Portland will focus spending the largest resource available for increasing affordable housing on people of color, families with children and those experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

The Portland City Council unanimously approved spending guidelines for a $258 million housing bond approved by voters in November.

The council also unanimously agreed to add a focus on kids aging out of the foster system after Commissioner Dan Saltzman proposed the change.

That means the council is poised to start spending on housing projects. The Portland Housing Bureau will start soliciting ideas for building and acquiring affordable housing Oct. 23, Housing Bureau Director Kurt Creager said. The spending instructions will serve as a way for an auditor to measure the bond's success, a requirement under the ballot measure voters approved, he said.

"The time for action is clearly upon us," Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said. "Portland families need safe accessible and quality housing and I believe this strategic framework provides us a direction for accomplishing that."

The bond also requires the city to create 1,300 housing opportunities affordable to those who make 60 percent or less than the area median income. The bond language also promises that 600 of the apartments will be affordable to those who make 30 percent or less of the area median income and requires that half of the units have two bedrooms or more to accommodate families.

The 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. The city and Multnomah County will vote next week on related pledges to increase the number of housing opportunities with housing services.

The spending guidelines come six months after the city's only major purchase with the bond was a $51 million acquisition of a Northeast Portland housing complex in February. Wheeler halted bond spending his second week in office so that the city could set priorities and goals for spending.

He drew fire from critics in August for moving too slowly to increase housing affordability in Portland.

Now, 10 months into Wheeler's first term, advocates are commending him for taking the time to have an inclusive process and guidelines that touch on several communities' concerns.

"There is great value in taking that time and making that effort to take a pause at the beginning of this historic process, to set in place a community-driven, community-engaged framework that now defines how we move forward with this investment," said Allan Lazo, member of the bond oversight committee and executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Oregon.

"They're as anxious as all of us to see these investments become community assets that will house thousands of our neighbors in the years to come," he added.

--Jessica Floum

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