15:02:20  rental services office.

15:02:24 Niki Luneclair was unavailable for today's meeting.
15:02:24 

15:02:28 Ryan, you can go ahead and start the 
15:02:29 recording.

15:02:31 >> Recording in progress.

15:02:32 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Excellent.

15:02:35 We've got a bunch of new
15:02:38  members today which is really exciting.

15:02:41 We'll do a formal round robin of introductions after
15:02:43  the staff updates.

15:02:46 So right now we're just going to do the roll call.
15:02:47 

15:02:49 Ashley Miller?

15:02:50 >> Present.

15:02:53 >> Fannie Adams?

15:02:55 >> Present.

15:02:58 >> Rachel 
15:02:59 Nehse?

15:03:01 >> Present.

15:03:04 >> Jamillah J.
15:03:08  Rutherford?
15:03:08 

15:03:09 Jamillah?

15:03:11 >> Sorry, I'm here.

15:03:14 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: I was like, I thought I saw her.
15:03:14 

15:03:16 Welcome, welcome.

15:03:17 Jesse Neilson?

15:03:18 >> Here.

15:03:21 >> Caroline Jackson?

15:03:21 >> Present.

15:03:24 >> Welcome, Caroline.

15:03:30 Irina Alonso?

15:03:36 Irina?

15:03:37 >> Present.

15:03:41 >> Wonderful, welcome.
15:03:41 

15:03:44 Mara Romero?

15:03:45 >> Present.

15:03:47 >> Olia Gorelkina?

15:03:49 >> Present.

15:03:52 >> Stephanie Grayce?

15:03:54 >> Present.

15:03:57 >> Holly Stevens?

15:04:06 Holly?

15:04:09 Christina Dirks is absent per an email notification.

15:04:09 She's a new member.

15:04:15 Allan Lazo?

15:04:18 >> Good afternoon, all, present by video.

15:04:20 Happy fair housing day.

15:04:23 >> Yes.

15:04:24 Barbara Guire?

15:04:27 >> Here, in person.
15:04:27 

15:04:32 >> And Dung
15:04:33  Ho?

15:04:34 >> Present.

15:04:35 >> Wonderful.

15:04:37 We have met quorum.

15:04:40 We can move on to staff updates presentation.
15:05:08 

15:05:12 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: As I mentioned earlier, Niki Luneclair was not able to make the
15:05:15  meeting today so I am
15:05:19  taking over for much of the facilitation.

15:05:22 I hope I live up to Niki's wonderful
15:05:23  standards.

15:05:28 I'm Breonne 
15:05:31 DeDecker, manager of rental services for the City of
15:05:32  Portland.

15:05:32 Next slide.

15:05:36 And as Allan mentioned, it is not
15:05:41  just fair housing month,
15:05:46  but today is the anniversary of the signing of the
15:05:50  Fair Housing Act, an auspicious day for us to be meeting.
15:05:50 

15:05:55 Last Wednesday Portland city City Council did proclaim April
15:05:58  to be Fair Housing Month in the City of
15:05:59  Portland.

15:06:03 There was a wonderful proclamation, we had two of
15:06:06  the poster artists come down and join us in city 
15:06:07 council, which was very nice.

15:06:11 This was the grand prize winner, seventh grade,
15:06:14  Halima Asad from the
15:06:17  Muslim Educational 
15:06:20 Trust, "Community includes all
15:06:21  of us."

15:06:24 We have copies of this poster available in our office if anybody wants to
15:06:25  grab one.

15:06:28 We do have some on hand
15:06:30  to give out.

15:06:32 It's a very lovely poster.

15:06:35 I wanted to thank you, Allan, for your wonderful comments and
15:06:39  for being as always a great master of
15:06:39  ceremonies.

15:06:42 A wonderful proclamation.

15:06:45 It's always a time to celebrate but also reflect
15:06:48  on the fact that we
15:06:51  have so much work to do to realize all the promises made by
15:06:56  the fair housing act
15:07:07 Act.

15:07:10 The AFFH proposed rules, we
15:07:14  sent out the slide deck notifying that the comments had 
15:07:16 closed.

15:07:19 They have actually reopened the comments, so now comments can be made
15:07:22  to HUD until April 24th.

15:07:25 So if you as an individual would like to make 
15:07:29 comments, there's still time to send those comments in.
15:07:30 

15:07:34 PHB did submit public comment in support of the proposed rule.

15:07:37 Once the final rule was published, we will
15:07:41  review the requirements and update 
15:07:44 FF if there are any next steps which may affect our
15:07:49  Portland fair Fair Housing Plan project.
15:07:49 

15:07:52 I just happened to catch an article
15:07:55  this morning that they had changed the deadline.
15:07:55 

15:07:58 Apologies for the miscommunication earlier, but there is still time to send comments if you would like.

15:08:02 Next slide.

15:08:05 As many of you know,
15:08:08  we've got an exciting pool of people joining us
15:08:09  on the body.

15:08:12 We're very excited to welcome all of these new 
15:08:14 members.

15:08:17 It's the first meeting for these committee 
15:08:17 members.

15:08:21 I apologize in advance if I have butchered anyone's 
15:08:24 name, please do correct us if we're mispronouncing your
15:08:25  name.

15:08:28 We'll do a brief round of round robins for all commissioners
15:08:29  in a minute.

15:08:33 These are our new members.
15:08:33 

15:08:36 And we are in need of
15:08:39  recruitment for a new committee chair position.

15:08:43 If you're interested in becoming a committee chair, right now we only
15:08:46  have one so we need a co-chair, please email
15:08:50  Niki Luneclair by Monday, May 1st
15:08:50 .

15:08:53 We can drop her contact information into the
15:08:56  chat for any FHAC members who may not be aware of 
15:08:57 it.

15:09:00 And she will provide instruction on what information should be
15:09:02  provided for consideration.

15:09:05 Final selection on committee chair is made
15:09:07  by the bureau director.

15:09:14 Does anyone have any questions?

15:09:17 Current chair is
15:09:21  J. Rutherford.

15:09:37 Does anyone have any other questions?

15:09:37 Okay.

15:09:41 Well, next on our agenda is
15:09:44  the really fun round robin
15:09:46  of introductions for all committee members.

15:09:49 So we want everyone on the committee to introduce themselves, not just the new
15:09:53  members, so everyone can get acquainted with
15:09:53  one another.

15:09:57 If you would please just state your 
15:10:00 name, your pronouns, what you do for work, your interest
15:10:03  in FHAC, that would
15:10:04  be wonderful.

15:10:07 And J., as the current chair, do you want to kick us off?
15:10:09 

15:10:10 >> Sure.

15:10:13 Hi, everybody, my name is J. Or
15:10:17  Jamillah Rutherford Tai.

15:10:29 I have been on the committee for two years now.

15:10:32 I have a company called responsible media group or 
15:10:35 RMG, Diane at this
15:10:39  racist media and also produce antiracist
15:10:42  media and have a special interest in housing because I've
15:10:45  lived in tons of cities or communities, actually, that
15:10:48  have been gentrified.

15:10:51 So it's been an honor to be here for the
15:10:53  last couple of years.

15:10:55 And that's it.

15:10:58 It's nice to see a new group of people.

15:11:01 Do you want me to pass it to someone or do you want me to just
15:11:02  stop?

15:11:04 Should I throw it to somebody?

15:11:08 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Yeah, if people can 
15:11:09 popcorn, that would be great.

15:11:12 >> I'll give it to Mara.

15:11:14 >> Ooh, I could feel that coming.

15:11:16 >> You knew I was going to do it.

15:11:17 >> I knew it.

15:11:19 I was prepared, though.

15:11:22 I'm usually just vomiting things out of my mouth anyway.
15:11:23 

15:11:25 I apologize, my camera is not on.

15:11:26 I'm in my car.

15:11:29 But I wanted to make sure I didn't miss this meeting.

15:11:33 So my name is Mara Romero, I
15:11:36  use she/her 
15:11:36 pronouns.

15:11:39 I am primarily a housing advocate.

15:11:43 I work for independent living Independent Living Resources, which is a 
15:11:46 peer-based disability advocacy organization.

15:11:49 And I work on all of
15:11:50  their housing type stuff.

15:11:54 So part of that has been to get out and get on these committees to
15:11:56  kind of share the disability perspective.

15:11:59 So yeah, that's what I'm doing here.

15:12:02 And I really, really enjoy this work because it's not something that my
15:12:05  brain is usually good at or like I don't think that I'm
15:12:08  good at it, so being able to be
15:12:12  in spaces where I can understand something and
15:12:15  people take the time to explain things has been really nice.
15:12:15 

15:12:18 And I'm definitely understanding the policy side of our housing advocacy a lot more.

15:12:27 So that's it.

15:12:31 Oh, I'm supposed to popcorn,
15:12:31  right?

15:12:32 I apologize.

15:12:34 Now I feel like this is a lot of pressure.

15:12:37 I guess I'll have to go to 
15:12:37 Allan.

15:12:39 >> ALLAN LAZO: Thank you, Mara.

15:12:42 Good afternoon, everyone, I'm Allan Lazo, executive
15:12:45  director with the fair housing council of Oregon.
15:12:45 

15:12:47 I use he/him pronouns.

15:12:51 We have a particular interest in the organization as
15:12:54  the fair Fair Housing Council of 
15:12:55 Oregon.

15:12:57 We're the only qualified housing organization in the State that specializes just
15:12:59  in fair housing.

15:13:02 So we're here to help provide
15:13:05  technical assistance and support for the work that we're doing here
15:13:07  with the bureau.

15:13:10 So you'll hear some of that this afternoon when we talk about the work we've done around
15:13:13  testing and some other data that we have to present.

15:13:17 So I'm so excited about being here today, and
15:13:20  again, as Breonne mentioned, today is April
15:13:23  11th, it is the anniversary day of
15:13:26  the Fair Housing Act which was passed, signed
15:13:30  into law April 11th, 1968,
15:13:33  a very apropos day for us to gather and start
15:13:35  talking about these issues again today.

15:13:38 So I really appreciate being here with you all.

15:13:43 And I will pass it to
15:13:46  Dung is actually next up on my 
15:13:47 screen.

15:13:50 >> Hello, everyone, my name is Dung
15:13:53  and my
15:13:56  pronouns are she/her/hers.

15:13:59 I'm the community support director at the community Community Alliance of 
15:14:00 Tenants.

15:14:04 A quick overview what have we do, what I'm able to contribute to
15:14:07  this space, we have a lot of partnerships with
15:14:11  folks in the room.

15:14:14 We've worked for a long time with passing along referrals and sharing educational information about
15:14:18  fair housing law as well, with tenants, and making
15:14:21  sure that they understand what their rights are,
15:14:24  and how to recognize what fair housing discrimination looks like,
15:14:27  because sometimes it's not as obvious.

15:14:30 It might just be, you know, a weird feeling, you know, when you're going
15:14:33  out there, looking for housing
15:14:36  or being treated differently.

15:14:39 And so learning about all of the things and sharing
15:14:42  all the information among all these experts in the
15:14:45  room, it's a wonderful space.

15:14:46 And I'm glad to be here.

15:14:49 And I will go ahead and pass
15:14:52  it on to
15:14:56  -- whoa, there we 
15:14:57 go.

15:14:59 Things are moving.

15:15:02 Is Fannie here?

15:15:07 I think I saw Fannie on the screen there for a second.
15:15:16 

15:15:17 Or I also saw -- 

15:15:20 >> I'm on, I'm sorry.

15:15:21 >> I couldn't think of a backup.

15:15:25 >> Hi, everyone, my name is 
15:15:28 Fanny, I am the community development block
15:15:31  grant coordinator here at Multnomah
15:15:34  county.

15:15:37 I'm based out of the youth and family services 
15:15:38 division.

15:15:40 We have multiple programs.

15:15:43 The mission of the housing stability team is to keep
15:15:46  families and individuals housed.

15:15:49 I'm very grass-rooted in working with nonprofit
15:15:50  agencies.

15:15:53 Some of you are on call that we have contracts
15:15:54  with.

15:15:57 And that the CDBG grant collaborates with
15:16:01  some of you in carrying out some of the work to
15:16:04  just keep folks housed
15:16:07  and it's my first year in this group.
15:16:08 

15:16:11 Here learning a lot more from you than I feel at times that
15:16:12  I'm contributing.

15:16:19 But I'm glad to be here in this space.

15:16:21 And I actually can't see the names.

15:16:27 If someone wants to join next.

15:16:31 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: I'll just toss it over to Irina
15:16:34  Alonso, I'll call on the first new person on the list.

15:16:37 I wanted to put that list up so everyone who isn't as familiar
15:16:40  with the new appointees could see the
15:16:41  names.

15:16:42 >> IRINA ALONSO: Hi.

15:16:46 Sorry, my dog is barking a
15:16:48  lot.

15:16:49 [Barking] 

15:16:50 I'm so sorry.

15:16:54 My name is Irina
15:16:54  Alonso.

