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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The debate continues in Portland City Council over what to do with nearly $21 million in housing funds.
The money is newly discovered, so the mayor wants to use it for other needs — but not everyone on the council agrees.
According to attorneys in Wednesday’s city council meeting, the council can’t do exactly what the mayor wants because this money comes from a fee that landlords pay on new properties. Because that tax is collected for a specific purpose, it can’t just go towards the general fund.
Instead, the council wants to put it toward housing, but how much should go where is still getting sorted out.
District 1 Councilors Loretta Smith, Candace Avalos, and Jamie Dunphy are pushing for the funding to go toward several different programs that help with rent assistance.
In their latest amendment that passed Wednesday, they also propose setting aside millions for affordable housing developments and spreading this funding out over the next three years.
The mayor told councilors they can’t reduce the risk of homelessness if they act impulsively and without long-term funding mechanisms.
“The mayor has his shelter plan, and he absolutely has to go and do the best to execute the laws that the city council has passed. The $20 million, almost $21 million that was found really had a very targeted purpose,” Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy said. “This was not a general slush fund. This was about trying to be responsive to the real situation renters in our community are facing right now.”
Councilors voted to pass the District 1 councilors’ amendment 8-4 to let them continue discussing a different amendment that Councilor Mitch Green proposed.
The Green amendment doesn’t give funding to those affordable housing projects and instead directs more to rental assistance programs.
The council will continue to discuss this and vote on it next week
Mayor Keith Wilson brought up concerns about how this funding isn’t long-term and how these programs will survive when it runs out.
Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.
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Joey Vacca
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