Blogtown, PDX

Friday, May 2, 2008

Election 2008 City Hall Homeless Protest Becomes Campaign Issue, Part 3

Posted by Amy J. Ruiz on Fri, May 2 at 4:58 PM

I caught up with city council candidate Nick Fish yesterday afternoon, to get his thoughts on the ongoing homeless protest outside of city hall. As one of the candidates vying to be Portland’s housing commissioner, the issues the homeless folks outside of city hall are raising are also the ones he’s bringing up on the campaign trail.

But first! Fish has a new TV ad:

“First of all, as a candidate, I think I’ve put out the most aggressive platform on how we solve the housing crunch,” Fish says. “Aggressively seeking new funding sources, working with jurisdictional partners, continuing the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, finding new private resources, redesigning the system, advocating for more federal aid, and preserving a lot of at risk housing. I’ve had the most aggressive plan in this race, which is why virtually everyone in the affordable housing community has been supporting me.”

Fish also took aim at his opponent, Jim Middaugh, who earlier put out a statement about the protest, saying things like “City Hall should state unequivocally that it will work with its partners to find or create 1,000 new units of housing by committing the PDC’s TIF set-aside, public housing money and new housing money to a reorganized housing system focused on getting people off the streets.”

Nick responds: “Jim was chief of staff to Commissioner Sten. The question I have for him is, what steps did he take then to advance his call for 1,000 new units of housing for the homeless? I’m as committed as anyone to solving chronic homelessness and providing safe and decent affordable housing for all, but what leadership steps did he take a month ago to address this problem? What he appears to be doing now is shifting the blame to Mayor Potter for his own failure,” he says, adding that it’s “in keeping with the very divisive campaign that Jim is running.”

Fish continues: We ought to be finding solutions, and that means bringing people together in a time of limited resources to solve the problem. [Middaugh] has been picking fights with people that build houses, people that sell houses, and now with the interim housing commissioner [Mayor Potter],” he says. “It’s the way you get headlines in an election, but it’s not the way you build sustainable solutions. It’s my hope that I win this race on May 20, so starting in early June, we can begin to talk about these problems.”

There’s a bit more after the cut. While I don’t want to start a back-and-forth between the candidates—when the real issue is the people protesting—Fish did pose a question for Middaugh, which I called him to ask about.

"If there was an easy solution Jim would have proposed it a month ago when he was chief of staff," says Fish. "There's a tremendous amount of community support for different parts of an ambitious housing agenda to house the homeless and tackle the housing crisis. Many of the pieces are in place. And where the funding is at risk, there's a lot of political will to make it happen. If this was easy then he would have had some concrete solutions a month ago, and wouldn't now be blaming the mayor for half measures."

I asked Fish what he'd do now to help the people on city hall's steps. With all due respect to every city leader, the 10-Year plan is great—but we've got people on city hall's threshold who are demanding solutions now. "More Section 8 vouchers is part of the solution. More private sector resources to supplement the 10 year plan," Fish says. "More general fund dollars is part of the solution. Preserving at risk housing with our non-profit and for profit partners."

One immediate issue the protest has shone a light on are the police sweeps of people sleeping outdoors. "I have said repeatedly that homelessness is not a crime, and that we need to be particularly sensitive to the plight of the most vulnerable in our community," Fish says. "The question is, who has the background and the leadership and frankly the support in our community to drive a bold housing agenda. I've had the most aggressive agenda and the broadest support. The way to get things done is to build coalitions, not to just point fingers and assign blame."

Middaugh responds to Fish's assertion that Middaugh should have done something as Sten's chief-of-staff, saying that "There's a fundamental misunderstanding of the issues at this point. The response needs to be we need to change the way we do police sweeps of homeless camps until there's more capacity," he says. "There's no place for people to go, if we're doing these sweeps. So looking forward‚—which is what I did, I didn't blame anyone for anything—I said we need audacious goals and a way to attain them."

At the risk of continuing this disagreement, Middaugh fires back at Fish. "It's interesting that he would shift the blame instead of step up and come up with something bold. The response to the sweeps by the mayor is insufficient, [with things like] 'we're going to look at what we can do with Section 8 vouchers.' We don't need to look at it, we need to do something. Looking backwards, we can always do more. Llooking forwards, we don't need to fund more study. JOIN does outreach to tenants and to landlords. What we need to fund is an effort to educate landlords, we need to start today, to help them understand the Section 8 program, and to help them with the paperwork behind it. You can't just hand a tenant a section 8 voucher and say good luck. And if a landlord has a problem tenant, they need to have someone who can step in 24/7 and deal with that."

If either candidate (or others in the race) wants to continue the debate—comment away!

