You missed the most important potential impediment to fair housing - Multnomah County's Public Housing Czar - Portland's mayor, Tom Potter.

Tom Potter came to the mayor's job with the same amount of knowledge, experience and interest in public housing policy as George W. Bush came to the president's job with knowledge, experience and interest in international affairs. Their willingness to honestly report the status and effects of their policy decisions as well as their actions purporting to deal forthrightly with the reality of the circumstances are not dissimilar. Their vulnerabilities are inevitably exploited by others with access to the seat of power.

You missed the most important actual impediment to fair housing - the Oregonian newspaper.

In the last 18 years no reporter, editorial writer or columnist has used the phrase, "public housing policy" in a piece about Multnomah county. An hour long presentation to editorial board chief, Bob Caldwell revealed a knowledge and interest of the Housing Authority of Portland similar to that of candidate for mayor Tom Potter. An 18 year blank slate on public housing policy issues in Multnomah county is sufficient evidence to add editor Sandy Rowe and most certainly publisher Fred Stickel to the list of unknowledgeable and disinterested power players. No news is bad news for public housing policy.

Below is my solicited response to the draft of a report required by the federal agency, Housing and Urban Development - HUD. This AI report was last written nine years ago. Production of the current document was the excuse used by mayor Potter to mistakenly postpone the enforcement of his January 26, 2005 directive to HAP to provide public housing data by neighborhood.

Before I begin I must preface what I have to say with two questions:
Fair housing for whom? This report, and the entire public housing establishment, presumes that "fairness" ONLY involves the recipients of government support. I argue that "fairness" MUST INCLUDE the stakeholders in every neighborhood. That is the home owners, business owners and parents of children who send their kids to neighborhood public schools. These folks are also the same people that pay the taxes that support public housing clients. This report FAILS to include the concept of "fairness" to ALL of the parties involved in a neighborhood community.

Is there anyone in the state of Oregon who believes that improving the quality of life in their neighborhood is achieved by OVERLOADING their own neighborhood with low-income housing? 

Hi Trell Anderson [BHCD manager of AI report project]:
My response to the draft Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Report is personal. It reflects my point of view which has been developed over more than four and a half years of serious involvement with public housing policy. I was drawn into the AI report because in May 2005 mayor Potter postponed the enforcement of his own directive of January 2005 to require HAP to provide public housing data by neighborhood until the release of the AI report in September 2005. This delay was both unnecessary and without merit. Providing public housing data by neighborhood to the decision makers, press and citizens of Multnomah county is totally independent of any connection to the AI report.

Your job is to submit to HUD a report with very circumscribed parameters. My mission is to bring attention and accountability to the public housing policy process in Multnomah county. These two goals may not entirely mesh. You tend to integrate public housing ie. housing that is supported by tax dollars and so-called affordable housing which may be private and involve no government sponsorship. I am strictly focused on public housing policy issues related to the annual spending of $200,000,000 of tax dollars in Multnomah county on public housing. So you will understand that where I travel in this exercise may exceed the bounds of your mandate.

Some years ago the Portland Auditor, Gary Blackmer, wrote a report relating to public housing policy. It was incomplete, unread, and dismissed without implementation. It seems most likely that upon receipt of this AI report in Washington D.C. it will find a home alongside of similar reports on a high shelf in a very low dimly lit basement storeroom. With the departure of the two individuals most responsible for concealing public housing data by neighborhood and a proper audit of HAP's books and record keeping procedures, namely former mayor Vera Katz and former HAP Chair Howard Shapiro, there remains a small possibility that some of what is contained in this report may cause a larger local audience to take notice.

Had a report such as this emerged several years ago, before the massive remodeling and rebuilding of Columbia Villa and had it included authentic, accurate, complete and timely public housing data by neighborhood, the issue of quantifying public housing policy and consideration of the 3-6-9 resolution would surely have been on the public table. That discussion and debate would most certainly have lead to a different outcome in the planning and redevelopment of Columbia Villa. It would have exposed an effective public housing policy of concentrating public housing clients into a few select neighborhoods. It would have exposed HAP's computer records as inaccurate, incomplete, untimely and unaudited. It would have exposed a coordinated effort by elected and appointed officials to prevent public housing data by neighborhood from becoming public.  

