Linn, Becker, Sten et. al. Oppose Neighborhood Housing Data and HAP Accountability

Portland Mayor and Multnomah County Public Housing Czar Tom Potter has only one ally, Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams, in his announced, albeit unfulfilled, commitment to provide public housing data by neighborhood and to hold appointed public officials at HAP accountable for their actions. The Gresham City Council, the Multnomah County Commission and three of five members of the Portland City Council say NO.

On July 8, 2005 I requested the opinion of sixteen elected officials on four fundamental questions related to public housing policy in Multnomah county. On July 18th I wrote to each of them and told them what the available public evidence showed about their positions and offered them the opportunity to correct any misimpression. In addition, I agreed to accept any complaint that the questions were unfair and not related to their duties as an elected official in Multnomah county.

The names and contact information for all of these elected officials are listed below. HAP Watcher readers are strongly encouraged to contact these elected officials to verify and discuss their now public positions.

Analysis
First and foremost, Sam Adams. It's always dangerous to do this but I'm going to risk it anyway. Sam Adams may turn out to be one of Oregon's finest politicians in the very best sense of the word. His years of training behind the scenes show tremendous promise in Sam's first seven months in office. Please read what Sam has to say below. It is responsible, insightful and courageous.

Diane Linn has a constituency that includes every voter, tax payer and citizen in Multnomah county. So it is especially egregious and shameful that Linn has rejected an opportunity to join the only other person with a county wide constituency, Multnomah County Public Housing Czar Tom Potter, in his calls for public access to public housing data for all neighborhoods in Multnomah county and accountability of public officials - a subject Diane should be quite familiar with.

Charles Becker and his crew, Shane Bemis, Shirley Craddick, Karylinn Echols, Jacquenette McIntire, Dave Shields and Paul Warr-King seem determined to define the city of Gresham government as unanimously disinterested in providing their constituents with public housing data by neighborhood. Well done Charles and cronies. Despite its explosive growth and burgeoning public housing issues, your efforts to persuade the public that Gresham is being governed like a backwater village have been successful. Apparently this group wouldn't know nor care if HAP built every new public housing project in the Gresham neighborhood of least resistance. Doesn't exactly fit the quantifying equity of the 3-6-9 Resolution* but a provocative fantasy nonetheless.

After Vera Katz, Erik Sten has been the leading obstructionist to audit and analysis of public housing policy as well as loyalist HAP defender for four and a half years. Sten just added a measure of incompetence to compliment his obfuscation by hiring Jamall Folsom, who recently failed in a similar housing liaison job in Potter's office. Many believe that Erik intends to use his public housing reputation as a catalyst to become mayor. Good luck persuading the stake holders throughout Portland's neighborhoods, namely, homeowners, business owners and parents that have children in local public schools that preventing them from knowing where HAP, PDC and HDCD are stashing their clients is going to boost his credibility.

Randy Leonard persuaded me to support him for city council. After he looked at my HAP public housing data by neighborhood map in October of 2002 he wrote to me, "As hard as I have tried, I cannot think of a persuasive argument for lumping people of low income into one area of the city..." And yet, the minute he got into office he joined forces with the public housing establishment and hasn't uttered a peep since about concentration of public housing clients into select neighborhoods. No surprises here.

Dan Saltzman is somewhat of an enigma. Saltzman, who should have been leading the environmental charge to take advantage of this unique opportunity, inexplicably teamed up with HAP to kill the idea of using excess methane from the Columbia Wastewater Treatment Plant to provide free hot water or power to Columbia Villa. Mr. "sustainability" never complained nor even noticed that as part of the Columbia Villa remodel HAP was buying hundreds of conventional water heaters instead of the newer, more effective and conservative instant on hot water heaters with a five year pay back. If HAP doesn't want to reveal its public housing data by neighborhood, or to quantify public housing policy, or be accountable for their public behavior Dan is only too happy to go along. Why? I have no idea.

Serena Cruz has been in HAP's pocket for a very long time. Her family got the multimillion dollar contract to remodel Columbia Villa. Serena Cruz, a Harvard educated lawyer, is not about to bite the hand that feeds her. However, her reluctance, indeed refusal, to deal with public housing policy issues is not likely to stand her in good stead if and when she tries to convince Multnomah county voters that she is credible and honest enough to be county Chair.

Lonnie Roberts joins his colleagues from Gresham in a complete shut out of east county residents from information about how the Housing Authority of Portland is affecting their east county neighborhoods.

In the last four and a half years Lisa Naito and Maria Rojo de Steffey have never offered an opinion nor shown any willingness to engage in a public discussion or debate on public housing policy in Multnomah county. Apparently they don't intend to start now.

Questions & Answers
1. Do you support your constituents' right to both immediate and updated monthly access to HAP's public housing data which includes a record for every public housing client in the form of a tab delimited text file with the following four fields: neighborhood, median income range (0-30,31-50,51-80%), age, gender?

Answer: YES
Sam Adams - I support regular reporting of this data including and beyond HAP.