15:16:58 I work for county social services, I'm a permanent
15:17:02  supportive housing case 
15:17:04 manager.

15:17:08 One of my causes is to support chronically homeless
15:17:12  families in the Clackamas County area and help them
15:17:14  get housed and stabilized.

15:17:18 I work on supporting them with kind of all of the things
15:17:19  that come with life.

15:17:24 And I also have programs on supporting the
15:17:27  kiddos and making sure they're successful in school and I support background services
15:17:28  and whatnot.

15:17:33 And then I also work very
15:17:36  incidencely with ODHS with a much shorter term
15:17:39  case
15:17:43  lows where we support families who
15:17:45  --

15:17:47 [barking] 

15:17:51 Sorry -- to help house them and
15:17:55  stabilize them.
15:17:55 

15:17:56 [Barking] 

15:17:59 I'm sorry, I have a cat.

15:18:02 I like housing because I really love my job and
15:18:05  I love the ability to help
15:18:08  people at the worst moment
15:18:11  and be able to -- I don't know, usually I feel
15:18:14  very grateful that I am in a position where
15:18:18  people trust me to help their families at the
15:18:19  very worst moments in life.

15:18:23 And then I still get to stick around and watch their
15:18:26  kids grow and be there
15:18:29  along for the good and bad times in life.

15:18:31 I'm very happy about that.

15:18:34 I'm pass it to Stephanie.

15:18:38 >> STEPHANIE GRAYCE: Hello, my name is Stephanie Grayce.

15:18:41 I am a soon-to-be
15:18:44  graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School, this is my
15:18:47  last week in law school, in 
15:18:48 fact, I will graduate in May.

15:18:54 I've been also hired by
15:19:00  Lewis and 
15:19:02 Clark.

15:19:06 Reform for
15:19:10  the
15:19:13  formally incarcerated
15:19:16  is my passion.
15:19:17 

15:19:21 There are people that are still experiencing significant housing
15:19:24  barriers despite some efforts to limit the 
15:19:25 look-back on convictions.

15:19:28 And it's because of my work with them and
15:19:31  because of my personal experience
15:19:34  with the carceral system that I wanted
15:19:37  to work in a different way to support our
15:19:41  communities, particularly when you look at the people
15:19:44  who are convicted and incarcerated
15:19:47  are people from traditionally marginalized communities.

15:19:50 I think it's an important issue and I'm incredibly happy to be
15:19:56  here and to represent to the best of my abilities people like my clients
15:19:57  and those I serve.

15:20:00 Ly pass it to Caroline.

15:20:01 >> CAROLINE JACKSON: Hi, everyone.

15:20:03 Thanks for all those introductions.

15:20:04 It's great to get to know you all.

15:20:07 My name is Caroline Jackson.

15:20:10 I use she/her
15:20:10  pronouns.

15:20:13 And I am an employee of Outside In.

15:20:17 We're a nonprofit that mostly does transitional
15:20:18  housing and also health care and social services.

15:20:22 My first job there
15:20:25  was with our low cost tattoo removal
15:20:29  program which got me interested in this topic because a lot of
15:20:32  folks had tattoos that were barriers to housing and 
15:20:32 employment.

15:20:35 Now I do volunteer management and outreach event coordination but
15:20:39  I also just finished a masters degree
15:20:42  in public policy at
15:20:46  Portland
15:20:49  State University, congratulations to
15:20:51  Stephanie too on almost being done.

15:20:54 I'm really passionate about equity in housing.

15:20:57 So I'm really excited to learn from this group, because
15:21:00  it's my first sort of professional
15:21:03  foray into policy 
15:21:04 work.

15:21:07 I also have been a renter for 12 years in Portland
15:21:10  and I've lived in eight different rental units.
15:21:10 

15:21:13 All of that was while being very privileged to not have as
15:21:15  many barriers as a lot of folks.

15:21:18 And I've seen firsthand how hard it is for someone
15:21:22  with that privilege, and I can't imagine the barriers that a lot of
15:21:23  other folks face.

15:21:26 So really honored to serve on this committee.

15:21:27 Thanks so much.

15:21:30 I'll pass it to -- is Olia here?
15:21:31 

15:21:33 >> OLIA GORELKINA: Yes, I am, hello.

15:21:35 My name is Olia.

15:21:40 I am really excited to be here listening to everyone's
15:21:43  stories and how they got to work with 
15:21:45 housing, it's really inspiring.

15:21:47 My pronouns are she/her.

15:21:51 I am a housing coordinate
15:21:54  for a domestic violence agency, we
15:21:57  work specifically with Slavic refugees
15:21:58  and immigrants.

15:22:02 We find housing for survivors
15:22:05  but in addition educating everyone who doesn't
15:22:09  know how to rent, which is most of the people who come to us.

15:22:12 We get referrals and calls, we try to teach classes and organize
15:22:15  workshops to explain how it works in Portland,
15:22:18  how it works in the U.S. generally.

15:22:21 And people are always shocked, are always surprised,
15:22:22  they don't understand any of the rules.

15:22:25 This is basically what we do.

15:22:28 And we started only about half a
15:22:31  year ago doing this critical work.
15:22:31 

15:22:33 We hope it's going to continue.

15:22:37 I decided I want to be part of the Fair Housing Council
15:22:40  because I want to know more, I want to educate myself and
15:22:42  bring all of that into my community.

15:22:44 So thank you for having me here.

15:22:47 And I am going to pass it on
15:22:50  to Jesse 
15:22:53 Neilson.

15:22:56 >> JESSE NEILSON: Hi, everyone, my name is Jesse Neilson, I use
15:22:57  he/him pronouns.

15:23:01 I currently work at the Oregon bureau
15:23:04  of labor industries,
15:23:08  civil rights division,
15:23:13  I'm an attorney and did a
15:23:16  lot of housing 
15:23:17 work.

15:23:20 My family has some personal experience with
15:23:22  housing insecurity.

15:23:25 And, you know, I guess for a long time I've
15:23:29  had an interest in housing issues and how
15:23:32  it impacts people differently and what the government is doing about it or
15:23:33  should be doing about it.

15:23:36 I'm excited to be here to hopefully share my experience but also to
15:23:41  learn from everybody here and
15:23:44  get the city and jurisdictional part going in the right
15:23:46  direction on fair housing.

15:23:48 I'll pass it to Barbara.

15:23:52 >> Hi, I'm Barbara Guire.
15:23:52 

15:23:56 I've been -- this is my second term on the
15:23:57  committee.

15:24:00 I started three years ago.

15:24:03 I am Barbara Guire Real Estate.
15:24:04 

15:24:07 I have been in the real estate industry licensed for over 40 
15:24:12 years, starting in California.

15:24:16 For the last 20 years I've had a real estate business in
15:24:19  both Oregon and
15:24:22  California.

15:24:24 Always, always, always studying the law.

15:24:27 In order to renew our licenses, we have classroom requirements
15:24:31  that amount for me to
15:24:34  about a week a year
15:24:35  that I have to do.

15:24:38 And I study a lot of fair housing.

15:24:42 Laws of agency, laws of contract,
15:24:45  laws of business and 
15:24:46 professions.

15:24:50 My main goals, and for
15:24:53  some reason it has made me somewhat unpopular, and I don't understand 
15:24:57 it, but I feel it's vital
15:25:00  that we
15:25:04  explore the complaints, fair housing complaints, that have gone to a
15:25:07  number of -- I have a long list --
15:25:10  organizations and agencies that receive complaints from
15:25:10  everyone.

15:25:13 And I would like to find out what those complaints are, because I
15:25:15  personally have no idea.

15:25:19 I mean, maybe we don't have a fair housing problem in
15:25:20  Oregon.

15:25:22 Maybe we have a major, major problem.

15:25:26 Maybe people regularly come out of their front doors
15:25:28  and they see nooses hanging from the ceiling.

15:25:29 I don't know what's going on.

15:25:33 So to me it's very, very important
15:25:36  that we do that, that we look at that.
15:25:36 

15:25:40 And the other thing is that we explore all tenants
15:25:43  trying to get into housing and what the barriers 
15:25:45 are.

15:25:48 And it's quite difficult in buildings where there are lists, lists that
15:25:52  go on for many 
15:25:52 years.

15:25:56 So those lists are not controlled by anyone
15:25:59  but I suppose the organizations, the
15:26:00  landlords.

15:26:04 So tenants asserting their housing 
15:26:08 rights, I'm interested in representation.
15:26:08 

15:26:10 I have represented renters.

15:26:13 I've never been a site manager,
15:26:16  but as a licensed individual,
15:26:19  I've represented a very wide,
15:26:23  broad spectrum of population, always following the 
15:26:26 law, always found it easy to follow
15:26:29  the law, just go to the highest level and follow it and
15:26:31  you'll never get into trouble.

15:26:34 So my pronouns are she/her.
15:26:36 

15:26:39 What was the other thing?

15:26:40 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: I think you covered it.

15:26:44 How about Ashley, Ashley, have you gone yet?
15:26:44 

15:26:45 I don't think so.

15:26:46 >> I have not, thank you.

15:26:49 Good afternoon, everyone, my name is Ashley Miller, 
15:26:51 she/her pronouns.

15:26:53 And I am one of the jurisdictional partners.

15:26:56 So I work for the City of 
15:26:57 Gresham.

15:27:00 I am the in term urban design and
15:27:02  planning director and the housing services manager.

15:27:06 I oversee Gresham's administration
15:27:08  of HUD home and CDBG funding.

15:27:11 It's nice to meet you all and be here today.

15:27:14 And I will pass it off to Rachel
15:27:17  Nehse who also works for the City of Gresham.

15:27:20 >> Hi, my name is Rachel 
15:27:24 Nehse, she/her/hers 
15:27:25 pronouns.

15:27:28 I also work for the City of Gresham, as Ashley 
15:27:29 mentioned.

15:27:32 I am a program analyst here working with our HUD grant funds.
15:27:32 

15:27:34 I've been here for about five years.

15:27:38 And I do most of the day-to-day
15:27:41  stuff for both our CDBG and home grant
15:27:42  funds.

15:27:45 I'll also be heavily involved in the city
15:27:49  participation with Portland and the county when we
15:27:52  do the -- I can't remember what
15:27:57  it's called -- furthering fair housing plan.
15:27:58 

15:27:59 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thank you, Rachel.

15:28:02 The last but not least person
15:28:05  to go is Holly Stevens
15:28:08  who I think I saw enter.

15:28:13 >> Hi, everyone, my
15:28:17  name is Holly Stephens, 
15:28:19 she/her pronouns.

15:28:22 Rise Partnership is a trust on behalf of the State of 
15:28:24 Oregon.

15:28:27 I support home care providers in
15:28:29  all of their benefits administration.

15:28:32 And all that fun stuff.

15:28:34 And let's see, what else?

15:28:37 Oh, this is my second term on the 
15:28:38 committee.

15:28:41 I got involved because there's a lot of fair housing stuff that happens
15:28:45  a lot in my industry.

15:28:48 When I think about the elderly, aging populations, folks with
15:28:52  developmental disabilities, who need stable
15:28:56  and affordable housing so that they can receive the care
15:28:58  they deserve and they want in their own homes.

15:29:01 And so, yeah, I'm really passionate about this, happy to see
15:29:05  some new faces, welcome, and I look forward to getting to know you.
15:29:07 

15:29:11 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Awesome, thank you all, really dynamic 
15:29:14 committee, really excited to welcome all the new
15:29:15  folks.

15:29:17 And that is that for introductions.

15:29:21 And we can move on to the next section
15:29:24  of our agenda, initial recommendations for
15:29:27  the Portland Fair Housing Plan.

15:29:57 We have a presentation.

15:30:00 And I have introduced myself I think twice already but I'll
15:30:03  do it again, for anyone who has not caught
15:30:04  it.

15:30:08 I'm Breonne DeDecker, I'm the 
15:30:10 rental services office manager.

15:30:13 I'm here with Jessi Conner.

15:30:16 >> JESSICA CONNER: Good afternoon, everyone, my name is Jessi Connor,
15:30:20  senior policy and planning coordinator here at the Housing 
15:30:20 Bureau.

15:30:22 I use she/her pronouns.
>> BREONNE DEDECKER: Excellent.

15:30:27 Next slide, please.

15:30:30 So we just wanted to provide a sort of
15:30:33  background on our fair housing
15:30:35  project work plan.

15:30:38 Last year we identified a list of subject areas
15:30:41  to include in this analysis.

15:30:43 FHAC is going to be providing --

15:30:46 FHAC already has provided feedback on these issues,
15:30:49  these areas of analysis.

15:30:52 So far, we have reviewed the demographic summer
15:30:55  and the low income household analysis.
15:30:56 

15:30:59 That one was just done in the past April.

15:31:03 The demographic summary was to write context for the rest of the analysis and
15:31:06  did not have any associated policy recommendations.
15:31:06 

15:31:10 Today will be our first of many policy
15:31:12  conversations.

