The Portland City Council is poised to approve spending guidelines for the $258 million housing bond approved by voters in November to address the city's affordable housing crisis.

The instructions prioritize spending on communities of color, families with children and those experiencing homelessness or who are at "imminent risk of displacement."

If approved by the council Wednesday, those priorities will be the lens through which the housing bond's oversight committee evaluates affordable housing proposals. It will also be the key to moving on to actual projects to increase housing.

With the framework in place, city housing officials will ask for proposals to evaluate beginning Oct. 23, Housing Bureau Director Kurt Creager said. The proposals, he said, must include properties that the city can possess within 120 days of purchasing them and will be evaluated in part based on how close they are to areas with jobs, schools and transit.

Creager said anyone who proposed a project to the city earlier this year should submit their idea again so that his bureau can consider it using the new spending guidelines.

"We've put them all on a side burner until this work was completed so one project doesn't have more of an advantage than the others," Creager said.

Under the guidelines, the oversight committee would evaluate racial equity for all bond investments in building and land acquisition. They would focus on investing in housing opportunities "throughout the city" and close to transportation, schools and grocery stores. The guidelines also encourage the committee to seek community partnerships and emphasize spending in places at risk of becoming unaffordable, outside of current urban renewal areas.

Those focuses are in addition to the bond's stated promise to add 1,300 apartments affordable to households that make 60 percent or less than the area median income. The bond language also promises that 600 of those units will be affordable to those making 30 percent or less of the area median income and that half of the units must have two bedrooms or more to accommodate families.

The proposed framework also requires that up to 300 of the apartments affordable to Portland's lowest earners have access to medical, mental health, addiction and other social services.

"Now that the framework is set to be in place, we will be able to move expeditiously and get the units in the pipeline," mayoral spokesman Michael Cox said.

The adoption would mark a major step toward putting one of the largest resources ever available to council for curbing the problem, and it comes months after Mayor Ted Wheeler, the housing commissioner, drew fire from advocates for moving too slowly on housing.

At Wheeler's request, more than 20 housing advocates, investors and government officials deliberated for five months before drawing up the framework that the council will consider at Wednesday's city council meeting.

After the group decided on spending guidelines, almost 25 housing nonprofits, policy groups and organizations representing communities of different religions, colors and parts of town took another month to consider the priorities.

"We felt the additional time was well worth it," Cox said. "We will be judged ultimately by the results. We think this framework process has improved our chances of positive results."

Creager said the housing bureau has taken a proactive approach to looking at potential investment opportunities.

The bureau has asked real estate agents to screen properties along Barbur Boulevard, he said, to see whether any owners might be willing to sell. While properties in the area do not currently meet the bond spending requirement of being near transit, Creager said the Southwest Corridor light rail project expected to go in will likely increase property values and the cost of living there.

The city is also interested in acquiring development plans and land from developers, some of whom Creager expects will bail on luxury property development plans now that the real estate market is not offering as good of returns, he said. The housing director met with a group of 300 real estate investors Tuesday to express this interest.

Creager said the city is aiming to secure projects by the end of the year and to increase the number of affordable housing opportunities by March.

"We're mindful that the voters approved this in November 2016, so we want to be responsive and start to show the pipeline (of new projects) as quickly as possible," Creager said.

--Jessica Floum

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