FILE - Portland District 1 City Councilor Jamie Dunphy pictured in 2025.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Portland city councilors again punted a months-long debate on how to spend unspent housing dollars.
A majority of councilors said Wednesday that they needed more information about newly identified pots of cash in the housing bureau before voting to spend any of it. Others, however, expressed frustration with not acting with urgency to get the dollars out the door.
Notably, the debate divided the city’s District 1 councilors, who had initially teamed up to author the proposed funding package.
“We need to get some money on the streets right now,” said Councilor Loretta Smith, one of the three politicians who represent East Portland in District 1. “Justice delayed is justice denied. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. We are policymakers. We need to be able to grasp information, take it in, and act on it.”
City officials first disclosed that the Portland Housing Bureau was sitting on $21 million of unbudgeted dollars in November.
That money was generated by a fee that landlords must pay to register new rentals, and is meant to be spent on programs that support renters. Shortly after that discovery, the three District 1 councilors pitched a plan to spend that new cache of money on rent assistance, legal defense for people faced with an eviction, and other tenant support programs.
That plan, delayed by the winter break, was further complicated by the early February news that the city administrator’s office had stumbled upon an additional $85 million in unallocated dollars in the housing bureau.
This money came from different housing revenue streams that had accumulated over the years, and were intended to grow until the money was needed to pay for large projects. But the housing bureau had never noted these accruing dollars in its annual budget.
Unlike the $21 million first identified, this pot of money is made up of a number of funds that all have different rules on how they can be spent.
Wednesday’s vote centered on how to spend the initial $21 million in housing dollars identified. But councilors said that, with the new revelations around more housing cash, they didn’t feel ready for the vote.
“Every time we have met so far, the number of dollars being identified has grown,” said Council President Jamie Dunphy, one of three District 1 councilors who introduced the initial funding package in December. “While finding money is a better problem than the alternative, this is certainly still a problem. I do not feel like this body is ready to make a decision of this magnitude.”
Dunphy called for indefinitely postponing the vote until a March 5 meeting where councilors could ask housing and budget officials questions about the various pots of funding and how they can be used. He had quick support from most councilors.
“We owe Portlanders more than rushed amendments or piecemeal decisions,” said Councilor Candace Avalos, another District 1 councilor behind the December proposal. “We owe them some clear frameworks, some transparency, and an equitable process.”
Smith, the third District 1 representative, rejected this reasoning by her fellow East Portland councilors.
“The District 1 councilors are abandoning the people that they actually say they want to help,” she said. “I’m not convinced that you want to help these people. I’m not convinced that you want to make sure that people don’t get evicted from their homes. I’m really upset about this.”
Smith had the support of District 2 Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney, who pointed out that dozens of Portlanders had joined the evening council meeting to testify about the funding plan — who would be silenced by the proposed delay.
It wasn’t enough to slow the decision.
Eight councilors supported Dunphy’s proposal to postpone the decision until a March public meeting with bureau officials.
