Councilor Candace Avalos

Portland shelters continue to have a racism problem - Street Roots City and county shelters underserve homeless Portlanders of color, a report shows. The report reflects Portland shelters' continued racism problem.

City and county shelters underserve homeless Portlanders of color, a Multnomah County report shows. Responses from Mayor Keith Wilson’s office voiced concern, but took issue with some of the county’s data points.

Council Work Session on Unbudgeted Housing Funds Thursday, March 5, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Watch live at in-person at Portland City Hall or online on the City’s YouTube channel. A recording of the work session will be available on YouTube.

Portland City Council The new Portland City Council represents four geographic districts, working together to create laws that improve living, working, and visiting Portland.

CONTACT YOUR COUNCILORS!

Let us know what we should focus on, and where we should invest these housing dollars.

Visit Portland.gov/council to find your district.

To be clear: no final decisions will be made, and no votes will be taken.

But hopefully, councilors can agree on a general path forward for these unbudgeted housing dollars by the end of the work session.

You have a voice in shaping our priorities.

This work session is meant to help share more information with Portlanders about the sources and potential uses for the unbudgeted housing dollars.

It’s also so councilors can work in the open to come up with proposals for how we invest the millions in unbudgeted PHB funding.

Council Work Session on Unbudgeted Housing Funds

Thursday, March 5, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Watch live at in-person at Portland City Hall or online on the City’s YouTube channel.

A recording of the work session will be available on YouTube.

On March 5 at 9:30 am, City Council is having a work session on the close to $106 million in unbudgeted Portland Housing Bureau funds. Graphic with picture of City Hall, "On deck at City Hall."

Hey Portland: this coming Thursday, March 5, we’ll be having a work session on the unbudgeted housing funds.

We know that there have been a lot of questions about the close to $106 million that’s been discovered, and we hope this work session will help answer most of them.

JUST IN: A federal judge in Oregon has barred ICE from conducting warrantless arrests without probable cause in the state, saying the agency's "dragnets" have flouted "clear and undisputed" law. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Oregonians like Adina R. shared their first-hand accounts of federal overreach at the Portland ICE facility a few weeks ago – which allowed us to take legal action. We submitted evidence earlier this month and will be in court next week to stand up for Oregon’s laws.

Reminder: you have until March 13 to fill out my budget survey! More than 200 East Portlanders have already let me know their budget priorities.

Our top three neighborhoods represented so far are Hazelwood, Pleasant Valley, and Powellhurst-Gilbert!

The resolution we adopted is not a replacement for the harder conversations we clearly still need to have.

But it can set a moral & political baseline. It can say, officially, what the City claims to stand for — & become something we point back to when we’re fighting for real structural change.

Thank you to all the community members and Brown Hope for their work on this resolution. I’m grateful to everyone who showed up to testify in support.

ADOPTED: Our resolution to commemorate the life of George Floyd and reaffirm our commitment to racial justice. Picture of a mural of George Floyd.

Yesterday, council unanimously voted to adopt our resolution to commemorate the life of George Floyd and reaffirm our City’s commitment to racial justice.

City Council votes unanimously to rezone select properties to support affordable housing production Zoning map amendments reduce barriers to expanding and preserving affordable housing on key properties owned by nonprofit and public affordable housing providers.

The Affordable Housing Opportunities Project addresses a clear problem.

Nonprofit and public housing providers already own land intended for affordable housing, but existing zoning creates unnecessary barriers and delays.

This George Floyd resolution is a commemorative resolution.

It’s about memory. It’s about naming what happened and putting on the public record that his murder sparked a global movement for racial justice in four cities, including Portland, to reckon with police accountability and systemic racism.

The process does matter. As someone who had a hand in shaping our groundbreaking environmental justice fund, I will always center community voices in our discussions about PCEF’s future.

This is about more than just $15 million. This is about protecting PCEF’s future, and the progress we’ve made to build climate resilience and reduce carbon emissions.

And I want to especially thank the Portlanders and community organizations who reminded councilors why we created PCEF in the first place.

My amendment to restore a $15 million PCEF investment in affordable housing was approved! That means we’re on the path to: Create 586 additional housing units. House close to ~1,700 people. Support a pipeline of affordable multifamily projects.

Thank you to my colleagues for overwhelmingly supporting my amendment to restore a $15 million PCEF investment in affordable housing.

That’s it for today! See you back here next week for another council livethread. And don’t forget: next Thursday, March 5, is when we’ll be having our work session on the unbudgeted PHB funds.

This item will be continued at our next meeting, not moved to a second reading.

Portlanders testified to caution us not to rush this process because this is related to the charter, concerns about the auditor’s proposal and how it could create conflicts, and the lack of engagement with the community groups who led local campaign finance reform efforts.

Without updates, portions of the code could be invalidated, weakening oversight, creating confusion for candidates and donors, and undermining voter intent.

Certain provisions of the City’s code require refinement to remain legally defensible and enforceable.

The program has faced legal challenges, and court rulings have clarified constitutional limits on how campaign finance laws must be structured under Oregon law.

For context of why this update is needed, Portland voters approved local campaign finance reforms establishing contribution limits and disclosure requirements.

Next, we are considering an ordinance to amend Campaign Finance Code to maintain enforcement of voter-approved regulations following court orders.

This ordinance has been moved to a second reading. We are taking a recess, be back soon!

These requests came within the last couple days, so I didn’t have time to develop the amendments and give my colleagues proper notification. This is not about SOAR, who I appreciate, this is about me acting as a representative and legislating for East Portlanders.

I get that we’re in a tricky spot. I am simply trying to respond to the requests I’m hearing from my community.