Councilor Candace Avalos

Today!

To see the presentation documents:

YouTube video by eGov PDX Portland City Council Work Session-Public Safety and Community & Economic Development 3/03/26

Good morning, Portland! Today, Council is holding another budget work session. The Public Safety and Community & Economic Development service areas will provide introductory presentations on their current service level budgets, resource gaps, and tradeoffs.

Watch here:

Incentive for new housing construction off to promising start A temporary exemption of system development charges for new housing units, beginning last August, is helping permits get issued and construction started.

See the report here:

The SDC waiver is just one lever we can pull, and I will continue to work on addressing the broader structural barriers around housing production through implementation of the Unified Housing Strategy, Social Housing Study, and additional policies.

As the Chair of the Homelessness and Housing Committee, I plan on using our next meeting to clarify outstanding questions about this SDC waiver report and concerns about unintended consequences for developers who received SDC waivers under the old rules.

I also hope that we’re clear that most of the units counted toward the 5,000 new housing unit goal haven’t been built yet — and haven’t even been issued a building permit.

I appreciate having more information on the progress of the SDC waiver, but the reality is that five months is too early to fully understand whether the increased housing production is worth the lost revenue that could have gone to creating new parks or building sidewalks.

RSVP: Parkrose ESD Town Hall with Councilor Avalos, March 3, 6:00pm This community Town Hall is intended to introduce and engage Parkrose-area businesses and stakeholders around the formation of an Enhanced Services District (ESD) in Parkrose. The event will provide e...

Parkrose ESD Town Hall with Councilor Avalos and Historic Parkrose

Tuesday, March 3, 6:00pm – 7:30pm

Historic Parkrose, 10402 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97220

Light food and refreshments will be served - please RSVP at the link so we know how many people to expect!

Tomorrow: Join us for a town hall to learn more about the proposed Parkrose ESD, hosted by Councilor Avalos and Historic Parkrose! Local Parkrose business owners are strongly encouraged to offer their feedback and community members are welcome to attend.

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.