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Mayor Ted Wheeler’s halt to spending Portland’s $258.4 million affordable housing bonds is poised to end.

The City Council unanimously adopted a framework plan Wednesday that sets goals for spending the bond.

The Housing Bureau will issue a request for information and open for bond transactions on Oct. 23, Director Kurt Creager said.

Voters approved the bond in November 2016 amid pleas to ease Portland’s housing crisis. But shortly after taking office in January, Wheeler ordered Creager to delay spending the bond money until a plan was in place. The Housing Bureau had been criticized for spending money ineffectively in the past 鈥� for example, on a new headquarters for an affordable housing nonprofit group, rather than on affordable housing itself.

鈥淭he voters have trusted us with their hard-earned dollars and we have an absolute responsibility to maintain that trust by ensuring that our actions align with the intent of voters,鈥� Wheeler said Wednesday.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said Portland has to get the bond housing right. She praised the framework plan, which was crafted by an 18-person committee, for being 鈥渋ntentional and meaningful in focusing on goals that address historic housing inequities.鈥�

鈥淚 know the community has been anxious for us to start spending these funds,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is a finite resource that’s paid for by our local residents, so anything less wouldn’t have been a responsible use of these funds.鈥�

The framework plan establishes an overall goal of generating 1,300 affordable housing units. It leaves open the option of buying existing affordable housing to preserve it, rather than building new units.

鈥淲e don’t know until we solicit the best ideas from the community, but it’s exciting,鈥� Commissioner Nick Fish said.

The properties will be pegged to affordability at 60 percent or below area median income for Portland. The framework plan also sets a goal that half of the units should be family housing with two bedrooms or more.

Fish urged the Housing Bureau to come up with a pilot program to erect modular or prefabricated affordable housing. Creager said that would require a separate program that would need City Council approval.

Members of the steering committee said the bond money should be spent with equity in mind to prevent displacement and reduce racial inequities.

鈥淓ach property we acquire will be run through a lens of racial equity, vulnerability and opportunity,鈥� said Jennifer Chang, a Housing Bureau program coordinator.

The steering committee also urged the Housing Bureau to spend the money throughout Portland. Unlike urban renewal dollars, the bond dollars are not limited to urban renewal areas 鈥� they can be spent on housing in any area of the city.

Fish said the housing bond is a 鈥渟tep in the right direction,鈥� but chided the federal government for declining to fund Section 8 vouchers and other affordable housing programs.

鈥淚’m very proud of the fact that locally we’re stepping up,鈥� Fish said. 鈥淏ut the system was not intended for Portland, Oregon, to solve a national problem 鈥� and we should not have the hubris to accept that premise. We’ll do what we can.鈥