15:31:16 PHP has drafted some initial recommendations based on the data presented thus 
15:31:17 far.

15:31:20 So looking at the low income household analysis that was
15:31:23  presented back in April, we're going to be
15:31:27  revisiting this list of policy recommendations as we move
15:31:29  throughout the project.

15:31:32 So every time we move through the analyses, we
15:31:35  will revisit our policy
15:31:38  recommendations and sort of like do additional edits to 
15:31:41 it, update them,
15:31:43  incorporate new ideas.

15:31:47 Once completed and compiled into a draft 
15:31:51 report, we'll develop a plan to present the
15:31:53  draft to the public.

15:31:56 The schedule may change as HUD finalizes the rules.

15:31:59 So we're hoping this will put us on
15:32:02  track to complete the plan
15:32:05  by April, wrap up
15:32:07  all this on April 2024.

15:32:09 That's a year out from now, and best laid plans, right?

15:32:13 So, next slide.

15:32:16 This is just sort of a reiteration of
15:32:18  what I was just saying.

15:32:24 This is an iterative process
15:32:27  whereby we're going to receive data presentations.
15:32:27 

15:32:31 FHAC will provide feedback based off the 
15:32:31 presentation.

15:32:35 The staff will draft recommendations based on that feedback and FHAC
15:32:38  will provide feedback on the draft recommendations and we'll continue to work through this process
15:32:41  until we've gone through all of the
15:32:44  areas of analysis that have been identified and we
15:32:47  come out with a full, you know, draft recommendation that we can then finalize.

15:32:53 Next slide.

15:32:56 And just to highlight some summary
15:32:59  points from April's presentation, this is
15:33:02  from our low income household analysis.

15:33:05 First, the proportion of extremely low
15:33:08  income households has increased at a higher rate than the growth of
15:33:11  all households since 2011.

15:33:15 And affordability has continued to decline.
15:33:16 

15:33:19 Low income households are
15:33:23  disproportionately people of color.

15:33:26 Low income households have the highest rate of a household
15:33:29  member experiencing some form of disability.

15:33:32 Low income households are disproportionately renters
15:33:35  and tend to be severely cost burdened, and low income
15:33:40  renter and on are households are most often
15:33:45  geographically located in east 
15:33:47 Portland.

15:33:50 These are the recommendations that formed the basis of
15:33:53  the report that we'll be presenting.

15:33:56 You should have received the full list of recommendations as a 
15:33:58 PDF with the meeting email.

15:34:01 We'll be covering each staff recommendation one by one, sharing
15:34:05  the basis of the recommendation and the analysis and we'll be sharing associated
15:34:08  actions that are happening or could happen in response to the recommendations.
15:34:13 

15:34:13 Next slide.

15:34:16 The first policy recommendation is to continue funding for emergency
15:34:20  rent assistance programs and to consider deep city
15:34:22  support of long term rent assistance programs.

15:34:25 The basis of this recommendation is that we
15:34:29  know low income households are disproportionately members of a protected
15:34:32  class, specifically people of color and those
15:34:35  experiencing disability, and tend to be
15:34:38  severely cost 
15:34:41 burdened.  There is an identified impact on these
15:34:43  communities.

15:34:45 This creates barriers to housing.

15:34:48 One way to mitigate this is rental assistance programs.

15:34:51 During the pandemic the city did provide
15:34:55  emergency rent assistance in
15:34:57  unprecedented amounts.

15:35:00 Nearly 115.3 million in rental assistance
15:35:04  has been provided to over 226,000 households.
15:35:04 

15:35:06 Those numbers are accurate as of member.

15:35:09 Those are the latest data that's been
15:35:10  published.

15:35:13 This coordinated effort has been impactful to
15:35:17  our community but current funding streams were in response to Covid-19
15:35:18  and will be spent soon.

15:35:22 In order to leverage the infrastructure and partnerships that have been built
15:35:25  and continue to provide this resource, the city would need to identify
15:35:27  new funding.

15:35:31 The same would be true for the city to
15:35:34  explore providing long term rent assistance programs which are more
15:35:37  stabilizing for households than one-time emergency assistance.

15:35:41 While there are questions about the viability of continuing rent assistance programs
15:35:44  due to funding, staff felt it was still important to include this
15:35:45  recommendation.

15:35:48 Rent assistance provides immediate relief to households experiencing crisis
15:35:50  who are severely cost burdened.

15:35:51 Next slide.

15:35:55 And I'm going to be passing it over to
15:35:56  Jessi.

15:35:58 >> JESSICA CONNER: Thanks, Breonne.

15:36:01 So the second staff recommendation was to
15:36:04  continue funding development of subsidized accessible
15:36:08  housing units for individuals and families below 30% of
15:36:11  the median family income and high
15:36:14  opportunity areas of the city which are near employment, transportation, and education.
15:36:22 

15:36:25 Our associated actions for these
15:36:29  recommendations are reflected
15:36:32  in the two voter backed housing bonds,
15:36:35  first the Portland Housing Bond and
15:36:38  then a couple of years later the
15:36:41  metro Affordable Housing Bond
15:36:48  for the development of affordable units.

15:36:51 The next couple of slides are going to share
15:36:54  where we are with our current development goals.

15:36:58 We know this recommendation has been made previously through both
15:37:01  the housing crisis lens, the fair housing 
15:37:05 lens, and it continues to be a
15:37:08  primary focus for the bureau.
15:37:09 

15:37:13 On this slide you'll see a
15:37:16  graph of both the
15:37:19  stated goal and the actual outcomes for
15:37:22  the Portland Housing 
15:37:23 Bond.

15:37:25 This is the one that was passed in 2016.

15:37:28 We'll be looking at completion at the end of this year.

15:37:31 You can see pretty clearly that the stated goal, the
15:37:34  unit production goal for the
15:37:38  Housing Bureau -- for the housing bond, 
15:37:41 rather, was 1,300 units.

15:37:44 We have far exceeded that
15:37:47  goal with 
15:37:51 1,859 units.
15:37:52 

15:37:55 The other goal had
15:37:59  units at 30% 
15:38:02 below, supportive housing
15:38:05  units with supportive 
15:38:08 services, a variety of services
15:38:10  [inaudible] 

15:38:14 successful, case management, mental health care, medical health care, et cetera.

15:38:17 Many of the expertise of the folks on
15:38:19  this committee.

15:38:23 And also family sized units which we're defining as two to four
15:38:23  bedrooms.

15:38:27 You can see on the graph, we've exceeded each of those
15:38:29  goals.

15:38:32 We are quite excited about that.

15:38:35 We're able to overdeliver on each of these goals for folks in the city.
15:38:38 

15:38:42 The next slide has got the most recent -- well,
15:38:45  we've got some data here for
15:38:47  the Metro Housing Bond.

15:38:51 The data on the slide are the outcomes through the end
15:38:53  of last year.

15:38:56 So 1/22.

15:38:59 It's the same format, what our stated goal and actual goal is.
15:39:00 

15:39:03 The bureau just recently released a more
15:39:06  updated report, so it's a little updated.

15:39:10 We have exceeded the goals in each of these categories as 
15:39:10 well.

15:39:13 So briefly, the stated goal was 
15:39:16 1,475 units.

15:39:20 As of March, we have 1,587 units
15:39:23  that are either open or are in 
15:39:23 development.

15:39:26 And we're also exceeding our goals in each
15:39:30  of the three categories, you know, 30% units,
15:39:33  the PSH units and the family
15:39:34  sized units as well.

15:39:40 We're pretty excited about those developments as well.

15:39:44 And the last piece around our affordable
15:39:47  housing development is really
15:39:50  honing in on deeply affordable units.

15:39:53 Of the approximately 6,300 units that have been developed
15:39:56  by the bureau since 2015, over a third
15:40:00  of them are deeply affordable.
15:40:06 

15:40:10 The third goal -- or excuse me, the third staff 
15:40:12 recommendation, rather, is to increase partnerships and
15:40:17  communication strategies to reach targeted populations
15:40:20  of those living in east Portland,
15:40:23  black, Indigenous, people of color households, and households
15:40:27  experiencing a disability.

15:40:30 Our actions,
15:40:34  are first to identify additional
15:40:37  program partnership opportunities
15:40:41  with the Expanded Partner Network, 18
15:40:44  culturally specific organizations that we have been working
15:40:47  with throughout the Covid pandemic
15:40:50  for emergency rent 
15:40:52 assistance.

15:40:54 Breonne talked about those, I'll skip past that.

15:40:59 The second piece to that is embracing and
15:41:03  continuing to explore and implement
15:41:06  a new approach through
15:41:09  tax implement finance districts, 
15:41:13 TIF districts, utilizing the process that I got
15:41:18  to participate in personally, at the request
15:41:21  of a group of
15:41:24  community stakeholders in the Cully neighborhood, who
15:41:27  approached the city and expressed
15:41:31  interest in attempting to take this tool that has
15:41:36  historically seen a lot of displacement
15:41:37  through its use.

15:41:40 And wanted to see if we could use it
15:41:41  differently.

15:41:45 So Cully TIF district has been adopted through 
15:41:45 co-creation.

15:41:49 We are pretty excited about the potential of focusing on
15:41:53  housing stabilization rather than lots of new development.
15:41:58 

15:42:01 The last piece 
15:42:05 there, the last associated action
15:42:08  there is to
15:42:14  effectiveness of outreach to
15:42:17  these communities.

15:42:20 The Racial Equity Plan is currently in process of developing that.

15:42:24 We're in a bit of a transition with the government and in
15:42:27  getting a new director for the 
15:42:27 bureau.

15:42:30 Part of that is in flux.

15:42:33 So we may be looking at something that is a little bit more shorter term before
15:42:36  we do a sort of long term look
15:42:40  around five years, a five-year plan,
15:42:42  which is what we would normally do.

15:42:46 I know the equity managers are working with our internal equity council in the development of that plan.
15:42:54 

15:42:56 Okay.

15:42:57 Next.

15:43:00 The next one is to hire a dedicated
15:43:04  east Portland policy coordinator to work directly with the
15:43:07  community and in partnership with other
15:43:11  bureaus to develop programming
15:43:14  for households in east Portland.

15:43:17 We have a few actions, first to
15:43:21  open a recruitment and hire the position.
15:43:21 

15:43:24 Once that position, you know, person comes on and is hired,
15:43:27  they will be tasked, among their portfolio of 
15:43:32 things, primarily will be to develop and
15:43:36  administrate some community grants program
15:43:40  focusing on, you know, community stabilization, housing
15:43:43  stabilization, antidisplacement, et cetera, and that could
15:43:45  look like a lot of things.

15:43:48 I know it sounds a little vague but it is
15:43:51  intended to be vague so that it can be
15:43:53  broadened with creative ideas.

15:43:57 Along those lines, you know, they may seek
15:44:00  to develop a permanent program in partnership
15:44:03  with East Portland stakeholders.
15:44:08 

15:44:09 Oh, I've got one more.

15:44:11 I've got one more.

15:44:11 Yep.

15:44:14 Before I hand it back to Breonne.
15:44:14 

15:44:17 That's around employment support, continuing to work with
15:44:21  our partners to increase employment
15:44:24  and income outcomes through
15:44:27  training, education, and
15:44:30  employment laws.

15:44:33 So, currently the bureau's current
15:44:36  work is that we, through a 
15:44:40 passthrough, passing through funds that the
15:44:43  bureau gets, we send
15:44:46  those over to our economic 
15:44:49 development, Prosper Portland, and they implement the
15:44:51  economic opportunity initiative, right?

15:44:55 It's got three programs, one on adults, one for 
15:44:58 youth, and then one that is a workforce navigator program.
15:45:04 

15:45:07 Getting a sense of scale, about 
15:45:11 2,800 individuals were served in
15:45:12  2021.

15:45:16 Participants were primarily low income, so it
15:45:19  targeted that demographic.

15:45:22 This is something that we do, that we support
15:45:24  annually.

15:45:27 We do also at this time have an opportunity
15:45:31  to do a pilot program a couple of
15:45:32  years ago.

15:45:35 The city -- not the city, 
15:45:38 sorry, the HOUSING BUREAU
15:45:42  was allocated a
15:45:45  small American rescue plan act, the ARPA
15:45:49  act, to implement a pilot project that was focused
15:45:52  on housing stabilization, but
15:45:56  to do that, we wanted to pair
15:45:59  workforce training along with some housing stabilization
15:46:00  services.

15:46:04 So practically what that looks like is that
15:46:07  the program will seek to reach
15:46:10  about 60 participants.

15:46:13 The participants will have the job training which could be
15:46:16  up to three months paid 
15:46:17 for.

15:46:20 They will have some housing 
15:46:21 support.

15:46:25 That would look like whatever is needed in addition to cover their rent.
15:46:25 

15:46:28 For example, if someone was interested
15:46:31  in going into a --
15:46:32  

15:46:35 one of the construction trades, sometimes those are full-time and as folks know, maybe
15:46:38  you know, it's hard to carry two jobs at the same 
15:46:39 time.

