All 12 new Portland city councilors and Mayor Keith Wilson were sworn into office Dec. 19, marking a new day for the city’s government. This is the first and only time all 12 city councilors will be sworn in simultaneously, requiring a much larger stage to mark the event. A full house at the Newmark Theater celebrated the milestone of an arduous transition from the city’s previous commission form of government to the new, more ideologically diverse 12-member council elected by the city’s first use of ranked-choice voting.
Before the celebration, Street Roots asked all city councilors to respond to a few questions, working off their previous candidate responses during the campaign season. We wanted to get a little deeper to understand their approach to other aspects of the local homelessness crisis. Seven candidates were able to respond — Olivia Clark, Jamie Dunphy, Mitch Green, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo, Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Dan Ryan. Candace Avalos, Sameer Kanal, Steve Novick, Loretta Smith and Eric Zimmerman did not respond to Street Roots’ request.
Vacancy Tax
Much ado has recently been about Portland’s empty buildings, whether downtown offices or the wealth of condos peppered around the city. As the city’s housing affordability crisis continues, one idea that garnered attention during the campaign season was to enact a vacancy tax, disincentivizing owners’ practices of sitting on empty properties rather than filling their buildings with people and businesses.
Do you support a local vacancy tax to incentivize more affordable housing in East Portland?
Jamie Dunphy, District 1 city councilor: YES! I fully support a local vacancy tax, and one high enough to motivate these corporate landlords who are sitting on expensive properties until they can get their desired rent.
Tiffany Koyama Lane, District 3 city councilor: Yes, this is something that I do want to pursue for southeast Portland District 3, and through conversations, I’ve also learned from people in our district that a number of these properties are actually brownfields, requiring mitigation. I’m going to put in the work with our community and with my colleagues in the city, county, and state to see how we can most effectively intervene to take maximum advantage of our vacant land to improve our Portland neighborhoods.
Legislature, rent control
Oregon state law prohibits local jurisdictions from imposing rent control, as the Legislative Assembly finds it would “disrupt an orderly housing market.” The statute, ORS 91.225, says, “a city or county shall not enact any ordinance or resolution which controls the rent that may be charged for the rental of any dwelling unit.” High housing costs continue to be a significant issue for many Portlanders, and advocates argue the city should encourage the legislature to repeal the state law.
Would you support the city advocating for the legislature to repeal the state’s prohibition on local rent control? Why or why not?
Jamie Dunphy, District 1 city councilor: No, I wouldn’t support a repeal, but I will acknowledge that the 10% cap has meant that 9.9% rent increases have become standardized statewide. It clearly hasn’t worked exactly how we hoped, but there must be a stronger level of control over this wildly unregulated market.
Dan Ryan, District 2 city councilor: Rent control is not my primary focus as of now. I will be monitoring the state legislative session and working with the City’s Office of Government Relations alongside my colleagues in District 2 and the new City Council to advocate for Portland’s housing needs. We’ll have more to share on our housing priorities in 2025. We need workforce housing in our city, and we need to provide support for first-time homeowners. Building generational wealth is always at the top of my equity justice agenda.
Mitch Green, District 4 city councilor: Yes. My view is that preemption on local rent control is an overreach and limits local municipalities from effectively using its regulatory powers to balance economic development with the broad public interest.
Social Housing
In Street Roots’ candidate questionnaires, five candidates responded by saying they would like the city to invest in social or public housing: Clarke, Green, Kanal, Morillo and Koyama Lane. The Housing Authority of Portland, Home Forward, currently administers approximately 400 public housing units, 12,050 Housing Choice Voucher units, and 195 units of local, non-traditional housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Imagine this is a day one priority: Where would you start?
Tiffany Koyama Lane, District 3 city councilor: In fact, I HAVE been imagining this as a part of our council’s agenda from day one. I’ve already gotten a start by speaking to councilors and experts in cities like Seattle and Denver who have taken steps down this path. This is a project that will take time both politically and in terms of the infrastructure, but I want community members to know that I have already been working to lay the groundwork should the opportunity be right for this type of municipal social housing project to move forward.
Angelita Morillo, District 3 city councilor: Once we establish the committees, we need a work session with city bureaus and relevant stakeholders to figure out which pieces of land and buildings the City owns and how much it would cost to establish our own developments.
Mitch Green, District 4 city councilor: We owe it to ourselves to get it right. I would begin by taking up social housing in the yet-to-be-formed housing committee, with an interest in designing a policy that establishes the enabling authority for the Portland Housing Bureau to create a social housing program as part of its normal planning process and issue a report to council regarding the resources necessary for implementation.
Olivia Clark, District 4 city councilor: (Streamlining) the City’s permitting process and (removing) zoning barriers to building affordable housing is the most specific, immediate and realizable issue. The City needs to get out of its own way. If I had a magic wand, I would create 5,000 units that exist outside the private market and remain affordable over time.
Repeal city ban
Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office recently told Street Roots that two people have been jailed on the city’s camping ban. The city has been through multiple iterations of its time, place and manner restrictions over the past decade, losing lawsuits and adjusting its city code to align with the legal rulings. Currently, when the city offers homeless Portlanders a shelter, police can arrest or fine those who refuse.
Do you support repealing the city’s ordinance allowing police to arrest homeless Portlanders for declining a shelter offer?
