There was little mystery about whether the Portland City Council would extend a temporary law requiring landlords to pay thousands in "relocation assistance" to tenants displaced by a terminated lease or rent increase. From the start of the council meeting last week, commissioners announced their commitment to the measure as one of several to address the ongoing housing emergency. The testimony of tenant after tenant recounting stories of staggering rent hikes only cemented their will.

The only mystery in all this was the absence of data to show this controversial policy actually works. Despite the law's adoption in February, the city has not tracked the number of landlords who should have paid the fees, whether tenants received payment and other basics. That deficiency didn't seem to bother the city council much, however. Without any clear information to show the law is working as intended, commissioners unanimously voted to extend the relocation law, with some pledging to make permanent an expanded version in December, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Jessica Floum reported.

The city, in all fairness, isn't set up to track such transactions between private landlords and tenants. And the lack of data on this law isn't unusual: The city housing bureau is only now identifying the metrics the city must track and meet before it can declare its "housing emergency" over - two years after it was first established under former Mayor Charlie Hales.

Such shot-in-the-dark approaches to policymaking is one reason Mayor Ted Wheeler's decision to fund an Office of Landlord-Tenant Affairs seemed so promising. Such an office can disseminate information to landlords and tenants alike about rights and responsibilities. It can help mediate disputes, a less expensive option than having to go to court. And it can set up a rental property registry that not only gives the city critical data of the rental inventory, but also can show whether city policies are affecting that supply and achieving what they're meant to do. Unfortunately, the office and its objectives are still in the planning stages, with no authoritative data to share.

Editorial Agenda 2017

Boost student success

Get Oregon's financial house in order

Help our homeless

Honor our diverse values

Make Portland a city that works

Expand access to public records

________________________

Read more about the editorial board's priorities for Oregon.

In fact, some of the only data available about this policy shows that it may be making the housing crunch even worse. Since the passage of the relocation assistance ordinance, more than 400 single-family properties that had been used for rentals have been put on the market, said Jane Leo with the Portland Association of Metropolitan Realtors. While the association lines up with single-family-home landlords, city commissioners glossed over that statistic in their race to show solidarity with tenants.

Certainly, the city is under pressure to do something. Years of lackluster housing development have left the city short tens of thousands of available housing units to meet the soaring demand from newcomers as well as existing Portland residents. The tight market has put the squeeze on tenants who are having to pay higher rents or move farther from the city to find a place they can afford. And while private developers are now racing to build market-rate rentals, there's far less momentum for increasing the number of apartments priced specifically for low-income residents. The anxiety, instability and disruption are painfully real for families forced to move to new neighborhoods and schools, provided they can find an affordable place at all.

Oregonian editorials

Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.

To respond to this editorial, post your comment below, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor.

If you have questions about the opinion section, email Laura Gunderson, editorial pages editor, or call 503-221-8378.

Marshall Runkel, chief of staff for City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, points out that as unfortunate as it is to lose any rental units, losing a few hundred when the deficit is as great as Portland's isn't going to dramatically worsen the shortage. Meanwhile, that relocation assistance is a lifeline to desperate tenants who have nowhere else to go.

His point is well taken. But it's also important to recognize that the ordinance is one of a slate of laws in Portland and Oregon that make it harder, not easier, to house people. Development fees, demolition requirements and proposed restrictions that dramatically curtail a home's square footage all make the math of building less and less attractive. And like it or not, there's no getting out of this housing emergency without adding tens of thousands of more housing units, something the city can't do on its own. Most of that housing will depend on private developers and investors choosing to put their money in projects and properties here in Portland, rather than elsewhere. The more barriers and costs that the city puts up will either increase the prices and rents or will discourage such investment completely.

Tenants understandably are advocating for policies that let them stay in their units for the same or less rent - no matter the reality of the market. They aren't tallying their landlords' rising utility costs, or estimating the hit to property taxes from the new bonds passed by voters. They aren't deliberating how the city will absorb the thousands of people who move to Portland each month. They are focused on how to stay in their homes in a market that's escalating crazily due to insufficient housing.

But that's what Portland city council is supposed to do: Look at the whole picture, evaluate the data and create sound policies that are tightly tailored to address the problem. Making permanent a policy without even considering the negative consequences will only turn this housing emergency into our new normal.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board

This editorial expresses the opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, one of whose members owns a rental condominium unit.

This posting has been updated to clarify that the 400-plus units were put on the market, but whether they sold is not apparent from the information.