The Portland City Council on Wednesday evening voted to approve an ordinance that will allocate $55.9 million to the Portland Housing Bureau‘s budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Unbudgeted bureau funds total more than $106 million.

Appropriations will be made to three Portland Housing Bureau funds: $40.4 million to the Housing Investment Fund, $4.8 million to the Tax Increment Fund, and $10.7 million to the Inclusionary Housing Fund. Separately, $4 million will go to the city’s general fund.

“Each of these tranches, we would develop programs for that,” said Donnie Oliveira, deputy city administrator for community and economic development. “In some cases, we would develop best practices.”

Options also include issuing a request for proposals from organizations to help allocate the funds, looking to see if the city has the capacity to disperse these dollars directly, or potentially partnering with Multnomah County.

“Each one of these would require us to contemplate the best way to get the dollars out as fast as possible, and as efficiently as possible,” Oliveira said.

Councilor Loretta Smith suggested the funds be dispersed directly from the city, rather than via programs. Creating programs would slow the process and the funds may not go out until September, she said.

The funds will not be allocated until July 1 at the earliest, according to Oliveira.

Unspent housing funds total around $137 million, Smith said. However, $106 million was the original amount identified, Chief Financial Officer Jonas Biery said.

“An additional amount of around $24 million was reflected in the city administrator’s memo a month or so ago, which were funds that were unbudgeted to be spent in this year, different from the original $106 million, which was sort of unbudgeted in future expenditures,” Biery said.

Some of the unbudgeted funds have already been allocated to the Housing Investment Fund, Biery said.

A proposed amendment by Smith to allocate $2.5 million for homeownership development opportunities to Self Enhancement Inc. and Williams & Russell failed.

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The Portland City Council on Wednesday approved three amendments to a proposed ordinance that would add nearly $56 million to the Portland Housing Bureau‘s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The proposal’s aims are to address the homelessness crisis and low-income tenants facing eviction.

The Portland Housing and Permitting Committee on Tuesday voted unanimously to adopt the proposed ordinance and send it to the council. A final vote will take place on April 15.

Appropriations would be made to the following Portland Housing Bureau funds: $40.4 million to the Housing Investment Fund, $4.8 million to the Tax Increment Fund, and $10.7 million to the Inclusionary Housing Fund. Separately, $4 million would go to the city’s general fund.

A November 2022 internal review process had identified $20.7 million in unspent funds within the Portland Housing Bureau’s Residential Rental Registration Program. These funds are used to provide landlords and tenants with services, support, technical assistance, and public information about rental housing units in Portland.

Earlier this year, city staff identified an unbudgeted balance of $35.2 million in specified sub-funds within the Housing Investment Fund. Over the past few months, the City Council has discussed how to use the funds to address homelessness.

“There is no single solution to our housing crisis,” Councilor Candace Avalos (chair of the Housing and Permitting Committee) said during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

One amendment includes $9 million for rent assistance, $1.9 million for eviction defense services, $8.8 million in affordable, non-market housing portfolio stabilization debt buy-downs that enable targeted rent reductions, $200,000 in expanded funding to provide support for landlords implementing tenant protections, $800,000 to offer down payment assistance to tenants in a position to purchase a home, and $8.6 million in the general fund.

Another amendment funds the Broadway Corridor‘s Parcel 6, with $4.8 million from the TIF River District and $800,000 from the Portland Housing Bureau.

A third amendment allocates $3.5 million in gap financing for Hacienda CDC‘s Monarcha project (previously named Minnesota Places II). Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney said the project site currently holds a shell building; however, with additional funding to complete the work, the development would provide 57 affordable family-size units. The amendment also includes allocating $18.3 million for the creation of a fund dedicated to loans for long-term housing construction, affordable housing preservation, and acquisition of properties for social housing and permanent public ownership.

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