The Report

www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=95705
 
Remarkably, there is no mention of the most important person in public housing policy in Multnomah county - Tom Potter, Portland's mayor - his role as Multnomah County Public Housing Czar and the names of the 29 public housing commissioners that are his responsibility to guide, supervise and coordinate while they serve at his pleasure. It is negligent and misleading to omit the role of the most powerful person in the game and his subordinates.

It is also noteworthy that there is no mention of the $200,000,000 from the public treasury that is spent annually on public housing in Multnomah county by HAP, HCDC and PDC. This is a mistake or oversight proportional in error to the value of the public expenditure. An inattentive reader might imagine that public housing is paid for by harvesting the fruit of the public housing money tree located in never never land.

There are five sections of this report which attracted my interest.
NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME DATA.....................................................................54
The primary questions, which are not addressed, are these. In what neighborhoods and in what numbers are those "at risk" public housing clients located? Are there discernible effects in the neighborhoods with these "at risk" public housing client populations?

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT PERFORMANCE DATA...............................55
The real questions of consequence, which are not addressed, are these. How many, by number and percentage, public housing clients attend a particular public school of any grade level? Are there discernible effects on any school caused by the number or percentage of public housing clients or any subset such as age, family income category, gender etc.?

MEMBERSHIP ON BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS.............................................59 
For no apparent reason the boards and commissions in Multnomah county which have an impact on public housing policy are unnamed in this report. For the record they are, The Housing Authority of Portland, The Portland Development Commission and the Housing and Community Development Commission. They are comprised of 29 appointed officials which collectively spend $200,000,000 annually on public housing in Multnomah county. They all serve at the pleasure of the mayor of Portland who, under ORS 456.110 may dismiss any of them at any time for a number or reasons including, "inefficiency." The mayor of Portland is by statute the Multnomah County Public Housing Czar. Who actually sits on these boards is less important than who is the mayor of Portland and how he or she exercises the responsibility to guide, supervise and coordinate the activities of these appointed public officials.

That being said, membership on HAP, PDC and HCDC tend to come from an established network of those somehow connected to the public housing establishment. Most of those currently serving are rarely, if ever, in the path of any decision they make as public housing commissioners. Your report recommends that more public housing clients should be represented on these boards. I argue that every person appointed to HAP, PDC and HCDC must come from the neighborhoods which are most affected by public housing policy decisions. It is the homeowners, business owners and parents of children who attend local public schools that are the real stakeholders in any neighborhood. They are the fabric which holds a neighborhood together. They are the citizens who should be sought out and persuaded to serve in public housing policy positions.

SECTION 8 VOUCHER DEMOGRAPHICS........................................................62
"In terms of the demographics of the section 8 vouchers, Maps 13 and 63 show the spatial distribution of the vouchers.  Note on Map 63 the heavy concentration of vouchers in the Northern neighborhoods." I have lived in North Portland for 30 years. I don't need a "spatial" map to tell me North Portland is OVERLOADED with section 8 vouchers. What is needed is authentic, accurate, complete and timely data on section 8 vouchers by neighborhood so that a plan, (3-6-9 resolution?) designed to comply with our public housing policy of dispersion not concentration of public housing clients, can be implemented to decrease the number of section 8 vouchers in the "Northern neighborhoods" and redistribute them in a more equitable manner throughout Multnomah county's 117 neighborhoods.

IMPEDIMENTS, SIGNIFICANT ISSUES AND SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION......98
"The City of Portland’s Location Policy, adopted in 1996, serves to manage the concentration of affordable housing developed with City- controlled funds in areas of the City where poverty is concentrated. The policy provides exceptions that balance the overriding policy objective of poverty de- concentration against other policy goals that include:  responding to localized housing needs, the desire to prevent residential displacement and deference to community-based decision-making about housing development."
I'm afraid the "exceptions that balance the overriding policy objective of poverty de- concentration" have totally  overwhelmed the rule. The long time refusal by Portland's last mayor, Vera Katz, and now our current mayor, Tom Potter, to make available authentic, accurate, complete, timely public housing data by neighborhood is evidence enough that concentrating public housing clients into a few select neighborhoods is now the rule not the exception.

