Portland committee refines objectives for unified housing strategy, asks staff for metrics by Dec. 1

The Homelessness and Housing Committee met July 22 to discuss draft objectives for Portland’s unified housing strategy and directed city staff to return with a detailed draft — including metrics, timelines and resource requests — on Dec. 1.

The committee’s chair described an “iterative approach,” saying, “I have opted for this iterative approach because I think it gives us a chance to push even harder on the numbers later once we know what’s possible.” The discussion focused on five broad pillars — producing housing, preserving vulnerable affordable units, preventing displacement, promoting equity and inclusion, and improving environmental sustainability — and on how the strategy should be expressed and measured for the period Jan. 1, 2026, through Dec. 31, 2028, with quarterly milestones.

Why it matters: the document under consideration would serve as an attachment to a resolution the council passed in May charging the city to develop a unified housing strategy. Committee members said the exhibit should give clearer direction to bureaus and create a public roadmap the council can use to hold staff accountable as the strategy moves from planning to implementation.

Committee members and staff debated how specific the language should be. Several members recommended removing or clarifying the phrase “unregulated market-rate housing,” arguing it could be misconstrued; the chair said the final text should explain intent rather than trigger debate over a single word. Council members asked the housing bureau to explicitly name items already under study — including social housing and land trust models — and to fold recently adopted policy changes into the tracking dashboard, notably a city action last week waiving some system development charges (SDCs).

Councilor María Murillo asked that an amendment she produced relating to the SDC waiver be folded into the monitoring plan so the committee can track effects. The chair and other members also asked the housing bureau and the new permitting team to provide specific permitting metrics and quarterly updates tied to the bureau’s implementation dashboard.

Committee members emphasized several cross-cutting items for the final exhibit: (1) include partners and stakeholders engaged to date so the city can identify gaps in outreach; (2) add longitudinal measures that track whether households served remain stably housed three years after interventions; (3) address property management and preservation funding for long-term asset health of affordable housing; and (4) clarify the county’s role on behavioral health and wraparound services in shelter-to-housing transitions.

Members also debated environmental provisions. The draft names mass timber as one example of a construction approach to explore; one committee member said the climate committee should be briefed first and asked staff to explore transit-oriented development and preferred building materials and subsidies to support net-zero goals.

The chair said the document will be revised based on today’s discussion, attached as an exhibit to the existing May resolution, and returned through the normal council process so the full council can refine the objectives before staff finalize the December deliverable.

The committee will meet next on Aug. 12 and expects to hear from the mayor on shelter-plan progress, a permitting/code improvement ordinance, and follow-up from county partners on the homelessness response action plan.