Permalink

Comments

[Jim sent this to me. Per my rules at the bottom of the post, I've put it in the comments. -AJR]

It’s great that Nick Fish shares my passion for affordable housing and homelessness. Unfortunately, in the midst of a tough campaign his passion is causing him to misrepresent my words and record. Here are some more details for those who haven’t been tracking the specifics:

When the police wanted sweeps while I was chief of staff we funded Join outreach workers instead. When the Bureau of Housing and Community Development needed more ongoing funds, I helped get them (several million dollars). When we proved that the housing first model worked for the 10-year-plan, I helped reach out to the faith community and private industry to bring in new partners (and it worked).

My platform on housing includes everything Nick is suggesting and more -- action on Section 8, not just a task force; a real estate transfer tax, not just a document recording fee; more flexibility for PDC housing funds; and, an effort to refer a housing measure to the voters.

Nick has some great endorsements. The fact that he’s been running for City Council for the last six years means he’s worked hard to get to know lots of important people in town. That work has paid off for him. During that same six years, I wasn't chasing endorsements, I was getting things done – in our schools, our neighborhoods and for our environment.

That said, on endorsements, I have the housing endorsement that matters -- Erik Sten. Point your browser to http://jimforportland.com/page7.aspx. I also have a host of grassroots housing and homeless advocates backing my campaign -- see the list at www.jimforportland.com. I not only have the support of the community, I've got a track record of delivering results.

In addition to my record of results, perhaps the most fundamental difference between Nick and me is I've taken strong stands on protecting the civil rights of everyone -- including homeless people.

I believe it’s time to revisit the sit-lie ordinance because it’s being used to target homeless people. I opposed continuation of drug free zones because they unfairly targeted people of color. I’ve said publicly that it’s time to change enforcement of the anti-camping ordinance because there are not enough safe places for people to sleep. And, I’ve called for change in the use of police sweeps of homeless camps for the same reason.

My track record on housing and homelessness is clear. While I was chief of staff to Erik Sten I successfully won more money for housing, more money for the homeless and I stood up for civil rights for everyone.

Nick is running on a platform of sustainability, affordable housing and transparency. And, he’s accusing me of picking fights with homebuilders and Realtors. The truth is, at our City Club debate I merely pointed out that the homebuilders have complained about new measures to protect our environment and Realtors have fought efforts to create new funding sources for affordable housing (listen for yourself).

Most importantly, I pointed out at City Club that although homebuilders and Realtors are among Nick's largest contributors they weren't mentioned anywhere on his literature or website (until I pointed it out). Nick claims to be for sustainability and transparency...that doesn't jibe with the fact that it took a City Club debate to get him to disclose his largest contributors and that his contributors have fought the things he says he’s for. Because I'm publicly financed I haven't taken a dime from Big Business.

I'm not pointing fingers or placing blame, I'm simply describing Nick Fish’s record and I'm proposing bold actions. Nick says I criticized the Mayor. I didn't. Instead, I said the things he proposed were important but insufficient and I proposed specific actions to supplement them.

It's easy to say that homelessness is not a crime. It takes courage to speak out against the fundamental unfairness of police sweeps and sit-lie and it takes knowledge and experience to propose specific actions and bold goals.

To close, here is a list of five things the Council could do today to address the concerns of the protesters:

1. Direct staff and some moderate flexible client assistance funds -- using existing budgeted resources -- specifically to people who are homeless who receive a Section 8 voucher to quickly place them into housing (so they can keep that voucher!).

2. Reach out to for-profit developers who have condo projects or large rental housing projects, and get some set asides within those projects. Lots of developers are feeling a squeeze, so they may be willing to carve units out of their projects specifically for people who are exiting homelessness or just very low income and at risk, if we can bring in a voucher and some services.

3. Create a staff position at a non-profit or at BHCD whose focus is solely on getting vacancies to 0% for all of our existing non-profit and other subsidized housing units.

4. Shift homeless camp sweeps to homeless camp policing by limiting numbers of campers, enforcing hours of use, requiring cleanup, providing sanitation and other humanitarian measures while strictly enforcing drug, noise, and other laws.

5. Restore the requested funds for Project Homeless Connect that were not included in the Mayor's proposed budget.

Posted by Jim Middaugh | May 3, 2008 10:30 AM

a few questions for Fish.
Nick, do you think that homeless people need 60-120% mfi housing?
what are your plans for getting more 0-30% mfi housing?
how many homeless people have you spoke to recently?
how many homeless advocates?
was one of those "homeless advocates" Mike Kuykendall at the PBA?
do you have the intestinal fortitude to limit the anti camping ordinance and get rid of the sit/lie law?
only answer if you have the balls to be honest and not blither on about your "plan"

Posted by No one important | May 5, 2008 9:37 AM

The first step toward solving the homeless problem is for the city to work collaboratively with Multnomah County to restore our mental health services. According to the staff at Good Samaritan's emergency room, 70 -80% of their repeat patients are homeless mentally ill people. There are no services or beds available. They sometimes transport them as far away as Klamath Falls, if a bed becomes available.

Posted by Dave Lister | May 5, 2008 10:04 AM