Portland Homeless: Mayor Wants to Extend State of Emergency for Three Years

Last October, the Portland City Council — saying housing conditions in the city had grown so problematic that there was no other option — declared a housing state of emergency.

On Thursday, Mayor Charlie Hales notified the council that he doesn't see things getting better and would like to see the state of emergency declared for three years.

In a draft ordinance the council will consider next week, the mayor says that while the city's efforts to date have helped ease the problem, "it is anticipated that the circumstances giving rise to the housing emergency will continue for a period of at least another three years."

He does not explain how he came to the three-year time frame.

The city says that since 2000, the city's population has grown by 80,000 people in 29,000 households and that an estimate last year found the city's housing market was underbuilt by approximately 23,000 units of housing — insufficient just to keep up with population growth.

The city has used the emergency rules as their cornerstone of their efforts to deal with the growing homeless issue in the city — allowing temporary camps around the city as well as plans to open a large shelter at Terminal One.

The state of emergency allows the city to waive zoning restrictions, such as it plans to do to turn Terminal One into a 400-bed shelter.

The proposed ordinance states the city's increasing numbers of homeless "are contributing to significant human suffering, creating an immediate need to provide adequate, safe, and habitable shelters for persons experiencing homelessness, and to rapidly increase the supply of permanent affordable housing."

The ordinance also cites the fact that average rents in the city in the last year have gone about almost 9 percent or about $100 a month.

It's not clear that Hales has the support on the council for a three-year extension, though it would not be the first time he moved ahead with something without the backing of his fellow commissioners.

He has proposed a street fee, business tax and demolition fee previously without backing.

Another possible roadblock in extending the emergency is that when the council passed the original emergency, it said it could only be extended six months at a time, which means council would need to pass six ordinances to extend it for three years.

Also, Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler says she supports extending the state of emergency but has some questions.

"I don’t object to an extension of the emergency declaration, but more important than the declaration is its implementation," Wheeler said.

"I look forward to developing a shared understanding (community-wide) of what, exactly, this declaration means in terms of real action."

Photo: Colin Miner