On September 7, 2004 HAP Chair Kandis Nunn and the entire board of the Housing Authority of Portland were informed that WHOEVER became mayor on January 1, 2005 would require HAP to provide public housing information by neighborhood.* That data could have and should have been on the mayor's desk the day he arrived at city hall.


*Mayoral Candidates Potter and Francesconi Talk Public Housing Policy

Do you agree or disagree with this statement: It is extraordinarily difficult to make good public policy without good public data. How does your answer relate to the current quality of public housing data available to support and justify public housing policy decisions being made today?
Jim Francesconi - Agree. We need to have regular reporting of public housing data by neighborhood.
Tom Potter - Agree. I am astounded by the lack of neighborhood based public housing data. 
Analysis: Both candidates agreed that the current public housing data available to public housing policy decision makers is woefully inadequate. Public housing statistics must be converted into neighborhood based tables and neighborhood defined maps available to public officials and citizens alike.
[See complete interview here: *http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/MayoralInterview.html ]

On January 3, 2005, during inauguration festivities, mayor Potter tells Richard Ellmyer that he has already spoken to HAP about providing public housing data by neighborhood as he had promised in September of 2004.

On January 26, 2005, during a city council meeting, mayor Potter, most certainly for the benefit of Richard Ellmyer who was present in the council chamber, instructed Housing Authority of Portland Chair Kandis Nunn to provide public housing data by neighborhood.

On February 28, 2005, during a public budget hearing in North Portland, mayor Potter asks Richard Ellmyer if he has received the data he instructed HAP to provide the previous month. Potter seems puzzled when Ellmyer tells him that he has received nothing and has had no communication from HAP whatsoever. It was obvious that the mayor assumed, and rightly so, that the project had already been completed.

On May 2, 2005, an email from Sara Culp, who presumably is taking the place of the former "disappearing" public housing policy liaison Jamall Folsom, informed me that public housing data by neighborhood would not be available until September of 2005.

Portland's mayor will most likely find it IMPOSSIBLE to find a computer professional inside (including programmers in the water bureau) or outside of city hall that will publicly accept the argument the it would take nine months to a year to geocode, that is, add a neighborhood field to every HAP client record.

So who is the fool and who is being fooled in this story?


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