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Council approves social-housing task force, adds lived-experience seats and seeks facilitator funding
Summary
The City Council approved a resolution to create a task force to study social housing, adding an amendment requiring at least two members with lived experience navigating Portland’s housing market and indicating staff will seek grant funding for a paid facilitator and technical consultants.
The City Council voted to establish a social-housing task force to study options for city-led affordable housing, including financing tools and program design, and to return recommendations to the council.
The resolution—sponsored by the Housing and Economic Development Committee and introduced as Resolve 7 24 25—directed staff to create a task force of up to 13 members. Councilors amended the resolution to require at least two members of the task force be “from underserved populations with lived experience navigating the challenging housing environment in Portland.”
Supporters of the task force said the city needs new tools to create permanently affordable housing that the private market and existing nonprofit developers are not producing at scale. “Social housing is being used successfully by a variety of local governments to fill gaps in housing development that the market and affordable developers cannot,” said Wendy Cherubini, a Portland resident who supported the resolution.
Public commenters described a range of models — community land trusts, limited-equity cooperatives, modular construction — and urged the task force to examine funding sources, zoning barriers, and construction innovations. Scott Vonnegut of the Greater Portland Community Land Trust urged the group to study shared-equity ownership models and modular construction to lower costs.
City staff said the administration has set aside funds and is seeking an up-to-$60,000 HOP (Housing Opportunity Program) grant to hire a facilitator, and plans to bring technical experts (bond counsel, finance specialists and other consultants) into the task force process. Director Greg Watson of Housing and Economic Development told the council that staff intend the facilitator to keep the task force on schedule and to organize expert testimony.
The resolution sets an initial timeline of roughly 12 months for the task force to report recommendations to the council; staff noted extensions or additional consultant work may be needed and that grant funding would help offset city costs. The measure passed after an amendment and a short delay motion; the council voted in favor by hand vote at the meeting.
Councilor Phillips moved the main motion; councilors amended language to broaden eligibility and to add the two lived-experience seats. The mayor will appoint members following the council’s action. Staff said the task force will include a mix of council and Portland Housing Authority representation, developers, housing finance and legal experts, and community members.
