Adams, Burdick, Cogen and Robison Ask Nunn/Potter For Housing Data By Neighborhood

Ginny Burdick - candidate for Portland city council, Jeff Cogen - candidate for Multnomah county commission, Jim Robison - candidate for House Rep.#44 joined Sam Adams - Portland city commissioner in asking Housing Authority of Portland Chair Kandis Nunn to send them the following:
An authentic, accurate, complete and timely record for every HAP 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.

Here are the defintions:
Public Housing = Means Test + Government Subsidy + Rental Agreement

Authentic - Ideally this data file should be authenticated by a third party such as the Multnomah County Auditor. However, we aren't there yet so we may have to settle, for the time being, on authentication by the head of HAP's Information Technology department. Computer professionals tend to be very detail oriented and unlikely to jeopardize their credentials and reputation by misleading elected officials and the public.

Accurate - Whatever the data is it must be true and defensible by audit.

Complete - Every client must be included and every field must contain data. It is a certainty that Adams, Burdick, Cogen, Robison et al. will NOT get complete data because HAP's records, by their own admission, are incomplete and HAP has no intention of changing that status. Insistent determination will be required to force HAP to comply. Fireworks and contentiousness should be expected.

Timely - People's lives, including HAP's clients, are in constant flux. People age, their incomes fluctuate and they move. Once Adams, Burdick, Cogen, Robison et al. have received the data they will need to ask for an update after 30 days and then after 30 days and so forth. This is why the data should be updated and posted on HAP's web site every month.

Ginny Burdick, Jeff Cogen, Jim Robison and Sam Adams have demonstrated the kind of thinking and action we want in our elected public officials. They deserve your gratitude your support and your vote.

In addition to these responsible calls for accountability, the Housing and Community Development Commission, recently adopted the long awaited Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing report which includes a recommendation that the city of Portland and the city of Gresham and Multnomah county all review the 3-6-9 Resolution. In order to discuss and debate the merits of this 3-6-9 public housing policy the elected officials in Portland, Gresham, Multnomah county and the citizens within those jurisdictions MUST have access to public housing data by neighborhood.

Potter In A Pickle
Multnomah County Public Housing Czar and Portland mayor Tom Potter, who has reneged on every promise he made as a candidate regarding accountability for public housing policy and ignored his own directive in January 2005 to HAP to provide public housing data by neighborhood, is now facing a serious effort to force his hand to put public housing data by neighborhood on the public table. Potter's indefensible effort to use the release of the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing report as an excuse to prevent publishing public housing data by neighborhood has boomeranged. With the acceptance of the AI report, Potter's HCDC commissioners must now seek public housing data by neighborhood from Pottter's other housing commissioners at HAP in order for them to review public housing location policy and the 3-6-9 Resolution which is an AI report staff recommendation - now part of HCDC's policy agenda guidelines.

Burdick Challenges Sten's History of Hiding Data And Concentrating Public Housing Clients
Ginny Burdick, candidate for Portland city council and currently serving as a State Senator, is challenging Erik Sten's adamant refusal to allow Portland voters access to public housing data by neighborhood. For years Sten has covertly lead the effort to keep a tight lid on any information which would expose his so-called leadership on public housing issues as really a coverup for concentrating public housing clients into just of select few of Multnomah county's 117 neighborhoods. Mayor Potter's behavior during 13 months in office demonstrates that he knows and cares little for public housing policy. It is highly probable that Erik Sten is responsible for persuading Potter to inexplicably and embarrassingly reverse himself in demanding accountability from his subordinates at HAP.

East County Waking Up
A growing number of politicos and citizens to the east of Portland are beginning to ask why the mayor of Portland, who has shown no interest nor ability in fulling his statutory responsibilities with regard to public housing policy, should continue to have the power to affect the lives and neighborhoods of those who have no vote in the matter. Every candidate for house and senate seats in Multnomah county, especially those east of Portland, need to consider a change in state law reassigning authority over HAP to an official elected county wide, namely, the Multnomah County Chair. Candidates for Multnomah County Chair, Ted Wheeler and Diane Linn have yet to address this issue. They must and I'm sure they will.

Who's Really In Charge Here?
Do not forget that Kandis Nunn and 28 other appointed public housing commissioners at HAP, PDC and HCDC serve at the pleasure of the mayor. At the end of the day the battle for public housing data by neighborhood is with the mayor of Portland, Tom Potter.

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