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The Portland City Council on Wednesday voted to make property-tax breaks available in exchange for affordable housing units from developers who beat the 2017 inclusionary housing deadline.

At Mayor Ted Wheeler’s urging, commissioners voted 4-0 to make the Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program available to development projects that vested before the Feb. 1, 2017 鈥� the effective date of inclusionary housing requirements.

An enormous wave of applications beat the deadline, meaning those projects are not required to provide affordable housing. Without extending the MULTE program, up to 19,000 market-rate housing units could be built as developments with no affordable units included, Wheeler said.

鈥淢ULTE is a proven tool that we can use to get affordable units in the pipeline in the near term,鈥� Wheeler said. 鈥淲e’re in a housing crisis 鈥� as you’re all aware 鈥� and the need is immediate.鈥�

Commissioner Amanda Fritz expressed serious reservations about extending the MULTE program after hearing testimony from Housing Bureau officials that the subsidy amounts to about $900 per unit per month.

鈥淚 am concerned about a $900-a-unit subsidy for new construction,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hen I was a low-wage earner, I didn’t expect to be able to live in new construction.鈥�

Fritz declined to vote on the matter, stepping out of council chambers to allow the rest of the council to approve the ordinance in her absence. As an emergency ordinance, the MULTE extension required unanimous support for passage. After the four remaining commissioners approved the measure, Fritz returned to her seat.

Commissioner Nick Fish said offering the MULTE program to developers is better than doing nothing.

鈥淭he mayor has proposed a tool, and it’s an imperfect tool and it’s not even my favorite tool, but it does offer the promise of getting some affordable units, and I think in a crisis we should be opportunistic,鈥� Fish said. 鈥淚’ve heard some criticism around the margins, but I haven’t heard something that convinces me that we shouldn’t try. I’m persuaded that this is worth trying.鈥�

The ordinance takes immediate effect. It allows developers to opt in to the MULTE program, providing a 10-year property-tax exemption to the residential portion of a development. In exchange, the developer must provide 20 percent of bedrooms in a given project at rates affordable to renters at 80 percent of the Portland area’s median family income or less.

Only developments with 20 or more housing units are eligible. The program has a $3 million cap on a rolling five-year basis due to an agreement with Multnomah County that limits how much tax revenue the city of Portland can forgo.

The program can support only about 300 affordable units in any five-year period, interim Housing Bureau Director Shannon Callahan said.

Brad Malsin, whose firm Beam Development has played a major role in redeveloping the Central Eastside, said he supported extending the MULTE program as a way to buttress the housing market. A downturn is coming, he warned.

鈥淭he development cycle takes three to four years between concept and delivering to market,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o we’re reaching that point where things will change. We’ll hit a cliff, and I believe residential development will fall significantly unless we take some action.鈥�

Applications for the program will be accepted through June 30, 2020.