What Do Metro Area Candidates Know About Public Housing? #1

Metro Area Candidates Public Housing Reality Show - Episode 1

Just below personal and public heath, Public Housing is at the top of the political agenda. It is very difficult if not impossible to have a fact based conversation leading to a defensible public policy decision among all concerned parties when there is not a common understanding and usage of the language about the subject at hand.

The Metro regional government has authority over Public Housing policy, which includes location and spending, within its jurisdiction i.e. Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. Elected Metro officials and all elected officials under Metro’s domain must make Public Housing policy decisions commensurate with regional parity.

It will certainly be of interest to voters to know Metro area candidates' answers to the most fundamental question relating to Public Housing upon which all of their dialogue with colleagues and constituents will be based.

The federal Housing and Urban Development department and the Oregon Housing and Community Services department have identified approximately 107,106 Public Housing households connected to Public Housing Authorities and related agencies in the state of Oregon. More than half (55,736) of those households are within Metro’s jurisdiction. All of these households meet the following criteria: PUBLIC HOUSING i.e. a class of housing defined as, Means Test (<=80%MFI) + Government Subsidy (any government any type) + Rental Agreement.

There is no publicly available evidence that any of these 107,106 Public Housing households are currently occupied by households that meet the following criteria: AFFORDABLE HOUSING is a mathematical construct defined as, Rent/Mortgage + Insurance + Taxes + Utilities <=30% Household Income.

Government is in the Public Housing business NOT the Affordable Housing business.

Public Housing is only affordable to households with X% of MFI and UP. Never down.

Previous research has revealed that most Public Housing is NOT Affordable Housing.

So the most basic question related to Public Housing policy is this: When you speak or write about households whose current access to housing involved meeting the following criteria i.e. Means Test (<=80%MFI) + Government Subsidy (any government any type) + Rental Agreement, what words do you use?

Thomas Anderson, Metro 3

Gerritt Rosenthal, Metro 3

Mary Nolan, Metro 5

Chris Smith, Metro 5

Nafisa Fai, Washington 1

Jeffery Hindley, Washington 1

Ken Humberston, Clackamas 4

Mark Shull, Clackamas 4

Ted Wheeler, Portland Mayor

Sarah Iannarone, Portland Mayor

Chloe Eudaly, Portland 4

Mingus Mapps, Portland 4

Lasey Beaty, Beaverton Mayor

Denny Doyle, Beaverton Mayor

As expected, all of the above indicated their acceptance of the following position:

I haven’t given it much thought. The easiest position for me to take is to support the status quo which conflates the mutually exclusive definitions of PUBLIC HOUSING with AFFORDABLE HOUSING. Since everyone supports the idea of Affordable Housing but there is considerable controversy over Public Housing it’s politically convenient to avoid defending the facts and obfuscate the truth.

Dear Reader/Voter, are you impressed? You are encouraged to contact them. If their answers differ from what you read above then please let me know. Thank you.

Neither race, nor skin color, nor sexual orientation, nor age, nor gender gives a candidate for public office a pass to embrace self-inflicted ignorance, deny location as a critical component of Public Housing policy and use language to obscure rather than enlighten all for personal political convenience.

Stay away from crowds especially indoors. Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Stay safe. Keep others safe.

Richard Ellmyer

North Portland

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

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