Portland oversight committee endorses phased updates to North/Northeast preference policy

The North/Northeast Housing Strategies oversight committee on July 10 endorsed a Portland Housing Bureau plan to overhaul how it manages the preference policy wait list, aiming to improve outreach, clean up applicant data and speed referrals for historically displaced families in North and Northeast Portland.

The bureau recommended a phased program of work that begins with outreach to the highest‑priority cohort (6‑point applicants), introduces a fillable pre‑application form and a quality‑assurance survey for referrals, and restarts procurement for a customer‑relationship management (CRM) system to automate communications and reduce manual data entry. Leslie Goodloe, operations and equity manager at the Portland Housing Bureau, presented the recommendations and said the changes respond to feedback from applicants, property managers and community partners.

Why it matters: The preference policy is intended to prioritize families with historical ties to neighborhoods affected by city‑led actions. Committee members and PHB staff said the program has been hampered by an out‑of‑date list, high nonresponse rates and time‑consuming…