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Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler told members of the Housing Advisory Commission on Tuesday that affordable housing would be his top priority in 2018.

Wheeler spoke Tuesday at the commission’s first meeting since ousting Housing Bureau Director Kurt Creager in December. He offered a broad defense of his administration’s approach to affordable housing.

鈥淚 am unequivocally highly supportive of the work being done by you and being done by the Housing Bureau,鈥� Wheeler told commissioners. 鈥淗ousing affordability continues to be the top priority of this administration.鈥�

Wheeler has been beset by criticism in the media that the Housing Bureau has been slow to spend the $258.4 million of affordable housing bond money that voters approved in November 2016.

鈥淧ersonally, I respectfully disagree with that perspective,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here was some groundwork that was very important to lay down. There was some community work and outreach that I thought was critically important.鈥�

The City Council in October 2017 endorsed a framework plan to guide spending the bond proceeds. The plan calls for generating 1,300 affordable housing units.

鈥淚’m very optimistic on what we’re going to be able to do on the housing bond side in the year ahead,鈥� Wheeler said.

The Housing Bureau in September purchased the site of the Safari Showclub, at , for $3.72 million. The city plans to demolish the former strip club, and officials have said 100 to 300 affordable housing units could be built in its place. The design process is under way, with construction expected to begin in 2019.

Shannon Callahan, a former policy adviser to Commissioner Dan Saltzman, is serving as interim director of the Housing Bureau. Wheeler has assigned housing adviser Cupid Alexander to represent his administration on the commission.

Wheeler said he’ll be judged by how many affordable housing units are produced under his watch.

鈥淭he public is really clear about their priorities, more than I’ve ever seen it,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ousing is really important to people right now.鈥�

The city’s approach must be data driven, with unit production at the forefront, Wheeler said.

The City Council has endorsed 鈥渧ery aggressive鈥� goals for supportive housing, Wheeler said. The council in October set a goal to create 2,000 additional supportive housing units by 2028. The program seeks to pair housing with intensive services to keep residents at risk of homelessness off the streets.

鈥淧ermanent supportive housing is the best way that we can actually address a number of the chronically homeless populations that are on our streets,鈥� Wheeler said Tuesday.

The effort comes at a time of declining federal support for social services. Wheeler said Portland has a looming discussion about 鈥渉ow we can best provide services in an environment 鈥� let’s all be honest 鈥� where the federal government is slowly abandoning us.鈥�

Wheeler has asked all city bureaus to produce budgets with a 5 percent cut. He emphasized that that doesn’t mean the bureaus will have their budgets reduced.

The city has a long-term budget imbalance despite record revenues, Wheeler said. Portland needs to get ahead of the problem before the next economic downturn, he added.

鈥淗ere’s the challenge: We have record revenues, but no one expects the record revenues to continue,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have a problem in our cost structure. The reality of the economy is 鈥� recessions always follow boom economies. We are not yet positioned to be able to deliver our services sustainably.鈥