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Metro is weighing whether to refer a proposed $652.8 million affordable housing bond to voters as the Portland region grapples with rising homelessness and sharply increasing home prices.

The Metro Council will vote Thursday whether to place the measure on November ballots. The bond would cost property owners an average of $60 per year.

The affordable housing bond would be a first for Metro, an agency better known for promoting recycling and analyzing urban growth boundaries. The regional government kicked off an equitable housing initiative in 2015, and has since continued to work on affordable housing.

Metro estimates it would be able to build 3,900 affordable units if Oregon voters approve a constitutional amendment that will also be on November ballots to give local governments more flexibility in spending affordable housing dollars. If the constitutional amendment fails, Metro estimates it would be able to build 2,400 units with the bond dollars.

Metro’s measure would come after Portland’s own $258.4 million housing bond passed overwhelmingly in November 2016. Metro’s much larger bond would be spread regionally, with Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro and Gresham getting 90 percent of the money. The remainder would be used by Metro to purchase land for affordable housing.

The bond effort comes as rents in some Portland neighborhoods have increased by 70 percent in the past year, said Martha Bennett, Metro’s chief operating officer.

However, according to some surveys from rental listing firms, rents in Portland have plateaued and even declined in recent months. But sale prices have continued to escalate, hitting a record $405,000 median price in the Portland-metro area in April, according to the listing service RMLS.

Metro and its partner jurisdictions would be able to use the bond money to build new affordable housing, purchase existing affordable housing at risk of displacement or buy vacant land. Some of the dollars would be devoted to deeply affordable housing available to renters earning 30 percent or less of median family income.

One of the goals for the bond calls for 50 percent of the bond-funded units having two bedrooms or more. That would help address a profound need for family-size affordable housing, particularly in communities of color, Metro officials said.

Metro Council President Tom Hughes, at a work session Tuesday, discussed how the bond package could be presented to voters. He expressed concern that Metro risked backlash if officials 鈥渃onvince the public that they won’t see any homeless people on the streets.鈥�

Metro will be careful not to oversell the bond package, Bennett said.

鈥淚n no case would staff ever portray this as solving the problem,鈥� she said.

An oversight committee would likely be formed to keep watch over the bond spending. Councilor Sam Chase sought assurances the committee’s role would be advisory, and Metro Council would retain the final decision on the agency’s bond spending.

鈥淚 think this is a good package,鈥� Chase said. 鈥淚f we go for perfect, we’ll never get a package.鈥�

Councilor Kathryn Harrington asked a series of sharp questions Tuesday, saying the ballot measure language is not adequately specific. She threatened to vote against referral.

鈥淚’m having difficulty (understanding) what I’m going to be approving 鈥� and if this is it, I’m not going to be able to do that,鈥� she said.

The ballot title is too vague to hold future Metro Councils to the bond’s goals as laid out in Bennett’s recommendation, Harrington said.

鈥淲e’re leaving a bit too much up to chance in leaving those discussions for next year or we’ll know it when we see it or something like that,鈥� she said.

Metro staff will continue to work with Harrington on her matters of concern, spokesman Craig Beebe said Wednesday.

Metro anticipates Portland’s Home Forward and Clackamas and Washington counties contributing federal Section 8 housing bond money to some projects. Some affordable units would be subsidized by charging market rents for other units.

City of Portland representatives have weighed in on an advisory group’s work that helped shape the bond proposal. Mayor Ted Wheeler supports Metro’s housing bond, spokesman Michael Cox said.

鈥淚t gives us more units of affordable housing, and it does so region-wide,鈥� Cox said. 鈥淲hile the housing crisis in Portland gets most of the ink, it’s certainly a regional crisis.鈥�

The city of Portland has begun to allocate dollars from its 2016 bond after a protracted evaluation process. The first new project to use housing bond money will be at the site of the now-closed Safari Club, at 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd.

鈥淲e continue to identify properties to either purchase or build using those funds,鈥� Cox said.