15:46:43 We'll also be doing some household assistance to make sure
15:46:46  they are able to pay bills or do whatever
15:46:49  things they need to do to care for themselves.

15:46:52 We'll also do some navigator services for that to make sure
15:46:55  that folks are actually not just completing the programs
15:46:58  but are actually securing job placements.
15:47:00 

15:47:04 And with that, I will go ahead
15:47:07  and turn it over to Breonne.

15:47:10 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thanks, Jessi.

15:47:12 Tawnya, next slide, please.

15:47:16 Our recommendation is to continue funding and consider increasing
15:47:19  funding for low income
15:47:22  homeowner services, which will provide grant
15:47:25  assistance for repairs or 
15:47:26 modification.

15:47:29 We saw that
15:47:32  when people own their homes, they're cost
15:47:33  burdened.

15:47:37 This makes financing of repairs more difficult.

15:47:40 Furthermore, given the higher reported rates of disability,
15:47:43  these households may require housing modifications to be made such as
15:47:46  ramps, installation, or modifications to make platforms
15:47:48  more accessible.

15:47:53 The Housing Bureau does currently fund home loan repairs.
15:47:55 

15:47:58 We also partner with community organizations to provide foreclosure prevention
15:47:59  counseling and services.

15:48:03 Recently the bureau has secured new grant funding
15:48:06  to address health and safety concerns in low income
15:48:08  households.

15:48:11 This recommendation asserts the continued need for these services
15:48:12  and the need for targeted outreach to BIPOC communities.

15:48:17 Next slide.

15:48:20 This slide shows a quick snapshot of data around the
15:48:24  home repair grant program.
15:48:24 

15:48:27 89% of program participants of households below 
15:48:30 50% EMI, looking at
15:48:35  race and
15:48:38  ethnicity data, Black households make
15:48:40  up 30%.

15:48:44 The bureau is strategizing targeted outreach for all historically excluded communities.

15:48:49 Next slide.

15:48:51 So this is just going to run through the recommendations again.

15:48:54 I know we just threw a lot of information at you.
15:48:57 

15:49:00 This is, again, a high level 
15:49:01 recommendation.

15:49:04 First, continue funding for emergency rent assistance
15:49:08  programs for low income households and consider deep City support of long term rent
15:49:10  assistance programs.

15:49:14 Continue funding development of subsidized accessible housing units for individuals
15:49:17  and families below 30% MFI in high opportunity areas
15:49:20  of the city, near employment, transportation and education
15:49:21  opportunities.

15:49:25 Increase partnerships and communication strategies to reach targeted populations of
15:49:28  those living in east 
15:49:31 Portland, BIPOC households and households experiencing
15:49:33  disability.

15:49:35 Next slide.

15:49:38 Hire a dedicated east Portland
15:49:41  policy coordinator to work directly with community and in partnership with other
15:49:45  bureaus to develop programming for low
15:49:48  income households in East Portland.
15:49:49 

15:49:52 Continue to work with partners to increase employment and
15:49:55  income outcomes for households through working training, education and enforcement
15:49:56  of employment law.

15:49:59 And finally, continue funding and consider increasing funding
15:50:02  for low income home ownership retention with services for
15:50:04  foreclosure.

15:50:05 Next slide.

15:50:08 So we're going to set some time aside for feedback.

15:50:11 We've got three questions up here to 
15:50:12 start.

15:50:15 Are the barriers that were identified in the data analysis being
15:50:18  addressed through these recommendations?

15:50:22 Would you change or revise any of the recommendations
15:50:22  listed?

15:50:26 Are there additional recommendations which could be implemented by the City of Portland that could be
15:50:26  added?

15:50:30 And again, this is not a finalized list.
15:50:30 

15:50:33 We're going to continue to revisit,
15:50:36  reevaluate, edit these recommendations and build upon them
15:50:38  after each analysis.

15:50:38 This is an iterative process.

15:50:43 This is just the beginning.

15:50:46 We have about ten minutes now for this discussion and then we'll go
15:50:50  to public comment and depending on Allan's presentation we can revisit some more.
15:51:03 

15:51:04 >> Holly Stephens here.

15:51:07 If you go back two slides, I have a question.

15:51:10 Hold on, I just want to see it again.
15:51:10 

15:51:13 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: The home ownership ship retention or draft recommendations?

15:51:16 >> Yes, this right here.
15:51:16 

15:51:20 Okay, I just wanted to look at this
15:51:21  again.

15:51:23 Sorry.

15:51:24 >> Mommy!

15:51:27 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: I recognize that moment in a Zoom
15:51:29  meeting.

15:51:32 >> I'll put my camera on because she's pretty cute too.
15:51:35 

15:51:37 Okay.

15:51:40 Yeah, I guess I was -- I know
15:51:44  we have, you know, like some BIPOC
15:51:47  communities here, households experiencing disability, and sort of
15:51:50  getting back to kind of my
15:51:53  introduction there, nothing around aging populations.

15:51:56 And I was just wondering if -- 

15:52:00 are we just thinking like aging populations that
15:52:03  fall under low income, or --
15:52:07  

15:52:09 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Yeah, that's a great point.

15:52:12 I think we can figure out how to bake those populations
15:52:16  into the recommendations to ensure that those needs are being met, because
15:52:19  that is a crucial component.

15:52:22 >> Yeah, because there is a law
15:52:26  here in Oregon about like
15:52:29  -- I don't remember exactly what it's called, I probably should know in my 
15:52:29 role.

15:52:33 It's about like care choice,
15:52:36  and an aging individual's -- kind of
15:52:39  like their right to remain in their home.
15:52:40 

15:52:44 So even when they need assisted care, because they're older
15:52:47  and they can't do things for
15:52:50  themselves, there is some -- I don't want to call it a
15:52:53  law but I actually think it is, in Oregon,
15:52:57  that gives you home care choice so that you can choose to stay
15:53:00  in your home and have someone come in and support you in your home.
15:53:00 

15:53:03 So I want to make sure that the
15:53:05  aging population is included in here because I think it's really important.

15:53:12 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thank you, Holly.

15:53:27 Thank you, Mara, yes.

15:53:29 >> This is Mara.

15:53:32 I was going to chime in and say,
15:53:35  yeah, it can be hard sometimes with the way identities 
15:53:39 intersect, right, and how, you know, for 
15:53:42 example, as an organization that primarily serves
15:53:46  younger than 65 people with
15:53:50  disability, we sometimes, you know, feel siloed or something,
15:53:53  even though we know that
15:53:56  like a lot of the issues intersect.

15:53:59 Housing is definitely one of them, because like for example those
15:54:03  communities are, you know, commonly living on a fixed income and are not actually
15:54:06  able to like work more, for 
15:54:08 example, to earn to keep up with the market.

15:54:11 So again, we're similar but we're also different.

15:54:13 And I think it's important to highlight that somehow.

15:54:21 So thank you for bringing that up.

15:54:35 .

15:54:40 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Allan, you raised your hand?

15:54:42 >> ALLAN LAZO: Thanks, Breonne.

15:54:43 A few pieces.

15:54:46 I want to make sure that I let other
15:54:48  committee members have the opportunity also.

15:54:51 But I think the one thing I want to bring forward and remind 
15:54:54 us, I know that this section is about low income 
15:54:57 households, but I think it's also worth
15:55:00  noting that we often talk about that affordable
15:55:03  housing isn't naturally fair housing.

15:55:06 There's a strong connection there, a strong
15:55:07  intersection.

15:55:11 Where we find the intersections are best served is
15:55:14  when we're pretty intentional
15:55:17  how we're using that affordable housing, how it's directed and how we're serving certain communities.
15:55:18 

15:55:21 Again, I think the caution is that's hard to do in a fair housing
15:55:22  context.

15:55:25 Some of the pieces that I didn't sort of see there by name that I know
15:55:29  that the bureau is involved in are things
15:55:32  like making sure that as affordable housing is
15:55:35  being invested in or developed,
15:55:38  that it's low barrier entry, that
15:55:42  we're making sure that the application requirements are such that
15:55:45  it serves the communities that we're intending to serve.
15:55:45 

15:55:48 I think in the partnerships you capture the sense around
15:55:52  affirmative marketing, but we don't use those words.

15:55:55 I think part of the partnership particularly with communities of color is to make sure those
15:55:58  communities we would like to serve are being reached out to
15:56:01  adequately if not
15:56:05  predominantly -- I think also, I don't know, I
15:56:08  looked at the list, I'm not sure it will come up later, obviously it will be
15:56:11  a theme throughout, I also don't know if this is a place
15:56:15  where we talk about
15:56:18  antidisplacement measures with regard to developments in low income or affordable housing to make sure we're
15:56:20  paying attention to that.

15:56:24 Maybe the TIF district piece speaks to
15:56:25  that.

15:56:28 There are also two pieces around specificity that I didn't see
15:56:28  there.

15:56:30 It's a super tough needle to threat.

15:56:33 But I would encourage the bureau as we're
15:56:37  doing this work to think about exploring further preferences.

15:56:40 We have a preference policy that was pretty narrow
15:56:44  in north-north east
15:56:47  Portland that was designed to serve a specific
15:56:48  piece.

15:56:51 It would be good to keep in mind we could do that in other places
15:56:53  or other ways.

15:56:56 One of those might be in home ownership.

15:57:00 I guess I don't know enough about the home ownership
15:57:03  work to know whether or not something like special purpose credit programs might apply
15:57:06  or be a value in the loan programs that you 
15:57:08 do.

15:57:11 I actually don't know -- it may not work for 
15:57:15 ou institutionally.

15:57:18 Along the lines of intentionality, another thing I didn't
15:57:21  see, community land trust.
15:57:22 

15:57:24 Again, that might come up in a different topic.

15:57:29 That as a sort of community investment strategy.

15:57:31 I just throw those all out.

15:57:34 I know I didn't answer any of the questions, but a pile of stuff I 
15:57:34 had.

15:57:35 Thanks.

15:57:38 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thanks, Allan.
15:57:38 

15:57:39 Stephanie?

15:57:42 >> STEPHANIE GRAYCE: Thank you.

15:57:45 I wanted to piggyback a little bit on Allan's
15:57:49  comments, I'm very grateful he mentioned
15:57:52  fairness and access to low barrier housing.

15:57:55 When we talk about the communities of color and the percentages of people that we
15:57:58  are incarcerating and releasing from
15:58:01  incarceration, the disproportionate impact on communities of color is
15:58:03  huge.

15:58:05 And I think right now there's still a little bit of a disconnect.

15:58:09 I know Portland has an incentive for low barrier
15:58:12  housing, and in speaking with a lot of my clients,
15:58:15  the barriers are still exceedingly significant.
15:58:15 

15:58:18 And a lot of landlords
15:58:21  are choosing not to participate, and therefore we
15:58:25  have a lot of exclusion happening that people on this committee
15:58:28  and a lot of us want to see housed and 
15:58:28 supported.

15:58:32 I would just like to bring in a suggestion that maybe we
15:58:35  use stronger language when it comes to barrier reduction when it comes
15:58:36  to housing.

15:58:37 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thank you, Stephanie.

15:58:42 I think Caroline was next with a raised hand.

15:58:44 >> CAROLINE JACKSON: Thanks, yeah, those are great points.

15:58:48 I was curious about rental assistance and particularly eligibility post-Covid
15:58:49  funding.

15:58:53 I know there's a lot of public programs where eligibility is
15:58:57  narrowing post-Covid, and this might be getting into the
15:59:00  nitty-gritty for later, but I'm wondering if we'll have an opportunity
15:59:03  to sort of look at eligibility for who has access
15:59:06  to rental assistance and whether there are funding sources available
15:59:09  to maintain that same level that we saw during
15:59:13  Covid or perhaps increase it or if we're kind of
15:59:17  expecting it to be more limited in a,
15:59:19  quote, post-Covid world.

15:59:24 I'm curious about those guidelines.

15:59:26 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thanks, Caroline.

15:59:27 Barb, I see you have your hand raised.

15:59:31 We've got one minute before we have
15:59:33  to pause for public comments.

15:59:35 >> Go ahead.

15:59:38 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: And Mara, you raised your hand.

15:59:38 Is your comment a minute?

15:59:44 >> Yeah, I can talk fast.

15:59:47 I also sit on the Metro Housing Bond
15:59:51  oversight committee and certainly part of that effort has been really
15:59:54  geared towards like fair housing and low
15:59:57  barrier screening and, you know, no one is getting
16:00:00  metro money without that promise, basically.

16:00:03 Now, whether or not they're going to hold to that, obviously, that's
16:00:06  what we're doing now, following up with folks.

16:00:09 But it does seem like when you standardize and
16:00:12  you set that requirement behind funding,
16:00:16  people will start to follow along, and they will --
16:00:19  you know, so I don't know, other people on this call can speak to
16:00:22  it better than me, but yeah,
16:00:26  it seems like, you know -- anyway, and then the other thing
16:00:29  I was going to mention is that in terms of how we recommend policy or what we
16:00:32  recommend and push forward too, we
16:00:36  might be trying to think about how that's been successful, but I was also thinking
16:00:39  too, I don't see it on the screen, but one of the things was
16:00:41  about like affordable and accessible housing.

