Candace Avalos (running for Commissioner position 1)
Should policies be adopted to ensure every neighborhood in Portland welcomes more neighbors, through smaller, denser, lower-cost housing options like smallplexes, cottage clusters, and small-to-moderate-sized apartment complexes, via both the nonprofit and private markets?
Yes, everywhere. We need a diversity of housing to address the vast need for Portlanders, and every neighborhood needs to be able to accommodate smaller and denser housing options. This helps create 15-minute mixed income neighborhoods to ensure that everyone has access to the many things a neighborhood has to offer—commerce, schools, healthcare, transportation, grocery stores, etc. Every neighborhood must share this responsibility and the City needs to enforce it and work with community leaders to build the coalitions necessary to encourage these changes.
Should Portland expand transit-oriented development (allowing apartment complexes by-right within a short walk of all major transit lines) as a way to discourage the use of single-occupancy vehicles and reduce our city’s carbon emissions?
Yes. As a commuter, this is personal for me as I have had to go to great lengths and sacrifice a large portion of my monthly paycheck to afford to rent housing near where I work. It’s urgent that we put public transit in the hands of those who need it, meaning we must expand transit eastward. Access to transit is not just a means to go from point A to point B, but is critical in how Portlanders connect to our city and each other. Increasing service across town helps decrease travel times and could reduce traffic by getting people out of their cars, allowing Portlanders to move around efficiently. This efficiency cannot be reserved for those with means, therefore we must strive for a fareless transit system.
Should neighborhood associations have less, as much, or more power than other community organizations when it comes to questions of housing, such as whether new apartments or homeless shelters are permitted in a given neighborhood?
The same amount of power. I understand and respect the important role Neighborhood Associations have had in shaping our community, and how their ability to influence decisions in City Hall has empowered neighborhoods to play an active role in the development of our City. At the same time, I am concerned by Neighborhood Associations that have important powers without a high standard of community engagement and inclusion of diverse voices in those decisions that must be enforced by the City. We will need to have complex conversations on how we keep the integrity of our unique neighborhoods without disproportionately impacting and displacing underrepresented communities. It’s also important to note that often BIPOC communities are not prioritized for keeping the integrity of their neighborhoods, which leads to displacement and harm of vulnerable Portlanders. In general, I do support shifting some of that power into community organizations that can reflect a different perspective, and I hope that would also include better collaboration by NAs and community organizations that is facilitated by our leaders. I will say though that I believe the changes proposed by the Office of Community and Civic Life were a bandaid to a larger problem which is the fact that the City Council is not elected by districts to better represent entire neighborhoods, and I support changing our form of government to begin to address those disparities.
Should Portland dedicate less, as much, or more money to regulated affordable housing? (If you answered "more money," what funding mechanism(s) would you pursue to build this additional housing?)
More money. I’m interested in pursuing a vacancy tax to raise revenue from buildings with more than 20 units that continue to build housing that is not affordable for our communities and therefore stays empty when it could be critical stability for Portlanders. While we must do everything we can to keep people in their homes, including fully funding rental assistance, we must address the root cause of the housing crisis by building affordable housing affordably and at scale. If the private market left to its own devices was going to solve the housing problem it would have by now—which is why we must incentivize ways to build affordable housing affordably at scale. We should consider creating an innovation hub for affordable housing design and manufacturing. These units would be affordable not because of subsidies but because they are able to be built and sold at a market rate which is truly affordable. In addition to building more affordable housing, we must continue to build housing for all at every level.
Would you support a citywide moratorium on evictions during the three coldest months of the year, as Seattle recently adopted?
Yes. With data showing a significant increase of houseless Portlanders dying on the streets—92 deaths in 2018—we must act with more urgency to give shelter and protection to those on our streets.With an ever growing houselessness crisis, we need to put just as much energy into keeping people in their homes as we do serving the houseless on the streets. I appreciate the recent moratorium implemented in Seattle, and would be very interested in pursuing similar legislation in Portland. A winter eviction moratorium would protect renters at the most vulnerable time of the year when the outcomes of homelessness are more dire. It is important, however, that robust programs are in place to help the at-risk tenants use that time to have some place to go when the moratorium is ended. Unless we stop replacing those we help out of houslessness with more houseless folks, we will simply continue the cycle. The answer must be increased rental assistance, protection for arbitrary and discriminatory evictions, more resources for tenant protections, and yes, winter eviction restrictions.
As Portland implements an anti-displacement plan, which policies from the Anti-Displacement PDX Coalition would you support? What additional anti-displacement policies do you support?
Require advance 90-day written notice to a tenant if the owner plans to sell, demolish, or redevelop their home.
Implement a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase policy that gives all current renters, and then the city, the first and second rights of refusal to purchase a property at fair-market value before it goes on the market.
Earmark Construction Excise Tax (CET) revenue from construction in single-dwelling zones as a source of subsidy for affordable units in single-dwelling zones.
Charge a fee for any redevelopment of a property in single-dwelling zones that does not include at least two units, unless prevented by site constraints and use the new revenue from this fee to subsidize regulated affordable units in the single-dwelling zones.
Property tax exemption for any regulated affordable units built on-site, for the duration of the affordability restriction.
The community benefits movement emerged to challenge conventional thinking and offer a broader vision for how we shape development and land use patterns. This movement has aimed to ensure that the main purpose of economic development is to bring measurable, permanent improvements to the lives of affected residents, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Community Benefits Agreements that represent diverse voices and have many areas of enforcement need to be required for all publicly funded projects, not just projects over $25 million. I believe this is an important tool we have to protect existing residents and small businesses from displacement and as a commissioner I will work to create more CBAs. We have a lot of work to do to ensure our growth is scaled in a way that people can continue to afford to live and work in this city. As housing prices continue to skyrocket, more and more Portlanders are getting pushed to the outskirts of our city and our society. This gentrification threatens our residents’ way of life and the diversity of our communities. We need to create a city that has space and opportunity for everyone, while ensuring their voices are reflected in the decisions we make as we continue growing. Every Portlander deserves a safe and stable place to call home and a community that helps them thrive. Keeping a roof over your head should not result in sacrificing food, healthcare, and the right to live a productive and meaningful life. Together we must create a culture that makes it socially and politically unacceptable for our neighbors to remain houseless.
What else should Portland pro-housing, pro-tenant community know about you & your candidacy?
Keeping people housed is a complex issue and needs a multi-prong approach. In a world where more and more people are unable to purchase a home due to growing income inequality—especially now when economic indicators all point to some very tough times ahead—tenant rights must be robust and comprehensive. I am running because I feel my generation is a severely underrepresented voice in City Hall, and yet we are overrepresented in the tenant community. We need advocacy that reflects the reality for many Portlanders that don’t have enough housing, and can’t afford what little there is available. This is personal for me as a student loan burdened, paycheck to paycheck millennial that has no options in the near future for purchasing a home. The voices of younger generations that are constantly priced out of housing rentals needs to be heard in City Hall, and I am that voice.
Avalos received an A overall from our scoring committee. See all scores and read about our process here.