MORE PUBLIC HOUSING YES. METRO BOND NO. NEW DATA EXPOSES GOVERNMENTS’ DECEPTIONS AND FAILURES

As a long time advocate for Public Housing*1 I am with you in recognizing the need for additional Public Housing in the Metro area. However, Metro’s Housing Bond’s secretive, disingenuous, underlying policies are seriously flawed. It is NOT the way forward.

Please examine these newly released, game changing Public Housing Statistical Data for Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties http://macsolve.org/PublicHousingData/. Pay particular attention to the right hand Public Housing Percentages columns in red.

Here are a few takeaways for you to consider:

1. The levels of inequitable distribution of Public Housing units within and among Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties is blatantly clear.

2. The policy issue of Public Housing unit parity among neighborhoods, cities as well as Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties is now factually debatable.

3. Confirmation of the discredited and abhorrent housing policy established by the mayor of Portland and copied by the county commissioners of Clackamas and Washington counties of Targeted, UNLIMITED Neighborhood/City Concentration of Pubic Housing allowing governments to load the neighborhoods/cities of their choosing with up to 100% Public Housing.

4. Confirmation of a Public Housing decision making process established by the mayor of Portland and copied by the county commissioners of Clackamas and Washington counties that relies on self-inflicted ignorance, political convenience and extortion rather than meaningful, accurate, complete and timely Public Housing Statistical Data. The publication of the above Public Housing Unit Statistical Data should challenge and discourage these practices. An additional database of Public Housing Client Statistical Data is necessary. Efforts to persuade the Oregon Department of Housing and Community Services to develop and publish this data are underway.

5. Metro’s argument to distribute bond funds according to tax bases is specious. It is merely a coverup for a regional policy of NIMBY Favoritism and Economic Segregation favoring Washington and Clackamas counties. Multnomah county should not become the regional dumping ground for Public Housing units. Multnomah county voters should be aggrieved and vote NO. Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, does NOT use a neighborhood tax base to determine his Multnomah county Pubic Housing unit distribution. If Public Housing is to be a Metro regulated regional matter then it must establish Parity of Public Housing Percentages Per Total County Housing Units and Equitable Distribution of Public Housing as its fundamental, inviolable policy. The current imbalance stands at: Clackamas 3.01%, Washington 4.43% and Multnomah 10.25%. Parity would be 5.89%.

6. Accurate and complete Section 8 addresses and/or neighborhood/city location data is necessary for citizens and government officials to make arguments in favor or against support for court waivers to adjust amounts of support for HUD’s SAFMR, Small Area Fair Market Rents, program.*3 SAFMR allows redistribution of Section 8 voucher amounts to promote their use in more upscale neighborhood’s while reducing concentration in low income neighborhoods. Without this information neither elected officials, nor government employees, nor voters, nor citizens can have a fact based public debate on the merits or demerits of HUD’s SAFMR, Small Area Fair Market Rents, program.

7. The Oregon Health Authority has already published an online interactive Public Housing Unit Inventory.*2 This inventory is rightly inclusive. It does NOT discriminate among various types of Public Housing units. Clients for all of these units must meet the same qualifying standards i.e. household income is <=80% MFI. The OHA published database of Public Housing Units, including some but not all Section 8 location, makes a prima facia case by the state of Oregon that this information does NOT violate client privacy.

8. The current Oregon Health Authority Public Housing Inventory*2 includes some but not all Section 8 locations. Adding the remainder would make the database more accurate, complete and useful to elected officials, government employees and citizens. It is now necessary to have all the actual addresses of Section 8 clients in order to determine which units listed in the Oregon Health Authority database are Section 8 in order to eliminate duplicates on spreadsheets intended for public information uses e.g. Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah.

9. There will be a massive $652.8 million Metro Housing Bond on the ballot this November. Voters in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties need to have meaningful, accurate complete and timely Public Housing Statistical Data to make informed decisions before ballots are mailed out. The number and particularly the location of Section 8 Public Housing Units is an important piece of voter information.

10. Mayor Wheeler has the singular statutory authority to control the expenditure of Metro Bond funds in Multnomah county and can use that power to continue to keep Public Housing units out of his neighborhood. This is not only wrong but an abuse of power. Mayor Ted Wheeler has abdicated his singular statutory authority and commensurate responsibility to provide elected official oversight of the Public Housing Authority of Multnomah County. He has allowed his subordinate, political appointees to reject, without comment, a public records request for the physical addresses of all 9732 Section 8 clients under the auspices of the PHAMC. Most Public Housing agencies, like Washington County’s, are directly governed by elected officials that can be held accountable by the voters of that county. Not so with the PHAMC. The mayor of Portland has the singular statutory authority of nominate and dismiss PHAMC board members. Citizens who do not live in Portland can NOT vote for the mayor of Portland and hold him accountable for Public Housing policy and spending decisions which affect their lives. The mayor of Portland should NOT have the singular power to keep Public Housing out of his neighborhood.

Richard Ellmyer

Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last seventeen years than all other journalists and elected officials combined.

Author of The Ellmyer Report http://macsolve.org/lists/?p=subscribe, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Occasionally distributed to more than a quarter of million readers in Oregon and beyond. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus https://www.facebook.com/Portland-Politics-Plus-384937258506933/. Contributor: Patch news https://patch.com/oregon/

PUBLIC HOUSING is a class of housing defined as, Means Test (<=80%MFI) + Government Subsidy (any government any type) + rental agreement.

Oregon Health Authority Public Housing Database https://www.oregon.gov/OHA/HSD/AMH/Pages/Affordable-Housing.aspx

Other Housing Agencies operating in metropolitan areas may opt-in to the use of Small Area FMRs. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/smallarea/index.html#final-rulemaking