16:00:44 And that's just one of my little things right now, is like what is the definition
16:00:46  of accessible housing.

16:00:49 And I've been trying to get anybody really to answer that question for 
16:00:49 me.

16:00:51 And nobody really can.

16:00:54 And that's because it's all wrapped up in sort of policy and the
16:00:57  bureaucracy of development and all of that.

16:01:00 So anyway, that's just like a little area I identified
16:01:03  as like, there isn't really a lot of standardization about
16:01:07  what low barrier screening is, for example, or
16:01:09  what an accessible unit is more broadly.

16:01:13 So I think I made it under a minute.

16:01:14 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thanks, Mara.

16:01:18 It is 4:01, so we do need to pause for
16:01:20  public comment.

16:01:23 We do have two members of the public signed up for public
16:01:24  comment at the moment.

16:01:28 So I apologize if I pronounce 
16:01:30 anybody's name incorrectly.

16:01:33 The first is Guinevere Mercal.
16:01:43 

16:01:52 Is she here?

16:01:55 >> RYAN: She doesn't appear to be on.

16:01:59 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Next is Matthew.

16:02:02 >> It's part of my presentation, sorry about that.
16:02:03 

16:02:17 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Anyone else who wants to make public comments at this time?

16:02:20 I'm trying to get better about holding space and not just rushing
16:02:21  on.

16:02:24 So I'll hold it for one more minute before we resume the discussion.
16:02:28 

16:02:31 >> I think you're supposed to sing happy birthday in your
16:02:32  head.

16:02:35 Or at least that's how us ADHD folks have to do it [laughter].
16:03:05 

16:03:08 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Okay, folks, I think we can
16:03:12  go back to the previous conversation, provided that if
16:03:15  at any point a member of the public until 4:15
16:03:18  is interested in making public comment, please just announce it in the chat,
16:03:19  that you're interested.

16:03:22 Otherwise we can go back to discussing the recommendations until 4:15, when Allan will do his presentation.
16:03:26 

16:03:29 So, barb, I know that you had your hand
16:03:31  raised.
>> Yes.

16:03:38 We were talking about -- we were on the feedback page.

16:03:42 Are the barriers that were identified in the data analysis being
16:03:46  addressed through these recommendations, well, I imagine they are.
16:03:47 

16:03:50 This is the Portland Housing Bureau
16:03:52  of which most what have you're [inaudible].

16:03:56 And so I take you at
16:04:00  your word that you are accomplishing your goals.

16:04:03 These are economic plans, these are economic 
16:04:05 support.

16:04:06 This is the Fair Housing Advocacy Committee.

16:04:09 And I'm here because there is
16:04:12  such a tremendous suffering in
16:04:16  Oregon due to all
16:04:19  kinds of protected classes,
16:04:23  having your housing rights invited
16:04:30 violated.

16:04:33 Whenever I bring it up I feel like I'm the downer in the group.
16:04:33 

16:04:37 It's the suffering I see through no fault
16:04:40  of people who are experiencing it.
16:04:40 

16:04:43 I'm experiencing it.

16:04:47 And I certainly don't think I deserve any of 
16:04:48 that.

16:04:51 So, no, I don't think -- I mean, for three years I
16:04:55  have brought up these things periodically
16:04:56  along the way.

16:04:58 And I plan to keep going.

16:05:01 But last month, when we 
16:05:05 met, I asked -- and Lizzie came on to respond
16:05:08  to my question, there was a question that many of us in
16:05:10  committee asked in 2020.

16:05:12 What is the purpose of FHAC?

16:05:15 And I still don't know.
16:05:16 

16:05:19 And is the pushback to me based on
16:05:22  the fact that what I bring
16:05:24  up is not part of FHAC?

16:05:27 Is that the problem?

16:05:30 I was hoping Leslie would be here today to address the
16:05:31  purpose of this committee.

16:05:33 What are our goals, what is our purpose?

16:05:36 I think
16:05:40  Portland Housing Bureau probably does a
16:05:40  wonderful job.

16:05:43 But I see the world through the prism of real estate, of
16:05:45  representation.

16:05:48 Every single person over these 40 plus
16:05:52  years has had some barrier of
16:05:56  some sort, some kind of barrier, 
16:05:59 something, something.

16:06:02 And there are individuals, and each of
16:06:06  their needs are met of that's the benefit of 
16:06:07 representation.

16:06:11 Tenants, particularly low income tenants or
16:06:14  low resource tenants, don't have that benefit, there's no one out
16:06:14  there.

16:06:18 So I'm here to bring up things that I see and that
16:06:22  I want to address, and
16:06:23  -- 

16:06:24 >> Good afternoon.

16:06:25 I'm here.

16:06:28 >> There she is, hi.

16:06:31 >> Hi, Barb.

16:06:36 So I think part of the issue is
16:06:41  providing some overview
16:06:44  for FHAC about
16:06:48  -- for fair housing council about what
16:06:51  the bureau does and what it does not do and however
16:06:54  the authority of the housing bureau goes as well as the
16:06:57  advisory committees.

16:07:00 This is one of the things that came to us
16:07:03  through the consultant that we
16:07:07  hired around our strategic plan and around
16:07:10  the director search, is that
16:07:13  there is a lack of
16:07:17  clarification around what we do and where our authority 
16:07:17 is.

16:07:20 So I think that's the first thing that would probably be 
16:07:23 helpful, given we've got a number of
16:07:26  new people on this committee, is to provide an
16:07:32  overview of all of the programs that the housing bureau
16:07:35  provides and what their authority is.
16:07:35 

16:07:39 Some things that I've heard today, they're great recommendations.

16:07:42 But I don't know that we have the
16:07:45  authority to do some of them, because
16:07:49  our authority is primarily around
16:07:52  affordable housing, and then we do have
16:07:55  some authority to make rules
16:07:58  in regards to renter protections
16:08:01  based on what City
16:08:05  Council wants to address.
16:08:05 

16:08:08 Those are things like, you know, the
16:08:12  eviction 
16:08:15 changes, 
16:08:18 moratorium, the relocation assistance,
16:08:22  issues around the amount of percentage
16:08:25  that rent can be raised.

16:08:29 And so those apply to everyone.

16:08:32 But we do have a limit when it comes
16:08:35  to market rate about where complaints go.
16:08:36 

16:08:39 So if there are issues around habitability of units, those
16:08:42  don't come to us.

16:08:45 Those go to BDS.
16:08:46 

16:08:49 You know, we don't have any authority to enforce
16:08:54  corrections or things that need to be
16:08:57  fixed on units except 
16:09:00 through, you know, working as a -- with mediation with our legal services.
16:09:00 

16:09:03 And that's if the landlord wants to go to mediation.

16:09:07 So I think that's the biggest issue at least
16:09:10  from what I've heard in the last two meetings, is
16:09:13  around what does the bureau
16:09:16  do, what are the programs.
16:09:16 

16:09:20 Allan brought up, you know, land trust models.
16:09:20 

16:09:22 We don't do a land trust model.

16:09:25 We support development and we support down payment assistance and
16:09:29  we support home repair programs.
16:09:29 

16:09:33 So we don't have -- we do not have an internal requirement
16:09:36  for land trust except for
16:09:39  depending on what the funding source is
16:09:41  and what that project is.

16:09:44 And so I think with more information, it will be
16:09:48  helpful to the committee about where
16:09:51  to dive into deficiencies and how
16:09:54  we can address those things, and
16:09:57  where we need to move those type of things
16:10:01  onto council or onto government
16:10:04  relations to have addressed through changes at the legislative level.
16:10:06 

16:10:10 Because I just want to be real transparent and
16:10:13  real realistic about the level of authority that we have.
16:10:14 

16:10:17 And I don't want to set up expectations that we can
16:10:20  change things that we may not be able to change.
16:10:20 

16:10:22 So hopefully that helps.

16:10:25 And I'm happy to answer any other questions that folks have.
16:10:30 

16:10:33 >> May I respond?

16:10:34 Okay.

16:10:37 Thank you for that.
16:10:38 

16:10:41 I hope nothing that I have said has even
16:10:45  suggested that I think this body is
16:10:48  capable of being an enforcement 
16:10:48 body.

16:10:52 I'm sitting here with an enforcement body, and they're limited.
16:10:52 

16:10:55 And there are many other -- I
16:10:58  mean, there are other organizations
16:10:59  that do this.

16:11:03 I don't happen to think mediation is at all
16:11:06  a good avenue for anyone who wants to explore
16:11:09  their rights under the law.

16:11:13 I am supposed to uphold just every bit of the law
16:11:16  when I work or the
16:11:19  real estate agency or
16:11:22  California will come after licensed people if they don't.

16:11:25 I just don't think that's the role of a mediator or a
16:11:28  mediation.

16:11:31 I just don't think they're capable of that.

16:11:35 But Portland Housing Bureau, I'm not suggesting we be an
16:11:38  enforcement agency or decide what -- yet
16:11:42  in the subcommittees, policy and
16:11:45  best practice subcommittee, they wanted to go out -- we've never
16:11:48  had a report because Niki wouldn't let me report
16:11:51  on the five meetings that we had.

16:11:55 And in the subcommittee meeting, they wanted to go to New York, they wanted
16:11:57  me to write -- 

16:12:01 everything was going to take state and talk about how they solved
16:12:05  their fair housing issues and going around the country.

16:12:08 And I just kept saying, wait, you're looking for a solution and you don't
16:12:11  even know what the problem is.

16:12:14 I never in my life ever have written a proposal where
16:12:17  I didn't identify a problem and then sought to
16:12:20  solve it or make suggestions to a developer
16:12:22  or whatever.

16:12:26 But this committee should be looking for
16:12:29  what is the issue, what are the problems
16:12:33  that we're having, rather than go
16:12:36  from zero to solution.
16:12:37 

16:12:39 So, thanks, Leslie.

16:12:41 Is this committee chartered?

16:12:43 You mentioned there was supposed to be a charter.

16:12:45 Is there something I can look at?

16:12:49 >> Yes, I can send you
16:12:52  the bylaws.
16:12:53 

16:12:56 >> So I don't belabor it, with regard to 
16:13:00 committees, I was going to bring up today that I think the
16:13:01  subcommittees are not working at all.

16:13:06 And now that we have more
16:13:09  people who I think would make a wonderful 
16:13:12 contribution, I would like to dissolve the subcommittees
16:13:15  and ask people if they would like to
16:13:18  meet more often than quarterly and
16:13:22  work on some of these things
16:13:27  that
16:13:31  supposedly were going to be handled
16:13:32  through the subcommittee.

16:13:36 We met five times and I think members ought to know what's going on in
16:13:39  those subcommittees, I really do.
16:13:39 

16:13:42 I'm extremely unhappy with what has been happening there, not because I'm not
16:13:45  getting my way, but I don't understand where we're going and why we're doing
16:13:46  it.

16:13:49 It's as if you guys all know what you're doing, and I'm
16:13:51  being left out.

16:13:53 So that troubles me.

16:13:56 So because of being licensed in real estate,
16:14:00  I'm always super careful about committing
16:14:03  or speaking to something where I don't feel
16:14:07  qualified or competent or
16:14:09  knowledgeable about the issue.

16:14:13 So could we visit that, about these subcommittees and not
16:14:14  keep having them?

16:14:18 Because they're ineffective, and Niki doesn't want me to
16:14:19  report.

16:14:22 I can report it, we have time today.

16:14:26 >> Subcommittees haven't decided to report today so
16:14:30  it wouldn't be appropriate to make a report right 
16:14:30 now.

16:14:33 I need to look at the bylaws, this is
16:14:36  not a body I have staffed before, I need to
16:14:39  look at the bylaws to see what the process is for starting committees
16:14:41  and dissolving committees.

16:14:44 I don't know if that's a decision that the whole
16:14:47  body needs to vote
16:14:49  on.

16:14:52 So you can't unilaterally make that decision today.

16:14:55 But we can figure out what the process would be to have the body make that 
16:14:56 decision.

16:14:57 >> What decision?
>> If we're dissolving subcommittees.

16:15:03 >> Okay.

16:15:06 Wouldn't you like to be involved in this, Jesse, wouldn't you
16:15:08  like to be participating?

16:15:11 I think this is exactly where we could use your 
16:15:12 expertise.

16:15:15 >> Subcommittees can certainly open to new members.

16:15:18 But dissolving a committee and restarting committees is like
16:15:22  a more structural -- because it sounded like maybe
16:15:24  you wanted different types of subcommittees.

16:15:25 >> No.

16:15:26 >> We have to figure out a proposal.

16:15:30 >> What I would like is to be able to report to the main committee.

16:15:33 Everyone here is an equal member of FHAC.

16:15:33 Everyone.

16:15:36 >> Yes.

