PRIORITIES

The situation on our streets is unacceptable. It is inhumane to allow our neighbors to live unhoused on the streets. And it is unacceptable to allow bad behavior to make neighbors feel unsafe. None of this is ok. My old boss Nick Fish used to say if the President called and said that 4,000 Haitian refugees were coming to Portland, we’d find a way to get them a safe place to stay, but we don’t have that same urgency for our own neighbors. Nothing feels urgent in our City Council’s response to the crises happening on our streets or to bring deeply affordable housing to the rent-burdened families of East Portland.

When a homeless camp is swept somewhere else in the city, those folks almost always end up in East Portland, often upset, traumatized, and detached from routines and communities. That means we don't often get to see them in their best lights or on their best behavior. This isn’t solving the problem; it’s forcing the consequences of our societal failure out of the richer neighborhoods and into the neighborhoods who have the least.

East Portland is gaining residents faster than any other area of the city. We need thousands of new housing units of all types, from new apartments and duplexes and triplexes to Permanent Supportive Housing, transitional housing and shelter beds.

Families need new resources to prevent losing their homes. Our unhoused neighbors need more than a cot on a warehouse floor for a night. And homeownership should be an option for more than just the ultra-wealthy Californians who moved here during the pandemic. As your City Councilor I will work on solving both the immediate issues and the long-term challenges to bringing more housing, services, jobs, and investments to East Portland.

SPECIFICS

• Prioritize and incentivize developers who want to convert existing buildings into housing.

• Aggressively bid on foreclosed commercial properties, especially downtown.

• Fix permitting so new homes can be built as quickly as in neighboring cities like Gresham, Happy Valley, or Milwaukie.

• Build more alternative shelter models in East Portland so folks have an option of somewhere to go, especially in large unused commercial parking lots and other underused spaces.

• Proactively bring resources to East Portland following sweeps of camps in inner-city neighborhoods.

• Invest in robust detox and sobering centers, as well as educational programs, licensing requirements, and incentives to dramatically increase the number of nurses and staff needed for those beds.

• Collaborate with ALL of the different government partners at the city, county, region, state, and federal level toward one single shared vision for success in addressing the crisis.