Portland committee hears ‘One Housing Plan’ outline and housing production strategy actions on permitting, conversions and infrastructure

Council Chair Avalos presented the outline of a “One Housing Plan” to the Homelessness and Housing Committee on April 8 and said the plan will unite emergency shelter, affordable housing and market-rate production under a single implementation-focused framework.

The plan and the city’s related Housing Production Strategy drew comment from bureau directors, Prosper Portland and committee members on near-term actions to increase housing capacity: central-city zoning updates, permitting improvements at Portland Permitting and Development, pilot commercial-to-residential conversions and strategic infrastructure investments to unlock large-scale development sites.

Why it matters: Portland’s elected officials and bureau leaders described the work as an attempt to move from planning to implementation — coordinating across bureaus and with Multnomah County and the state to accelerate housing production, address affordability and align shelter policy with housing supply.

“Before I even say what it is, I want to talk about why now,” Chair Avalos told the committee. “The One Housing Plan is about alignment. It is a plan that unites our work from emergency shelter to affordable housing to middle income development under one shared vision.”

Scope and timeline: Avalos said the plan will include a shared theory of change, an inventory of existing plans, a gap analysis, benchmarks and funding pathways. She described milestones that aim for a published plan in December and said the committee will launch a resolution in late May to set the plan’s framework and guide subsequent committee work.

Bureau briefings and near-term actions: Donnie Olivera, director for community and economic development, framed the Housing Production Strategy as the state-required, implementation-minded complement to the city’s housing needs analysis. Eric Engstrom (BPS) and other bureau leaders told the committee they will prioritize a set of actions over the next two years, including:

- Permitting and process improvements at Portland Permitting and Development (PPD). David Kienhausen, interim director at PPD, said PPD has created internal and external dashboards, expanded single-point-of-contact support for housing permits and is standardizing data reporting; he said approximately 3,000 housing permits are currently “ready to issue” but constrained by financing and market conditions rather than intake processing.

- Pilot commercial-to-residential conversions. Lisa Abwaff of Prosper Portland described two to three pilot projects in Old Town and the Central East Side funded with a mix of tax increment finance and a state infrastructure award; Prosper and partners are offering up to $85,000 per unit from a state program (PSEF) to help address conversion gaps and preserve embodied carbon by rehabbing vacant commercial buildings into middle-income housing.

- Strategic infrastructure investments on large sites. Prosper Portland highlighted the Broadway Corridor and OMSI-area projects, where a state infrastructure award of $12,000,000 supports streets and utility work intended to enable roughly 460 units of housing tied to those sites (two projects of approximately 230 units each were cited as examples).

- Zoning and capacity reviews in inner centers and corridors. The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) is analyzing infrastructure capacity and potential zoning adjustments in centrally located neighborhoods to identify areas where upzoning could increase housing opportunity.

Trade-offs and risks: Eric Engstrom and Donnie Olivera warned that economic and financing conditions remain the dominant constraint on private housing production: high interest rates, construction costs and a market where buying existing apartment buildings can be cheaper than new construction. They said success will depend on city, county and state coordination, targeted public investments to de‑risk projects and internal staff capacity to carry out reforms.

Councilor responses and next steps: Councilors praised the integrated approach but pressed for an action-focused plan. Councillor Dunphy said he supports the plan’s “bold, visionary” aim, while Councillor Zimmerman urged the chair to ensure the committee does not merely refashion existing documents but produces concrete reforms such as permitting and zoning changes. Chair Avalos said the policy items in the calendar are intentionally left as “TBD” to be developed by the committee and staff and pledged to bring committee members and external partners into the process.

No formal votes: The committee did not take formal votes on policies during the April 8 meeting; items discussed will move through bureau processes and return to council for specific legislative actions where required.

Ending: The committee scheduled follow-up meetings, with affordable housing and tenant-protection topics on the next agenda, and said it will continue to workshop the One Housing Plan and production-strategy implementation steps through the year.