16:15:39 >> And so I don't understand why some -- a few people
16:15:42  in the subcommittees are trying to make decisions for the entire 
16:15:44 group.

16:15:47 And even though I'm opposing or
16:15:50  I'm offering my
16:15:53  logical ideas in opposition to
16:15:56  what they're saying, I'm sort of outvoted.

16:15:59 But I don't even understand what's going on.

16:16:00 Mara asked -- 

16:16:03 >> Barb, can I jump in
16:16:04  real quick?

16:16:07 So I hear that you're feeling
16:16:09  like there's some communication issues.

16:16:13 And as Breonne said, we have to review the charter and the
16:16:17  bylaws to ensure that we're following
16:16:21  those guidelines in either starting new committees or getting
16:16:22  rid of committees.

16:16:25 I agree that everybody should have equal voice.

16:16:28 But that does not mean that -- I
16:16:31  mean, so, you know, we function
16:16:34  in a situation where majority 
16:16:35 rules.

16:16:37 Quorum, that's why we vote.

16:16:40 And we have to make sure there's quorum -- just a minute
16:16:41  -- 

16:16:45 and -- but I hear that you're feeling like you're not
16:16:49  -- that those things are not functional.
16:16:49 

16:16:50 I hear that.

16:16:54 And I'll work with Breonne.

16:16:57 I think I mentioned at the last meeting that I'm the executive
16:17:00  team member that is assigned to 
16:17:03 FHAC, so I'm happy to work with her about
16:17:07  how to make the group more
16:17:11  functional and to ensure that folks feel like they're being
16:17:14  heard and that the committees are doing the work,
16:17:17  the subcommittees are doing the work, and that information
16:17:19  is rolling back to the full body.

16:17:22 So I hope that that helps with that 
16:17:24 situation.

16:17:27 I want Breonne to have an opportunity to meet with Niki to
16:17:31  ensure that Niki understands, that Breonne has a
16:17:34  grasp of what's working and what's not working,
16:17:38  and that the new
16:17:41  members are not apprehensive about joining
16:17:45  a subcommittee, because they're hearing
16:17:46  that things aren't working.

16:17:50 So just all of those pieces, I want to be able to look
16:17:55  into and make sure that this is a
16:17:56  functioning group.

16:17:59 So I hope that you hear that from the
16:18:02  place that I'm presenting it, that I want you to feel
16:18:05  like you're being heard and that your participation is
16:18:08  valued, because it is, I value everybody that gives
16:18:11  of their own time to be on one of our committees.

16:18:14 I know the work that goes into that, I serve
16:18:18  on several boards myself and have
16:18:21  experienced the frustration of being in meetings where it doesn't
16:18:24  seem like it makes a difference if I'm there or not.
16:18:25 

16:18:27 So believe me, I hear everything that you're saying.

16:18:30 So give Breonne and Niki some opportunity to
16:18:33  try to work through this, and by the time we
16:18:37  have the next meeting or we will
16:18:40  send out some correspondence in between, because I know you're
16:18:45  only meeting quarterly, to address some of these things and after
16:18:48  we've reviewed the bylaws, what the next
16:18:52  steps are of either creating or dissolving subcommittees.
16:18:55 
>> Thanks, Leslie.

16:19:01 >> Thank you.

16:19:04 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: So we should probably move on to Allan's presentation.

16:19:18 We're running a little over now.

16:19:21 Allan, are you -- -- you're
16:19:23  literally right there.

16:19:26 >> ALLAN LAZO: Sorry if my head is 
16:19:28 gigantic.

16:19:31 With my colleague Matt Sears, we have some
16:19:34  PowerPoint pieces to run 
16:19:35 through.

16:19:38 I know we're a little
16:19:41  short on time.

16:19:43 I think that will get me there.

16:19:46 Are folks hearing me and seeing my screen 
16:19:47 okay?

16:19:49 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Yes.

16:19:50 >> ALLAN LAZO: All right.

16:19:51 Good afternoon, everyone.

16:19:54 As I said in my direction, I'm Allan Lazo, executive director of
16:19:58  the fair housing council of
16:19:58  Oregon.

16:20:00 I talkedFAIR HOUSING COUNCIL of Oregon.

16:20:02 I talked a little bit about the FAIR HOUSING COUNCILfair housing council of Oregon.

16:20:06 I talked a little bit about the fair housing council of Oregon.

16:20:09 We're a private nonprofit civil rights organization whose mission is to
16:20:13  end housing discrimination and ensure equal
16:20:14  access to housing.

16:20:17 I emphasize we're a private nonprofit civil rights organization because folks
16:20:20  sometimes think of us as a government agency.

16:20:22 But we're a private nonprofit organization.

16:20:25 The work we do is based
16:20:28  solely on the local, Federal, and state fair housing 
16:20:28 laws.

16:20:31 And as I noted when I opened this morning or
16:20:35  this afternoon, today is the anniversary of the
16:20:38  Fair Housing Act being signed into law in 1968.

16:20:40 So eight the 55th anniversary.

16:20:44 As we said, the Fair Housing Act is a set of civil
16:20:47  rights laws that protect certain
16:20:50  members of protected classes in their rights
16:20:51  around housing.

16:20:55 And so there are protected classes at the Federal level, the state level, and the local level.
16:20:55 

16:20:57 And I'm not going to go through all of those right now.

16:21:00 I know that that's work that we've done as a
16:21:04  group and talked about, protected classes and such, and how they play
16:21:06  into the work we're doing.

16:21:11 The way that -- oh, let me go to the next slide here.
16:21:11 

16:21:14 The third part of this, the working we're bringing to you
16:21:18  here today is a set of -- is another
16:21:22  data point for the work we're doing
16:21:25  as a committee to consider what recommendations we might bring forward to the
16:21:29  Housing Bureau and to the city around fair
16:21:30  housing.

16:21:33 Here we refer to the analysis of impediments.

16:21:36 We know that process had transitioned under the Obama
16:21:39  administration through the assessment of fair housing,
16:21:43  and
16:21:47  now they're in the new proposed fair housing rules, the plan that will be
16:21:50  coming forward with the hope that that passes or gets
16:21:52  implemented, it will be something called an equity plan.

16:21:55 So I think it's really important to 
16:21:59 understand, you know, again, what the context for what we're presenting to you is,
16:22:02  that this is a data point for
16:22:05  us to think about as a committee, what kinds of recommendations
16:22:08  might be informed by the data
16:22:11  you're going to hear this afternoon.
16:22:13 

16:22:16 So again, in what used to be referred to as
16:22:19  analysis of impediments, the City never got onto
16:22:22  the assessment of fair housing schedule, but as we know, the work
16:22:26  that we're doing is around researching, 
16:22:30 analyzing, and identifying the impediments to fair housing choice, that
16:22:33  list that Breonne went
16:22:37  through earlier, and the proposed recommendations or actions that the
16:22:38  City can take.

16:22:41 I appreciate Leslie speaking to the scope of work that the committee
16:22:43  has with regard to the bureau.

16:22:46 I think it's also wording thinking about, if there are other buckets
16:22:49  that this committee should consider around recommendations
16:22:52  to private agencies or private entities in the marketplace that
16:22:54  can help eliminate those barriers.

16:22:57 I think it's just a question about what we
16:23:01  want our scope to be as a body.
16:23:02 

16:23:05 So in that context, the particular body of work we bring
16:23:08  to you today is talking about
16:23:11  the audit testing that we conducted over the
16:23:14  last year and that a couple of other data points to 
16:23:18 that, we'll talk about, that involve our -- the housing discrimination
16:23:21  hotline that we run as an 
16:23:22 organization.

16:23:25 So I'll note that the work that we're going to talk about here today is
16:23:31  predominantly what we refer to as audit testing.
16:23:31 

16:23:34 It is a somewhat
16:23:37  randomized sampling of the experience that different
16:23:39  members of the protected classes are having in the marketplace.

16:23:43 It is intended to mimic the experience
16:23:46  that folks have when they go out to 
16:23:46 rent.

16:23:48 Complaint based testing is a little different.

16:23:52 I don't think we did any complaint based testing in the last year under this 
16:23:52 contract.

16:23:55 But that is, as the name suggests, is based on
16:23:59  somebody calling us and saying this happened to
16:24:02  me through this particular housing provider and we might
16:24:06  follow that up with a test of that housing provider in that particular circumstance.

16:24:09 As you can imagine, those two things might have
16:24:11  different -- 

16:24:14 they have different purposes, complaint based testing is used very
16:24:15  often for investigative purposes.

16:24:18 Audit testing is used predominantly to inform policy making like we're doing here in this body.
16:24:22 

16:24:26 The work that we are bringing forward today
16:24:30  is testing that was done from July 1st of 2021 to June
16:24:32  30th of '22.

16:24:35 In that period we conducted a total of 17 paired
16:24:37  audit tests.

16:24:39 We'll talk about why that number is what it is.

16:24:42 Again, this was all conducted within the City of Portland.

16:24:45 We focused on three protected classes, race or color, which we tend
16:24:49  to bring into one protected class, particularly
16:24:53  for testing purposes, national origin, then source of income.
16:24:53 

16:24:56 Source of income, as a reminder, is a State level protected
16:24:57  class.

16:24:59 It's not a Federal protected class.

16:25:02 Also the first two are protected classes.

16:25:05 Source of income, predominantly means
16:25:08  things like housing choice
16:25:12  vouchers in that context.
16:25:14 

16:25:18 So again, I talked a little bit about the purpose of the audit
16:25:21  in helping to inform the policy making we're
16:25:23  doing here as a body.

16:25:27 We'll talk a little bit more about the considerations of this particular
16:25:30  set of testing and the overall data that we're presenting
16:25:31  today.

16:25:34 The methodology that we used shifted a little 
16:25:35 bit.

16:25:38 When we think about what this time period was, I know that we're
16:25:41  starting to feel like we're moving towards the end
16:25:44  of this pandemic, but this testing was conducted in the very
16:25:48  middle of that when things weren't open as much, when we still
16:25:51  weren't doing things in person.

16:25:54 And so again, this testing process is intended to
16:25:57  mimic the experience that renters or potential
16:25:59  renters have.

16:26:02 At that time it was a lot of contact by email, contact by 
16:26:05 phone, you weren't really able to go out and look at
16:26:06  apartments so much.

16:26:10 That impacts how we do our testing.

16:26:13 In the next slide, Matt is going to talk a little bit
16:26:17  about how we evaluate tests.

16:26:20 And the particular point there is to note that as
16:26:23  we are conducting testing, we are comparing
16:26:27  the experience that a potential renter is having with the
16:26:30  violations that might exist in the actual
16:26:30  Fair Housing Act.

16:26:34 Matt will talk through what the set of violations are in
16:26:37  the Fair Housing Act that we are looking for, 
16:26:40 particularly, again, recognizing that one of the
16:26:43  limitations of testing is that -- that we
16:26:46  do is that it's at the application stage of testing.
16:26:47 

16:26:50 So we're not able to test as well
16:26:52  in place tenancy.

16:26:55 So folks that might have complaints about being
16:26:59  harassed by a neighbor or being -- not having
16:27:03  repairs made, those kind of things can't really
16:27:06  be tested because we're not testing with in-place
16:27:07  tenants.

16:27:09 So it's at the application phase.

16:27:13 Another limitation about the
16:27:16  testing that we do just in general is that, you know, it's
16:27:20  pretty rare these days for a housing
16:27:25  provider to make an outright
16:27:27  discriminatory statement in the testing process.

16:27:31 It's not unheard of, but often it isn't the way testing 
16:27:32 works, right?

16:27:35 We are looking for what we term
16:27:39  differential treatment by doing comparative -- using
16:27:42  a methodology that uses comparative testing so that we are comparing
16:27:46  the experience of two folks whose
16:27:49  profiles are similar except for their identity
16:27:50  that is protected.

16:27:54 And so if there is a difference in the way they're treated,
16:27:57  it would be based on that sole
16:28:00  difference in those two which is their protected characteristic.

16:28:03 We look to warn folks here that we're going to talk about some percentages
16:28:07  and some numbers, but we don't do high
16:28:11  enough level of testing to make those
16:28:12  outcomes statistically significant.

16:28:16 What's important in the testing here is
16:28:19  the understanding that we get about the experience of
16:28:22  folks in the marketplace as they are
16:28:26  trying to rent to, again,
16:28:30  those members of protected classes
16:28:33  most likely to experience discrimination in the marketplace.

16:28:36 I'll turn it over to Matt to talk about the elements the Fair Housing Act that we use to evaluate the testing 
16:28:41 process.

16:28:44 >> Yes, this slide here shows what
16:28:47  under the Fair Housing Act
16:28:50  would constitute discriminatory treatment.

16:28:53 These are essentially the different aspects that we're testing for, different
16:28:57  forms of discrimination that we tried to test for.

16:29:01 And Allan is right in that testing
16:29:05  does occur particularly in the environment of the
16:29:06  application process.

