Carmen Rubio (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. Portland has little room to grow out, and a smart choice is to grow up where it makes sense to do so. Incentivizing greater density for all kinds of accessible housing choices, mass transit development, green spaces and commercial real estate can be achieved by exploring changes or caps on various requirements (i.e. parking/occupancy) and efficiently reducing plan review and permitting processes so builders have greater control of construction process and project completion. Last but not least, our planning review process also needs to be modernized to reduce time while holding land which can become very expensive when waiting to receive city approval on a zone change.
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. Transit-oriented development is essential to meet our growing population demands and address issues of climate justice. Allowing apartments to be built by-right next to transit lines allows a natural pairing of our density, transportation, and climate goals. As our city grows, having more housing be located by bus and light rail lines makes it easier for transit to be people’s default form of transportation. In addition to the reduction in car trips, and transit’s ability to transport larger numbers of people on less road space, the lack of required parking by major transit lines encourages households to evaluate the necessity of car ownership. While some households experience real barriers to becoming car-less, there are households where the ability to access convenient and reliable transit is sufficient to fulfill their transportation needs and reduce the number of single-occupancy vehicles in Portland.
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. Neighborhood associations are important ways people can connect with their neighbors and offer place-specific perspective in City conversations. That said, deciding whether to have new apartments or a homeless shelter aren’t just place-specific conversations. They are conversations about who we are as a city, and what kind of housing we believe is a right to all Portlanders. Neighborhood associations should not have a greater say in deciding where new housing is built than any other community group. Recognizing the pressing need for renters, low income people, and people of color to be represented in the conversation, we need to give everyone an equal voice in deciding what housing is added and where.
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. We know we urgently need more money for housing. Deciding how to raise that money is a decision that needs to happen with knowledge of financial projections, multiple funding models, and community consultation. We need to consider who will carry the cost of new funding mechanisms, and ask if it is equitable. That is the process I will take and prioritize as an elected official looking for new housing funding sources, and I would invite Portland: Neighbors Welcome to be a part of those decisions. The Portland Housing Bureau assessment is that there is an identified need for a minimum of 23,000 additional housing units to serve low and moderate-income households. The Portland Housing Bond delivered 1,300 units and cost 258.4 million dollars, the Metro housing bond will add 1,475 units. These two investments represent unprecedented funding for affordable housing, and barely make a dent in the need for affordable housing. We urgently need significant and ongoing funding, including partnership with the state and federal government, to continue to address the need for affordable housing in Portland, and ensure our City is a place where anyone can afford to live.
Would you support a citywide moratorium on evictions during the three coldest months of the year, as Seattle recently adopted?
Yes. 2017 was one of the coldest winters of our housing emergency. That year Karen Lee Batts, David Guyot, and Mark Elliot Johnson all froze to death from living outside. We need to fully fund our affordable housing and supportive wraparound services so no one in Portland dies from living outside. Until we get to a place where we have the supportive services as a City to prevent people from being out on the streets during the coldest months of the year, we absolutely need to be considering measures like a moratorium on winter evictions as a way of protecting the most vulnerable in our society.
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.
Grant a “right to stay” to existing tenants; require landlords to rehouse tenants they displace in their neighborhoods at a rent comparable to what they had been paying, or by helping the tenants to purchase a unit with down-payment assistance.
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.
Property tax exemption for any regulated affordable units built on-site, for the duration of the affordability restriction.
I am strongly committed to addressing displacement through policy interventions. Portland has changed very quickly during my life, and we find ourselves in an unprecedented time of housing instability and gentrification. That said, we know this housing crisis isn’t new. People of color have always known what it’s like to not be able to live in some neighborhoods in Portland. Displacement long affected the black community before it started to affect renters more broadly. We need to keep these historic injustices in mind when we put forward anti-displacement strategies, and be sure we are addressing the root causes of displacement.
I support the well thought out policies being proposed, and the community work that went into developing them. The only caveats I want to note is that there are real reasons why someone might not be able to afford to develop two units on a site, and I would want to be sure that using CET revenue would be a cost effective use of those funds before committing them to single-dwelling zones.
What else should Portland pro-housing, pro-tenant community know about you & your candidacy?
These issues are personal to me. By fourteen years of age my family had moved 10 times before having the ability to settle permanently. And sometimes those places weren’t the best for a family. I will bring urgency and focus to this crisis, along with an important racial justice perspective that will center ALL communities. This means directing more resources to the homeless crisis for supportive housing and services for the chronically homeless, and to prevent more families and children from falling into homelessness. Housing instability impacts children’s ability to learn, be nourished physically, and feel safe emotionally and physically. Great advocacy and work is happening in our community but it is still not enough. The City has a role here in leading a collaborative, regional response. As a City Commissioner I will bring urgency to these issues because we have no time to lose.
Rubio received an A overall from our scoring committee. See all scores and read about our process here.