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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2016)
March 23, 2016 The Skanner Page 3 News talking but I don’t hear a lot of people talking solu- tions. So I’m here to talk solutions,” he said. Gresham officials say they are trying to catch up with help from Mult- nomah County, which is investing $130,000 in new services through the A Home for Everyone program. They also plan two-per- “ Marilyn Keller in Jazz Hall of Fame cont’d from pg 1 sleep on the sidewalk if they don’t use any kind of tent or structure, only keep their bag out between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., “on rights of way (other than sidewalks) and remnants,” with no group bigger than 6 people in any one loca- tion. • Groups camping to- gether must obtain a An estimated 2000 people sleep outside in Portland every night son crews called “clean teams” who, Gresham of- ficials say, will clean up dirty campsites as well as offer services to peo- ple trying to get off the street. Meanwhile, the city of Portland’s housing cri- sis emergency plan has swung into place, with new guidelines allowing tent camping during cer- tain hours and overnight car camping in certain church parking lots. Portland’s plan also features heightened so- cial services outreach to individuals who seem at highest risk on the street. The emergency rules have been triggered by the lack of affordable housing across the metro area; an estimated 2,000 people sleep outside in Portland every night. Mayor Charlie Hale’s office issued the home- lessness toolkit last year, piecing together resources for affordable housing, and people al- ready stuck on the street. Hales’ chief of staff Joshua Alpert did not re- spond for a request for comment. The new plan is his brainchild and is built around four basic strategies: • Allowing people to permit from the City, allow the City to select or approve a “camp host” for the group, cre- ate and abide by a code of conduct and must provide restrooms and sanitation. • Groups banding to- gether for vehicle camping must obtain a permit from the City, allow the City to select or approve the “camp host,” create and abide by a code of conduct, and provide toilets and sanitation. Church parking lots will be allowed “when in part- nership with City.” • The fourth leg of the emergency plan is al- ready-existing shel- ters, and access points including 211info.org as well as calling 2-1-1 and texting 898211 Portland has also made available a gigantic shipping container for houseless people to store their belongings during the day. And lastly, Portland’s plan offers a one-point- of-contact complaint system that gives the city flexibility in track- ing complaints about the campers and compiling that info for analysis. Last fall the city began rolling out its new approach to housing starting with a stated goal of maximizing permanent housing with an ambitious five-part playbook: • Tenant Protections, including new requirements that landlords provide 90-day notices for no-cause evictions and potential rent increases 5 percent or greater over a 12-month period • Scraping up $61.6 million in local and federal funds for affordable housing development with the goal of producing over 600 new affordable housing units • Tax Increment Funding Set-Aside Increase from 30% to 45%, potentially bringing in an additional $66.7 million for construction of affordable housing • North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy against displacement and gentrification with $20 million to fund community-led effort to prioritize public investments in affordable housing, home repair and retention, land banking and down payment assistance • Linkage of Short Term Rental Taxes to Affordable Housing taxing short term rental companies like Airbnb for the City’s Housing Investment Fund to bring in approximately $1.2 million annually for affordable housing construction —from www.Portlandoregon.gov/toolkit After 35 years as a revered member of the Portland music scene, Marilyn Keller was inducted into the 2016 Jazz Society of Oregon’s Hall of Fame March 16 at Jimmy Mak’s. She started her career as a vocalist in ragtime and Dixieland. Her style has morphed into a wide range of interpretations including jazz, R&B, pop, blues, and gospel. Her career has included tours in Europe and Australia, and her vocals have appeared on movie soundtracks, numerous recordings, commercials and documentary narratives. Keller also works with bands and choirs at Jefferson High and many other schools as well as The American Music Program. Keller will perform with the Augustana Jazz Quarter April 16 at the Inner City Blues Festival, a fundraiser for Healthcare for All Oregon (www. hcao.org). The evening is co-sponsored