Answer: NO
Charles Becker, Shane Bemis, Shirley Craddick, Serena Cruz, Karylinn Echols, Randy Leonard, Diane Linn, Jacquenette McIntire, Lisa Naito, Lonnie Roberts, Dan Saltzman, Dave Shields, Erik Sten, Maria Rojo de Steffey, Paul Warr-King

2. Do you support the necessity to quantify public housing policy in Multnomah county?

Answer: YES
Sam Adams - We need to set-up better channels for annual collecting and reporting of critical data relating to low-income housing and affordability.

3. The 3-6-9 Resolution* [See below] can be the catalyst and basis for a county wide discussion, debate and implementation of defendable public housing policy goals and auditable public housing operations. Do you support the introduction of the 3-6-9 Resolution into the public dialog or an alternative resolution which you have personally written to quantify public housing policy in Multnomah county?

Answer: YES
Sam Adams - I agree that the 3-6-9 Resolution is a good starting point for public dialogue. I don't consider it a finished product. I think what the 3-6-9 resolution misses is two fold: 1) all low-income and affordable housing is not the same and 2) the on-the-ground reality of low-income and affordable housing's presence in a neighborhood.

As your website lists, there are neighborhoods with above 9% HAP clients. Your 3-6-9 policy, however, would purport that these neighborhoods suffer as a result of this percentage. I don't think that is necessarily so. HAP provides numerous kinds of housing options: some of it is transitory, some is for new families, some is for elderly and disabled clients who will need the care of our community for years to come. Beyond that, the housing provided by the numerous Community Development Corporations that operate throughout our city brings affordable housing to hundreds of Portland families. Each one of these housing types brings different residents, different buildings and helps create different neighborhoods.

4. Do you agree with Tom Potter's public statement of September 2004, "The charges laid out in your bill of particulars warrant investigation. Appointed public officials especially those that spend public funds are responsible for their conduct of public business?"[See complete interview http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/MayoralInterview.html]

Answer: YES
Sam Adams - "Ultimate responsibility to the public is the basic tenet of public service-appointed, elected or hired."

Contact Information
Charles Becker - Gresham Mayor - Molly.Cafferty@ci.gresham.or.us
Shane Bemis - Gresham City Commissioner - Shane.Bemis@ci.gresham.or.us
Shirley Craddick - Gresham City Commissioner - Shirley.Craddick@ci.gresham.or.us
Karylinn Echols - Gresham City Commissioner - Karylinn.Echols@ci.gresham.or.us
Jacquenette McIntire - Gresham City Commissioner - Jacquenette.McIntire@ci.gresham.or.us
Dave Shields - Gresham City Commissioner - Dave.Shields@ci.gresham.or.us
Paul Warr-King - Gresham City Commissioner - Paul.Warr-King@ci.gresham.or.us

Diane Linn - Multnomah County Chair - mult.chair@co.multnomah.or.us
Lonnie Roberts - Multnomah County Commissioner - lonnie.j.roberts@co.multnomah.or.us
Serena Cruz - Multnomah County Commissioner - serena.m.cruz@co.multnomah.or.us
Lisa Naito - Multnomah County Commissioner - lisa.h.naito@co.multnomah.or.us
Maria Rojo de Steffey - Multnomah County Commissioner - district1@co.multnomah.or.us

Tom Potter - Portland Mayor and Multnomah County Public Housing Czar - tpotter@ci.portland.or.us
Sam Adams - Portland City Commissioner - samadams@ci.portland.or.us
Erik Sten - Portland City Commissioner - erik@ci.portland.or.us
Dan Saltzman - Portland City Commissioner - dsaltzman@ci.portland.or.us
Randy Leonard - Portland City Commissioner - rleonard@ci.portland.or.us

Richard Ellmyer
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses.
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watcher commentary* - Published on the Internet* and distributed to 3500 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 6% solution neighborhood, North Portland
* http://www.goodgrowthnw.org

*DRAFT
Declare 3-6-9 Neighborhood Percentages As Transparent, Understandable and Accountable Distributive Public Housing Policy Goals

WHEREAS the city of Portland has an established policy that public housing clients should not be concentrated into a few select neighborhoods but rather distributed throughout Portland's neighborhoods,

WHEREAS it has become necessary to quantify the policy of distribution of public housing clients in order to assure that public expenditures are being spent in furtherance of these objectives,

WHEREAS it is necessary to adopt neighborhood map based accounting as a reporting and decision making tool regarding public housing policy and expenditures.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the city of Portland shall establish as its primary public housing client goal in each Portland neighborhood a target of six (6) percent of that neighborhood's population. Goals for minimum and maximum shall be established so that no neighborhood shall have fewer than three (3) percent and no neighborhood shall have more than nine (9) percent of its population as public housing clients.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the office of the Portland City Auditor shall coordinate the collection of data and report annually on the status of accomplishment toward the 3-6-9 goal.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the city council shall fund the City Auditor's 3-6-9 related activities by whatever combination of funding sources from HAP, PDC, BHCD or other revenue sources it may chose.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, all appointments for PDC, HAP and HCDC commissioner shall be made during the regular city council calendar.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the mayor shall determine that all nominees to become HAP, PDC and HCDC commissioners agree to support the 3-6-9 policy goal before being formally nominated for council approval.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, during the confirmation proceedings the mayor shall publicly instruct the appointee of his or her obligation to use the office to which they are appointed to further the 3-6-9 policy goal.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, this resolution is binding city policy.