We know that home prices are not affordable for working people in Portland. We know that nearly half of Portland residents are tenants, and wages aren’t keeping up with rents. Homelessness is correlated with high housing costs and low supply. 

There’s no silver bullet for fixing our housing woes, but there are a lot of common-sense things that we can do to improve the situation, from investing in new forms of housing, to tackling bureaucracy and burnout among service providers, to making it easier for people to stay in their homes.

Fully fund and expand Portland Street Response: This innovative program has already rerouted many thousands of calls that would have otherwise gone to an overburdened police force here in Portland, and should be a coequal part of our emergency services. An unarmed, trauma-informed response to people in crisis is a pragmatic and compassionate tool that our city desperately needs. The workers who staff this program have a lot to tell us about how the program can best grow.

Restore funding for public space improvements, like increased lighting, street closures, and related violence prevention programs.

Expand summer enrichment and recreation programs to make things like swimming lessons accessible to every Portland kid. Ensure that kids have covered athletic and play facilities for winter rains and cool indoor recreation centers for increasingly hot summer days.

Change the Tax: Many of our roads are a mess, and our system has pitted cyclists, transit riders, and drivers against each other, even though many people in Portland do all three. We shouldn’t have to choose between great public transit, safe bike routes, and repairing potholes. In an EV world, it’s time to rethink the gas tax as a primary funding source.

Realistic pricing: Other cities have reduced parking subsidies and instituted heavy vehicle licensing to improve street quality and funding for our road and transportation networks. We need similar non-regressive, common-sense approaches to funding safe streets.

It’s imperative that we work with state and federal partners on bold pedestrian, transit and bike improvements to high-traffic and high-crash corridors, including:

Bus Rapid Transit on 82nd.

Transfer of Inner Powell from State to City control.

Safer speeds and sidewalk expansion on Cesar Chavez.

Protected bike lanes on Sandy.

Intersection daylighting, curb extensions, and other tested design changes for safety around our city.

Protect PCEF: We need funds raised for Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) programs to be used toward actual PCEF goals.

Target heat islands, which are often in low-income and majority-BIPOC areas, and ensure that those neighborhoods are first in line to have trees planted to create a shade canopy.

Expand access to free air conditioning, air filters, and home improvements that make dwellings more resilient to extreme heat and cold, as well as high-pollution events like wildfires.  

Coordinate with the County: A lack of communication between City and County turns a dangerous situation into a deadly one. As with everything, our two local governments have to be on the same page around emergency response to these disasters. 

Center the vulnerable: Our elders and kids are at the most risk from extreme heat, and our public spaces need to reflect this. Librarians cannot be the front line for comfortable, indoor spaces during hot and cold weather. We need more “third spaces,” community areas where everyone–particularly children–can gather.

Jobs Programs: There are examples of these partnerships at both the City and County level, from scholarships for students pursuing Early Childhood Education funded by the Preschool for All program, to worksite training on large-scale solar projects funded by PCEF. Part of my work will be looking for ways to build on these models to create pathways for dignified work in all of our most vital sectors, from childcare to construction to behavioral health.  

Ask the Experts: Whether it’s revitalizing downtown with exciting new construction projects, creating new housing, strengthening our energy grid, staffing recovery centers, or growing vital programs like Portland Street Response, the people doing the work need to be included in the planning process. Making the changes Portland needs means making workers part of the conversation, ensuring they have the right to organize, and narrowing the gap between wages and cost of living.