16:29:09 There could be reasons why, you know, you might
16:29:13  get a complaint about something that's occurring later on
16:29:16  in the process that you could actually do some testing 
16:29:16 on.

16:29:18 But it's pretty rare.

16:29:22 So the types of discrimination that the statute
16:29:25  disallows include things like refusal to rent a dwelling or
16:29:27  make a unit unavailable.

16:29:30 So how we see this in the testing environment
16:29:33  is if we have two testers, 
16:29:36 again, similar profiles except for the fact that they
16:29:39  have a different protected class characteristic, for 
16:29:42 example, you know, one person might be a person with a disability and the
16:29:45  other person is not.

16:29:48 What we might see with refusal to rent is the individual
16:29:51  with the disability is told
16:29:55  that housing is unavailable
16:29:58  whereas the person without a disability is
16:30:01  told there is a unit to rent.

16:30:03 That's a form of discrimination.

16:30:06 We also see discrimination in terms, conditions, privileges,
16:30:08  services, or facilities.

16:30:11 How that presents itself in testing, again, is you've
16:30:14  got two individuals, one is a member of a protected 
16:30:17 class, the other person is kind of like a control.

16:30:20 If you're thinking about this in terms of an experiment.

16:30:23 The person who is a member of a protected class is offered different 
16:30:26 terms, less favorable terms or conditions with respect to the
16:30:27  rental.

16:30:31 So they might be offered a higher
16:30:32  rental rate.

16:30:36 They might be told a higher security
16:30:38  deposit or other types of conditions.

16:30:41 They might not be given access to same services or
16:30:44  privileges or be told about certain privileges in
16:30:48  the housing that would otherwise entice somebody to apply.

16:30:51 So those are ways that testing can reveal that different
16:30:55  terms and conditions are actually being offered
16:30:56  to individuals.

16:31:00 And that's discriminatory.

16:31:03 Discrimination in terms of advertising, statements, notices, in terms of 
16:31:07 testing, 
16:31:10 again, it could be certain actual discriminatory statements are made during a
16:31:12  test, that's few and far between.

16:31:15 But advertising is another source of potential discrimination,
16:31:18  where, you know, landlords may say things like, we don't
16:31:22  rent to people with section 8
16:31:25  vouchers, or they might have more
16:31:29  subtle things in their advertisements like, you know, related to
16:31:32  families with children, 
16:31:35 like, you know, statements that are made to discourage
16:31:37  families with children from applying.

16:31:41 In terms of misrepresenting the availability of dwellings, I
16:31:44  already talked about that in terms of refusal to 
16:31:45 rent.

16:31:49 Refusal to rent or otherwise make available because of a
16:31:53  disability is
16:31:58  expressly stated under the statute.
16:32:01 

16:32:05 Reasonable accommodation is another type of possible discrimination.

16:32:08 So just briefly,
16:32:12  reasonable accommodation is a modification or a change to a
16:32:15  rule, policy, or practice of a
16:32:18  landlord that's necessary in order to afford somebody with a
16:32:21  disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a
16:32:22  dwelling.

16:32:25 So if a landlord is unreasonably
16:32:29  denying an accommodation request, they don't have a good reason
16:32:32  to deny it based on it being an undue financial
16:32:35  burden or administrative burden or because the
16:32:38  accommodation is infeasible for some other reason.

16:32:41 They have no good reason to deny the reasonable accommodation, then that is
16:32:44  a form of description under the Fair Housing 
16:32:45 Act.

16:32:48 There is also interference, coercion, and 
16:32:49 intimidation.

16:32:52 And that could be interference, coercion, or intimidation
16:32:55  by the landlord or housing provider.

16:32:58 This is also one section in the
16:33:01  law that affords a possible claim against 
16:33:01 neighbors.

16:33:05 So neighbors also cannot interfere, coerce, or intimidate
16:33:06  other neighbors.

16:33:09 That could be a form of discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

16:33:12 And then in terms of practices, decisions, or actions
16:33:15  having a disparate impact on dwelling
16:33:17  availability.

16:33:20 Well, disparate impact theory is a topic that
16:33:24  involves, you know, a landlord who has a neutral 
16:33:27 policy, a policy that's not necessarily on
16:33:30  its face, like obviously discriminatory, but that
16:33:34  neutral policy has an
16:33:37  unfair or disproportionately bad impact
16:33:39  on certain protected classes.

16:33:42 And that could potentially be a form
16:33:43  of discrimination.

16:33:46 A landlord is usually given an opportunity
16:33:49  to identify a less
16:33:53  negative, you know, form of the policy that would have less of
16:33:56  a negative impact on that population.

16:33:59 But it could also be interpreted as discrimination under the
16:34:00  Fair Housing Act.

16:34:03 So that's how the statute lays out the different forms of discrimination.

16:34:06 I'll kick it back over to Allan here.
16:34:07 

16:34:08 >> ALLAN LAZO: Great, thank you so much, Matt.

16:34:12 I don't know if we gave a full introduction of Matt, Matt is our
16:34:16  new legal director at the fair housing council of Oregon.
16:34:16 

16:34:17 Matt, welcome.

16:34:20 He's been here since early February and also comes to us from the
16:34:20  disability rights community.

16:34:23 So we appreciate your expertise.

16:34:23 Okay.

16:34:27 From there, I'm going to move on
16:34:30  to talking specifically about the testing results over the last year that
16:34:31  we conducted.

16:34:35 So again, we conducted 17 tests over the last year
16:34:37  across these three protected classes.

16:34:39 I won't go through all the numbers.

16:34:42 You can see there, particularly the positive tests, there were
16:34:47  two positive tests out of the 17, in each of
16:34:48  the three protected class categories.

16:34:51 As I said, we show numbers and percentages here.

16:34:54 But those tend not to be the most valuable pieces of information
16:34:57  that we get out of testing, and particularly with the numbers that we have
16:34:58  last year.

16:35:03 And we'll talk a little bit about -- we were only able to conduct one
16:35:04  retest.

16:35:08 We have a policy to
16:35:11  retest, when the
16:35:14  initial test is positive or inconclusive.
16:35:14 

16:35:17 It can be difficult to retest
16:35:20  because of vacancy rates,
16:35:23  we can't retest if there is some issue and the unit is
16:35:26  rented, we actually can't retest it at that
16:35:27  point.

16:35:31 A piece I wanted to bring up with regard to the number of tests conducted and the 
16:35:34 retests, this was a year that it was
16:35:37  really difficult to do testing back in the Covid-19
16:35:41  era, where we weren't able to do in-person 
16:35:42 testing.

16:35:45 So we were looking for a methodology to do race-based testing in person.
16:35:45 

16:35:49 We had done some that were by 
16:35:49 email.

16:35:52 We weren't sure that that was the best possible methodology.

16:35:55 So there were some barriers to us
16:35:58  conducting testing during this 2021 to 
16:35:59 '22 period.

16:36:02 We also had some transitions and stuff that impacted the work we were
16:36:03  doing.

16:36:06 I think that wasn't uncommon during that period also
16:36:07  for organization.

16:36:09 So I just wanted to speak to the numbers a little bit.

16:36:12 But again, the piece that is critical to
16:36:16  me in looking at the testing results is the experience
16:36:19  that folks are
16:36:20  having in each of these protected classes.

16:36:23 So when we look at the tests that were conducted around source of 
16:36:27 income, the information we gathered around the impediments or barriers that
16:36:30  folks were experiencing with regard to being able
16:36:33  to use particularly housing choice
16:36:37  vouchers to seek housing were predominantly around different
16:36:38  terms and conditions.

16:36:41 So the examples were a tester who did
16:36:44  not have a voucher was given a specific deposit number.
16:36:46 

16:36:49 So they called up and they were asking to rent a place and were
16:36:52  told what the deposit was exactly.

16:36:55 Whereas a tester with the housing choice voucher was
16:36:58  given a range or ambiguous answer about what the
16:37:01  deposit would be and was told it would depend on what their credit or rental
16:37:04  history was, so told two very different
16:37:07  things based on the only difference in that profile, one person had a
16:37:12  housing choice vouch and the other
16:37:14  person who did not.

16:37:17 Similarly, a person who did not have a voucher was able
16:37:20  to speak with an agent and was given information about units 
16:37:23 available, pricing, deposit, was offered a 
16:37:27 tour, while the housing choice voucher tester was
16:37:30  not able to speak with an agent even though they called
16:37:33  multiple times, left multiple voicemails, and 
16:37:36 again, in those voicemails they state their name, information, and again
16:37:40  make it clear that they are a voucher holder and are in
16:37:42  urgent need of finding a unit.

16:37:46 So my sense is that that's actually not an uncommon
16:37:49  experience, unfortunately, for
16:37:52  members of
16:37:58  a class with a limited source of income.

16:38:01 I want to go through these quickly because I know we're going to run out of 
16:38:02 time, sorry.

16:38:06 National origin protected class means
16:38:09  quite literally being or being perceived as having a national origin that is not the United States.

16:38:14 So somebody who comes from a different country.

16:38:18 Again, in these tests, the barriers identified were along the lines
16:38:21  of misrepresentation of availability.

16:38:24 And this is tested with either in-person
16:38:28  or over their phone using testers who have an accent that would be
16:38:31  identified as foreign and a tester who does not have an
16:38:31  accent.

16:38:35 So in this case the tester without a foreign
16:38:38  accent was told again specific details about available units
16:38:41  whereas the test we are the identifiable accent
16:38:44  was given less specific information and directed to go check
16:38:47  the website for more information.

16:38:50 Similarly, the tester with no foreign
16:38:53  accent received a response and contact with information about
16:38:57  units that were available, an agent would call them back
16:39:02  and schedule a tour whereas the tester
16:39:06  with the identifiable accent
16:39:10  was not contacted despite reaching out to the agent
16:39:13  multiple times, an experience we know exists for members of the protected
16:39:15  class of national origin.

16:39:18 Another example was a tester that had
16:39:21  no foreign accent, so presumed national origin in the
16:39:24  U.S., was told about multiple units that were available and
16:39:28  lower rent options whereas a tester with an identifiable accent
16:39:32  was given the same available unit option but with higher rent.
16:39:32 

16:39:35 Those could be difficult.

16:39:38 We know that there are -- in the marketplace there are models
16:39:40  that set rent by the hour.

16:39:43 We try to control that as much as
16:39:43  we can.

16:39:47 Some of it may depend -- we may try to make sure they're calling
16:39:50  at very similar times or right after one another to
16:39:53  take that factor out.

16:39:56 We've been told by the people in the marketplace that that can change
16:39:57  pretty frequently.

16:40:01 But still, it should be fairly consistent,
16:40:03  which can be problematic.

16:40:07 So on the lines of race and color, again, the
16:40:10  barriers that were identified were similar
16:40:14  around availability, again, that the
16:40:17  tester who was perceived to have been
16:40:21  not a person of color received specific information about
16:40:24  properties in the area while the Black tester was not given
16:40:28  responses at all to their inquiries.
16:40:28 

16:40:31 Also a white tester received a response from the housing
16:40:35  provider with the application link, apartment information, and followup 
16:40:35 emails.

16:40:38 The Black tester initiated contact with the housing
16:40:42  provider prior to the white tester but did not
16:40:45  receive a response to their inquiry 
16:40:45 attempts.

16:40:49 There are some specifics about email testing there, there is a methodology we use to
16:40:52  indicate through the 
16:40:55 person's email that they might identify as a person who is a
16:40:58  Black resident interested in renting, and so that's how the methodology works there in email.
16:41:00 

16:41:04 So those are kind of the impediments
16:41:07  we found in testing.
16:41:07 

16:41:10 You know, they're not significantly different than the finding we've had in the
16:41:11  past.

16:41:14 And since there was a sort of a low number of testing, one of the things I wanted to
16:41:17  do this year, we talked about data, was actually aggregate
16:41:21  the last 3 1/2 years of testing that we have
16:41:24  done so that we can get a sense for
16:41:29  the bulk of the numbers I 
16:41:32 guess, the impact of the numbers is the way I would frame it.
16:41:32 

16:41:37 Over the period from January 2018
16:41:40  to June 2022, we have conducted 200 tests,
16:41:43  along race, national origin and source of income.

16:41:47 And here I think the percentages are the ones that are
16:41:51  impactful, right?
16:41:51 

16:41:55 26% of the tests along the protected class of race
16:41:58  were positive for differential treatment.
16:41:58 

16:42:02 And 19% were inconclusive or had some potential
16:42:04  indication or were unsure.

16:42:07 For national origin, it was actually 40%.
16:42:07 

16:42:11 So 29 out of 73 tests that we conducted were positive
16:42:12  for differential treatment.

16:42:16 Another 23% were inconclusive.

16:42:19 Source of income was actually, again, the highest.

16:42:22 We conducted 67 tests in the last 3 1/2 years.
16:42:23 

16:42:25 28% of those positive for differential treatment.

16:42:29 And again, with source of income, it can be
16:42:31  a little more clear.

