only elected official in Portland city government with a goal, a policy and a plan to deal with our homeless crisis? He is holding himself accountable to his promise to end homelessness in Portland, i.e. remove all persons illegally camping on city property by January 1, 2026 for only 28 million new dollars.
Councilors need to make one of these choices NOW:
1. Formally make the mayor’s goal, policy and plan to deal with our homeless crisis the council’s goal, policy and plan to deal with our homeless crisis since it is the council’s job and obligation to make policy NOT the mayor.
OR
2. Formally adopt Richard Ellmyer’s Metro/Clackamas goal, policy and plan to deal with our homeless crisis.** There is no cost to Portland to adopt this scenario. It also works in perpetuity regardless of how much the homeless population increases. It eliminates conflicts with Multnomah County over who’s in charge here with regard to homeless spending.
OR
3. Formally adopt a different goal, policy and plan to deal with our homeless crisis.
OR
4. Resign in failure and give other more qualified citizens a chance.
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.
*
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB3876/Introduced
**
Metro MUST Address Homelessness With A REGIONAL Plan, NOW
Co-presidents Elon Musk/Donald Trump are wantonly slashing federal staff and programs, especially at HUD, which will have the effect of creating a dramatic increase in the homeless population. Significant budget shortfalls in Portland and Multnomah County as well as bewilderment and confusion among elected officials over Who’s In Charge Here will add to this looming crisis. The Metro Regional Government must act swiftly in its area of influence and authority.
First, let’s state the obvious, Housing Priorities:
#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.
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.
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