"Subsidized housing tends to be located (with some exceptions) in areas with higher crime rates, lower performing schools, and greater number of hazard waste generators."
No kidding? So the question arises, with the exception of hazard waste generator, which actually came first to the neighborhoods involved, high crime and bad schools or an overload of public housing clients? And regardless of the answer how do you propose to change these circumstances and improve the quality of life in those neighborhoods that are affected by these problems? Your report offers no "current efforts." I suggest you plug in the 3-6-9 resolution and the quantification of public housing policy in Multnomah county.

The Maps

www.portlandonline.com/bhcd/index.cfm?c=40110
www.portlandonline.com/bhcd/index.cfm?c=40117

Let me start with the 70 maps and charts. My first instinctive reaction is, "so what?" Nobody in Washington D.C. nor Multnomah county is ever going to make public policy based on this stuff. A large percentage of these maps say, "Source: 2000 HUD CHAS Data, Table A6A." What's up with this? The AI report which is being written for HUD uses source material from HUD? Huh? 

Map#63 is the best exemplar of the, "you've got to be kidding" maps. This is the genre of maps populated with what appear to be hundreds or thousands of tiny to not so tiny to very small circles. Map #63 reminds me of the patterns made by tons of aphids on my cauliflower plants in early fall. The difference here is that these little "bugs" are not from this season. No, they're from March 2000. It is pathetic for HAP to submit five year old data in a virtually useless form when it has the technology to provide timely current data. This map alone is reason enough to dismiss the entire HAP board and audit every record of every file on their computers.

The only map which is more or less heading in the right direction is map#13. Unfortunately it provides only marginally useful information because it is based on households not individuals and is not neighborhood specific. No ages nor income status are included on this map which is based on unnecessarily old, 2004, data.

There are NO maps nor tables which show the total # of HAP clients residing in each neighborhood of Multnomah county.

There are NO maps nor tables which show the number of HAP clients as a percentage of the total number of residents in each neighborhood of Multnomah county.

There are NO maps nor tables which show the age distribution of HAP clients in each neighborhood of Multnomah county.

There are NO maps nor tables which show gender distribution of HAP clients in each neighborhood of Multnomah county.

There are NO maps nor tables which show the total # of HAP clients within various income ranges residing in each neighborhood of Multnomah county.

There are NO maps nor tables which show the number of HAP clients within various income ranges as a percentage of the total number of residents within various income ranges in each neighborhood of Multnomah county.

These maps and tables are absolutely essential for public decision making. For the democratic process to work citizens must have access to data which is authentic, accurate, complete, timely and in a form they can understand. Everyone relates to neighborhood. 117 neighborhoods are officially designated and recognized in Multnomah county. HAP, PDC and BHCD should all compile and make available to the public data files with records that ALL contain a neighborhood field. All maps and tables should be by neighborhood.

Maps and tables should be produced and published by HAP, PDC and BHCD that show only their individual activities.

Maps and tables should be produced and published by HAP, PDC and BHCD that show a composite of their activities.

Maps and tables should be produced and published by HAP, PDC and BHCD which show separately and in combination the locations, by neighborhood, of clients that reside on publicly owned property, those that reside on tax subsidized property and those that receive vouchers.

Give Us Authentic, Accurate, Complete And Timely Public Housing Data By Neighborhood And We Will Make Our Own Maps And Tables
In the spirit of the mayor's directive of January 26, 2005 and the public records law every citizen of Multnomah county has a right to 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 and gender which would be downloadable via FTP from HAP's website.


Conclusion
If you want a report that is actually useful to public discourse on the making of public housing policy in Multnomah county as well as being easily understandable to the decision makers, and most importantly to the citizens of Multnomah county, then you need to ask Richard Ellmyer to do it. 


Richard Ellmyer
3-6-9 Resolution author and project champion
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 4000 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 8% and rising solution neighborhood, North Portland
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org