by KBOO and the Cascade Blues Association. PHOTO BY BRIAN KIM Gresham TriMet cont’d from pg 1 smart cards instead of cash. BRU organizers are concerned about a host of recent changes that create a greater burden for low-income riders who depend on public transportation. The new budget doesn’t include an increase in regular fares, but is the first full budget to include last September’s increase in hon- ored citizen fares for seniors and people with disabilities. The pro- posed low-income fare would be the same as the honored citizens’s fare — $1.25 per ticket. The agency currently provides fare assistance and fare relief programs in the form of grants or discounted tickets to qualifying nonprofits, according to TriMet spokesperson Roberta Altstadt. King County Metro offers a re- duced fare for people living at 200 percent of the poverty lev- el and San Francisco also offers low-income fares. BRU organizer Nic Phillips said the elimination of the fareless square zone in 2012 and a fare hike that same year have placed a substantial burden on low-in- come riders, and a reduced fare could mitigate that problem. “With low-income fare, this will provide a needed break for SOUL “ fore they make those changes,” Phillips said. “With e-fare, it’s been kind of backwards.” She said the agency didn’t start soliciting public comment on the change until late last year — after it had The elimination of the fareless square zone in 2012 and a fare hike that same year have placed a substantial burden on low-income riders nient way to pay for bus fare, — since riders won’t use cash or need to find exact change — BRU’s organizers are concerned the sys- tem will be less convenient for some riders. While the reload- able fare cards will be available at retail locations, and riders can reload cards every month using cash or cards at a retail outlet or online, organizers have said the logistics of purchasing or reloading a card will be difficult for some users, like those living in less developed neighborhoods and those who don’t have bank accounts. “Normally when there is a ma- jor change in the system, because it is still a public service, they have to speak with the public be- already begun publicizing the concept — and it has already be- gun installing e-fare machines. Phillips, who said she first got involved with BRU about three years ago, said the organization has been considering propos- ing a low-income fare for a few years. With the implementation of e-fare coming down the pike and sharp increases in housing costs burdening low-income peo- ple throughout the metro area, now seemed like the right time to bring the idea before TriMet. “A lot of people are struggling right now. Many people are liv- ing paycheck to paycheck. With what’s happening with housing and everything, every little bit helps,” Phillips said. Boulevard. Another member is Anyeley Hallova, who recently completed a 405-bedroom sus- tainable apartment community in Eugene, Ore. This new proposed SOUL Dis- trict is an area that spans from Interstate-5 to Northeast 7th Avenue, and from Broadway to Northeast Rosa Parks Way. It would encompass the Humboldt, Boise and Eliot neighborhoods. Talton says the group has a con- tract with the Portland Develop- ment Commission to create a sub- stantive plan. The group plans to focus on community cultural offerings, such as ethnic food markets and Black-owned enter- tainment venues, as well as tech- nology companies. The combination would bring together the past identity of Northeast Portland communi- ty with the future projected job growth in Portland technology. Plans for the SOUL District cont’d from pg 1 Northeast Portland and a Jeffer- son High School Graduate. He worked as an executive at Port- land General Electric and Pacific Power and Light. Most recently “ families and individuals who are already paying a large burden of the system operating,” Williams told The Skanner. While TriMet’s website touts Hop FastPass as a more conve- The group plans to focus on commu- nity cultural offerings, such as ethnic food markets and Black-owned enter- tainment venues, as well as technology companies he was chair of United Fund Advi- sors, which provides investment capital and advisory services for community development and re- newable energy projects. Talton joins development pro- fessionals in BICEP such as Jeana Woolley and Ray Leary, who cre- ated the Vanport Square business center on Martin Luther King Jr. The group also has venture capital expertise with Stephen Green, the community direc- tor at Elevate Capital, as well as business incubation insight from Dwayne Johnson, deputy direc- tor of Innovate Oregon, and the community activism experience of Charles McGee from the Black Parent Initiative. See SOUL on page 12