Tiffany Koyama Lane, District 3 city councilor: Assuming MCSO’s numbers are correct, that’s a good sign. If we do move to repeal the ordinance allowing police to arrest unsheltered people for refusing shelter, it matters how we do that as a community looking to move forward together. My voters sent me here to work effectively with my colleagues to move the city forward without othering or scapegoating our neighbors. I knocked on 15,000 doors, and I heard from my district that we can’t arrest our way out of the crisis. I know a man living unsheltered who described years of waiting for housing and years of problems stemming from nonviolent criminal convictions on his record that were very hard to expunge. I represent my community who don’t want to see a buildup of criminal records that, over time, create unnecessary suffering and problems.
Mitch Green, District 4 city councilor: YES.
Olivia Clark, District 4 city councilor: No. While this is rarely used it is a backstop for situations in which the safety of the public or public health are threatened.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, District 2 city councilor: I support narrowing the parameters for using arrests to compel our homeless neighbors to seek shelter. Arresting people who live on the street does not improve our shelters, it does not create the services people need to get stable and become ready to find housing, and it does not create the jobs Portlanders need to get back on their feet. Arrest should be a last resort in narrow situations where an area is particularly problematic for camping, and an individual refuses to move elsewhere. Instead, we should spend our resources on creating the shelters, services, and affordable housing that will help people who are homeless return to stable housing.
HB 3115 repeal
After the Supreme Court ruled it is constitutional to punish homeless residents even if they have no other place to go, elected officials across the state began making clarion calls to repeal ORS 195.530 (HB 3115) — the state law saying local ordinances regulating survival activities must be “objectively reasonable” with regard to people experiencing homelessness. The law effectively enshrined a lower-court ruling in Martin v. Boise, which said a person cannot be punished for being homeless when they have no other option. Nothing is written into the relatively vague state law prohibiting local governments from addressing their affordable housing crises, but immediately following the Supreme Court decision, local leaders across the state appeared motivated to wage that battle in the next legislative session, often arguing they need more clarity.
If the state repeals ORS 195.530 (HB 3115), would you support a local ordinance enshrining similar protections?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, District 2 city councilor: I support the State’s time, place and manner restrictions and would support including such provisions in any local limitations even if the State law was repealed. I don’t know if the City can create a private right of action against future code in the same way the state has, so I can’t commit to supporting this part of the provisions, but I’d certainly hold Portland to the same standard the current code does.
Jamie Dunphy, District 1 city councilor: I believe that the current “objectively reasonable” language is insufficient and that it allows for abuse and bad-faith interpretations. I believe that the best option is for a robust statewide definition, but in the lack of those statewide definitions, I would support Portland creating robust definitions and protections. I do not support criminalizing homelessness, I do not support the current camping ban policy, and I (continue) to be shocked at the lack of basic definitions of success for this region’s response to the homelessness crisis on our streets. Allowing our neighbors to sleep unhoused is immoral, and we should be moving with urgency to find places for our neighbors to go.
Evictions
As climate change exacerbates extreme weather events, many low-wage workers can lose out on paychecks if businesses close. That can be the difference between making or missing a rent payment for those living paycheck to paycheck. There is currently no law protecting workers, including teachers or students, from eviction if they are late on rent due to these events.
Do you support legal protections for renters to ensure they are not evicted for late rent due to extreme weather events?
Dan Ryan, District 2 city councilor: I need to know more about this policy proposal. I assume most landlords have provided grace periods for extreme weather events — it would be extreme to penalize a tenant for unprecedented weather events — and I want to ensure we develop enforceable housing policy that isn’t preempted by the state.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney, District 2 city councilor: Someone shouldn’t get evicted because extreme weather caused them to lose hours and lose pay in a month. Especially as we face more extreme weather conditions this is certainly something I’d consider putting in code so that renters and landlords can continue to have certainty and know what their rights and responsibilities are rather than creating an emergency declaration during a weather event.
Would you support an ordinance to protect children and education workers from being evicted during the school year?
Olivia Clark, District 4 city councilor:
I would support having a discussion about the protections that currently exist for families with children and the programs available now to assist these families before considering a change to City ordinances.
TASS, SRVs
Through the Joint Office of Homeless Services, the city and county have invested significant funds into Safe Rest Villages, or SRVs, and Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites, or TASS. TASS has been a major focus of Mayor Ted Wheeler’s over the past few years, and Commissioner Dan Ryan regularly touts his SRVs as a model to replicate.
Are there aspects of the larger encampment models that need refinement, and are there any non-negotiables for you?
Angelita Morillo, District 3 city councilor: While we need a variety of shelter models and housing services to meet the community’s varying needs, I would love to see us expand things like Right2DreamToo. This model is unique because it has a Council that runs it that is made by and for unhoused people. Not only does that help inform what each community needs, but it also removes power dynamics between staff and vulnerable populations who can otherwise be taken advantage of.
Office of Homeless Services
At the end of the campaign, alongside outgoing Commissioners Gonzalez and Mapps, Commissioner Ryan attempted to pull the city from the Joint Office of Homeless Services. Soon thereafter, Gonzalez and Mapps lost their bids for mayor, but Ryan won his election in District 2.
Has your thinking on this changed at all since the election? Do you intend to support the city-county partnership and homelessness response plan moving forward?
Dan Ryan, District 2 city councilor: Simply put, I would like a fraction of the community accountability we now have for the police with the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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This article appears in January 1, 2025.