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The Portland City Council is preparing to consider a policy that would require owners of unreinforced brick buildings to retrofit them, and building owners are urging the city to provide financing.

Portland has 1,644 unreinforced masonry buildings, according to a city inventory. They are 88 years old on average.

Portland officials have anticipated the need to retrofit the city’s unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings for years. The city’s first retrofit requirements were adopted in the mid-1990s. But increasing awareness of Portland’s risk for a potentially devastating Cascadia subduction zone earthquake has added urgency to the efforts.

Even landlords now recognize that seismic retrofit requirements are coming.

鈥淎t the end of the day, it’s how can it be done, not should it be done,鈥� said Gwenn Baldwin, a lobbyist who represents the Masonry Building Owners of Oregon.

The URM Policy Committee will meet for the final time on Oct. 4. The City Council will then perform its first review of the policy Oct. 19. The council is not expected to vote on the policy at that meeting.

The policy’s creation is overseen by the city’s Bureau of Emergency Management, which is overseen by Mayor Ted Wheeler. His office is monitoring the URM Policy Committee’s work, spokesman Michael Cox said.

鈥淲e’ve been working closely with them on refining their proposal,鈥� he said.

The policy has been years in the making, in part because building upgrade mandates often face resistance from property owners. Seismic retrofits are a particularly costly upgrade, often requiring landlords to evict or temporarily relocate tenants for months while work proceeds.

Adding to the difficulties is the city’s new relocation assistance ordinance that requires landlords to compensate tenants upon issuing a no-cause eviction. The relocation assistance varies by the size of unit, ranging from $2,900 to vacate a studio apartment to $4,500 for a unit with at least three bedrooms.

Those costs add up. Last spring, Urban Development + Partners evicted tenants from 65 units at the Fairmount Hotel to make way for a major renovation. The fees cost the Portland developer $199,800.

In concept, seismic retrofits could hardly be simpler: add steel. Typically, steel bars are added to reinforce masonry walls. Parapets and other features are tied down into more durable structures.

The construction is straightforward, but the costs can be high, particularly for the owners of small buildings that generate modest leasing income.

And not all unreinforced masonry buildings are for-profit operations. The city’s inventory lists approximately 45 schools and 35 churches. Central City Concern, one of the city’s largest nonprofit owners of affordable housing, owns several unreinforced masonry buildings.

URM buildings were built in Portland between about 1870 and 1960, according to the city’s draft summary. Many of the buildings are located downtown, in Old Town Chinatown and in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

Government officials have known of Portland’s seismic risks for years, but a story in the Portland Mercury in 2012 shed light on the scale of the problem. Former Commissioner Steve Novick drew attention to the issue, and then a 2015 article in The New Yorker added alarm with scenarios of widespread death, displacement and structural failures from the inevitable earthquake.

A draft of the city’s policy was released in April, and changes may still be made. The draft policy takes a tiered approach to regulating URM retrofits.

The URM committee process has helped make the draft policy workable for building owners, Baldwin said.

鈥淭he process has actually accomplished what you hope from the Portland process,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t has become more practical, more grounded.鈥�

In the tiered approach, the vast majority of unreinforced masonry buildings is in class 3, designated for buildings with more than 10 occupants but no critical infrastructure. Draft retrofit standards for those buildings call for bracing unreinforced masonry parapets, cornices and chimneys, anchoring walls to floors and roofs, attaching a diaphragm to vertical elements to transfer in plane shear and out-of-plane wall bracing for taller walls.

Owners of class 3 buildings would have five years to assess needed seismic upgrades, 10 years to brace parapets and attach walls to the roof, 20 years to complete wall-to-floor attachments and wall strengthening and 25 years to complete all work. A five-year extension could be provided for hardship.

Class 1 buildings 鈥� critical ones such as hospitals and fire stations that must be occupied after an earthquake 鈥� have much tighter timelines. Owners of these buildings are given three years to assess and 10 years to complete a retrofit.

Class 2 buildings include schools and churches. Owners of those buildings are given three years for assessment, 10 years for bracing and 20 years to complete a retrofit.

Class 4 buildings are one- to two-story buildings with up to 10 occupants. Owners of those are given 10 years to complete a seismic retrofit.

Affordable housing providers are working to make sure the policy doesn’t result in the closure of any buildings. Central City Concern has been in contact with the Portland Housing Bureau to devise an exception for affordable housing.

The amendment, if adopted by the URM Policy Committee and City Council, would allow an extended timeline for owners of affordable housing to evaluate and conduct retrofits of their buildings, said Sean Hubert, chief housing and employment officer for Central City Concern.

鈥淲e feel in terms of the affordable housing piece that that is a good compromise,鈥� he said.

If the amendment is not adopted, Central City Concern would oppose the URM policy, Hubert said.

City codes beginning in the 1970s resulted in the closure of thousands of single-room occupancy units, which share kitchens and bathrooms and serve as housing of last resort for many impoverished individuals, Hubert said. The closure of those units coincided with a rise in homelessness, he said.

鈥淎 lot of that loss was due to the city getting more tough on code enforcement and new codes,鈥� he said.

Seismic retrofits for multistory apartment buildings are costlier than similar upgrades for buildings with open floor plans, Hubert said.

鈥淲hat we have found 鈥� in order to do a full seismic retrofit 鈥� you have to shore up the diaphragm at each level, which means you have to tear up everything,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s a very costly prospect.鈥�

For many owners of small URM buildings, the property serves as their retirement income, said Susan Steward, executive director of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Oregon. It’s critical the city provide financing for the seismic retrofits, she said.

鈥淚’m still concerned at the end of the day they’re going to pass this with nothing in place (for financial assistance),鈥� she said.

Few buildings have sufficient equity to finance costly retrofits, she said.

A program called PropertyFit aims to close the financial gap. It’s operated by Prosper Portland, Multnomah County and the Energy Trust of Oregon, with outside capital partners. The program offers financing beginning at $200,000 with terms of up to 30 years. The loans are secured by a property lien.

The program has yet to be tested, however.

City officials appear to be sympathetic to building owners’ concerns, Steward said.

鈥淭hey seem to get it,鈥� she said.

City officials are aware of the financing challenges, but also hesitant to hand out dollars to private property owners. A property-tax abatement may be part of the answer.

The policy is on the right track 鈥� as long as financing comes together, Baldwin said.

鈥淲e’re close,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut don’t get things out of order. Don’t pass (the policy) and then figure out financing.鈥