16:42:34 Particularly in the earlier part of this testing, there were still
16:42:38  housing providers that didn't understand what their responsibilities were
16:42:41  and would actually tell people we don't take section 8.

16:42:44 I did want to bring that in so we could get a bigger picture of
16:42:48  the experience, again, of these members of protected classes in the marketplace.
16:42:50 

16:42:53 The other data point that we use to talk about the experience of protected
16:42:56  class members in the marketplace is the information that we get
16:42:59  on our housing discrimination
16:43:03  hotline.
16:43:03 

16:43:06 We'll leave this for the committee to look at also, but you can get
16:43:09  a sense for the kinds of calls that we get,
16:43:12  the top three are related to disability,
16:43:16  race and color, and sex or gender.
16:43:20 

16:43:20 .

16:43:23 And you can see the city of Portland compared to the state here
16:43:24  also.

16:43:27 So we're happy to get that distributed out to folks and use that as a
16:43:28  data point.

16:43:31 I also wanted to switch back to Matt, because we've also
16:43:34  got a new set of data that we are
16:43:37  building out this year that is actually a review
16:43:40  of the last eight years of data that we
16:43:44  have from our housing discrimination hotline that are
16:43:47  also helping to provide some insight into what folks are
16:43:51  experiencing, who's calling us, how that might
16:43:54  inform, you know, what recommendations we might make moving forward.
16:43:54 

16:43:57 So Matt, I'm going to try to turn it over to you
16:43:57  to share your screen.

16:44:01 How does that sound?

16:44:07 >> Let's give it a try.

16:44:16 All right.

16:44:19 So I'm hoping you're seeing a
16:44:22  slide show at this point.

16:44:25 Are you seeing something on the 
16:44:26 screen?

16:44:27 >> ALLAN LAZO: Yes.

16:44:28 >> Great.

16:44:31 I want to work through some of this new data reporting that we've been putting together
16:44:33  on the state of fair housing.

16:44:36 And this is more statewide data than local city data.
16:44:36 

16:44:40 However we did get some numbers from our
16:44:43  researcher who had been working on this.

16:44:46 He did do some city of Portland related data point.

16:44:49 I'll be sharing that with you as well.

16:44:52 First of all, I wanted to talk a little bit about
16:44:55  our statewide data with regard to
16:44:59  what we call bona fide allegations by protected
16:45:00  classes.

16:45:03 So bona fide allegation is a term of art,
16:45:07  basically it means an allegation that we've done some investigation on and we find
16:45:10  it checks off all the boxes, that this is a
16:45:12  fair housing allegation.

16:45:15 And so when we look at this statewide data, what we've seen, and this is looking
16:45:19  back all the way to 
16:45:23 2014, what we've seen is that disability by far
16:45:27  outstrips other protected classes in terms of the number of
16:45:30  genuine allegations of fair housing discrimination that we receive.
16:45:31 

16:45:34 The second most common one that we receive
16:45:37  statewide is source of income 
16:45:38 discrimination.

16:45:41 And then race and sex
16:45:44  follow shortly thereafter, in numbers
16:45:46  that are very close and similar.

16:45:49 However, if you look more specifically at the
16:45:53  City of Portland, that
16:45:55  breakdown changes a little bit.

16:45:58 Disability is still by far the leader in terms of the
16:46:02  number of complaints we get based on a protected class.
16:46:02 

16:46:06 However, we do see that race and sex take
16:46:09  a larger proportion of
16:46:12  the complaints that we get from the City of Portland than
16:46:15  we did see with the statewide data that
16:46:17  showed more income discrimination.

16:46:21 But I think that's a good, you know, reason to
16:46:24  consider how the city investments in
16:46:27  combating race discrimination, because
16:46:31  it is an issue that is particular to the City of Portland, it has greater
16:46:32  impacts on the City of Portland.

16:46:36 Part of it may be that we're a more diverse community.
16:46:36 

16:46:39 But it is something that citizens of the City of Portland experience at a higher rate.
16:46:43 

16:46:47 So in terms of -- I just went over these
16:46:50  two slides here in terms of the primary protected classes that are impacted.

16:46:53 Like I said, race and sex are higher in the City of Portland
16:46:55  than they are statewide.

16:46:58 Another piece of statewide data that we look at is the share
16:47:01  of all inquiries that we get
16:47:05  and how we are able to respond
16:47:06  to those inquiries.

16:47:09 So what this data table is actually looking at here
16:47:12  is not just fair housing discrimination but every inquiry we
16:47:15  get, because we get inquiries about 
16:47:18 landlord-tenant law and all kinds of other things that aren't
16:47:20  directly fair housing related.

16:47:23 They may have some fair housing angles to them, some of them, but other ones
16:47:26  don't have any fair housing
16:47:27  issue at all.

16:47:30 If you look at these, all of these inquiries, we
16:47:34  find that we are able to -- that we generally provide the
16:47:38  most assistance when it comes to claims that
16:47:41  are related to source of income
16:47:44  discrimination or gender identity or sexual orientation.
16:47:45 

16:47:46 So it's kind of an interesting breakdown.

16:47:50 It looks a lot different than the charts I was just showing 
16:47:50 you.

16:47:53 And one of the reasons for that is because it could be
16:47:57  that the source of income type discrimination -- or the source
16:48:00  of income type complaints that we get are just
16:48:03  more likely to be based on fair
16:48:04  housing.

16:48:07 In other words, if somebody comes to
16:48:10  us with a complaint related to gender or how
16:48:13  they were treated based on gender, it might fall outside
16:48:16  of housing entirely, whereas source of income is a very specific
16:48:19  housing-related issue, so that might be one reason why
16:48:23  that's an area that we
16:48:26  respond to the most, that we get the most
16:48:28  assistance from fair housing council of Oregon.

16:48:32 In terms of disability, some things to consider
16:48:35  are that it is the most common protected class
16:48:38  for complaints that
16:48:39  we receive.

16:48:43 We've also see a gradual increase in the number
16:48:46  of complainants with disabilities since we started tracking this data
16:48:47  in 2014.

16:48:51 In 2014, 56.5% of our complainants
16:48:54  that we received complaints from were people
16:48:56  with disabilities.

16:48:59 By 2021, we had seen a spike in that number all the way
16:49:01  up to more than 85%.

16:49:04 And even last year, it was still very high at
16:49:06  74%.

16:49:10 That could be attributable to a number of factors.

16:49:13 It may have to do with people
16:49:16  just becoming more aware of their rights
16:49:18  as people with disabilities.

16:49:21 It could have to do with the fact that we as a population are aging and more
16:49:23  people are aging into disability.

16:49:26 So those are a couple of possible reasons
16:49:29  for that.

16:49:32 So across all inquiries,
16:49:35  we respond or assist in 
16:49:38 19.2% of inquiries that we receive from people with disabilities
16:49:41  involve fair housing council of
16:49:45  Oregon actually intervening to
16:49:48  investigate directly or to provide
16:49:51  some source of direct --
16:49:51 

16:49:53 some type of direct advocacy.

16:49:56 In terms of source of income, we do
16:49:59  tend to provide more direct assistance when it comes to source of
16:50:00  income complaints.

16:50:03 And again, that might have been attributable to the fact, as I said before, that more
16:50:07  people that come to us
16:50:10  with source of income 
16:50:13 complaints, by its nature, it's a
16:50:16  housing protected class in and of itself, that
16:50:19  might be why those lead to more investigations and interventions.

16:50:22 In terms of race and ethnicity, one pattern we've seen
16:50:25  in terms of ethnicity is there's been
16:50:28  a gradual decrease in complainants who identified as Hispanic
16:50:32  over the course of about
16:50:35  2014 to 2019.

16:50:38 And then we started to see this number creep back up again to
16:50:42  2014 levels with a huge spike in
16:50:45  2021, where about two-thirds or 60% of the
16:50:48  people who contacted us identified
16:50:51  as being Hispanic.
16:50:52 

16:50:55 In terms of race, we also saw gradual increase in
16:50:58  complainants who identified as Black with a
16:51:02  recent spike in 2021 of 
16:51:07 24.3% in
16:51:07  2021.

16:51:10 And overall, we've seen a gradual increase in people who identified not
16:51:14  just as Black but actually as
16:51:15  members of different racial minorities.

16:51:18 It started at 10.6% back in 2014 and now
16:51:21  we see more regularly a percentage of around 15%.
16:51:24 

16:51:27 In terms of the sex, we -- I would note that interestingly,
16:51:31  the vast majority of the complaints that we get
16:51:34  do come from women.

16:51:37 73% in 2021 and 74% in 2021.

16:51:40 That's been a fairly consistent number of nearly three-quarters
16:51:44  of the complaints that we receive coming from 
16:51:44 women.

16:51:49 But we have seen an increase in
16:51:52  complaints from the LGBTQI
16:51:55  plus population with a recent spike of up to 
16:51:58 6.8% of those complaints in 2022.
16:51:58 

16:52:02 Prior to that, those numbers were looking about right around
16:52:05  that 1% of all complaint that we receive.

16:52:09 So it's interesting that we've seen a really noticeable spike in the last year or two.
16:52:13 

16:52:14 All right.

16:52:17 So a couple of other pieces of information about statewide data.
16:52:17 

16:52:21 One thing I wanted to note is that when you look at our
16:52:24  bona fide allegations, again, those are the genuine
16:52:28  allegations, we also look at the types of allegations that we get.
16:52:29 

16:52:33 By far the most common allegation are denials of reasonable
16:52:36  accommodation or discrimination with respect to reasonable accommodation.
16:52:36 

16:52:42 Next up we see terms and conditions of housing is a common source of
16:52:43  discrimination.

16:52:46 Again, that's like offering different rental rates, could be
16:52:50  offering different security deposits, or
16:52:53  placing stricter conditions on certain protected classes
16:52:56  than are placed on other people
16:52:58  when offering units.

16:53:01 We've also seen harassment and refusal to
16:53:04  rent amongst the top four or five reasons that people come to
16:53:08  us with allegations of discrimination.
16:53:10 

16:53:15 In terms of statewide testing data, so, you know,
16:53:18  Allan was talking mostly about City of Portland audit
16:53:19  testing.

16:53:22 But we've also, looking back to 
16:53:25 2014, we've looked at statewide data in terms of
16:53:28  tests that have been positive according to protected classes.

16:53:31 There's a bit of an outlier here in that we've seen
16:53:35  40% of our domestic violence tests come back as 
16:53:38 positive, which is much higher than other 
16:53:39 ones.

16:53:42 However, that's a pretty small sampling data 
16:53:44 point.

16:53:47 We've only conducted about five domestic violence related
16:53:48  tests in that time period.

16:53:51 It might not be the most reliable data.

16:53:55 Source of income, disability, familial 
16:53:58 status, national origin,
16:54:01  seem to be leading in terms of the types of tests we get positive test results for.
16:54:04 

16:54:08 With regard to race based testing, I wanted to point
16:54:11  out that the most common
16:54:16  allegation or source of positive test result and
16:54:20  race-based testing has to do with misrepresentation of units.
16:54:21 

16:54:24 In other words, saying a unit is unavailable when
16:54:25  in fact it is available.

16:54:28 And I just wanted to highlight this for
16:54:29  just a moment.

16:54:34 This really is one of key motivating factors behind why
16:54:36  testing was put in place in the first place.

16:54:40 The misrepresentation of units for rent is something that is really, really difficult
16:54:43  to prove without a testing 
16:54:45 program.

16:54:49 Without out audit test, without our complaint based tests, we would
16:54:52  have a very challenging time showing that this kind of activity is actually 
16:54:55 occurring, where a landlord is telling a white person that a unit
16:54:58  is available and telling a black person that it's not available.
16:54:58 

16:55:01 Without an actual test, it's a really difficult thing to prove.
16:55:01 

16:55:05 So it's very valuable that we're able to perform these types of tests.
16:55:06 

16:55:10 So just briefly, and I'm probably going to end the data presentation
16:55:13  from our upcoming report with this slide, this is just to
16:55:17  give you some idea of the type of
16:55:20  actual enforcement activity that fair housing council of
16:55:21  Oregon engages in.

16:55:24 For the most part, about a third of our
16:55:27  cases are resolved informally.
16:55:27 

16:55:31 However, on top of that, there are
16:55:34  also complaints that we help secure
16:55:37  reasonable accommodations, which accounts for another 
16:55:38 20%.

16:55:41 So there's about 50% of cases that
16:55:45  we've successful advocated for some sort of resolution.

16:55:50 Then there are other cases where, you know, CP resolved, what's that?
16:55:50 

16:55:53 That means the complainant resolved it themselves 
16:55:53 somehow.

16:55:58 Typically that happens, though, with a lot of advice and
16:56:01  technical assistance from fair housing council of
16:56:05  Oregon, we give them information about what their rights are and they're
16:56:08  able to use that information to turn it
16:56:11  around through self-advocacy.

16:56:14 Other times, we do see a large number of complaints that are 
16:56:15 dropped.

16:56:19 And there's a lot of reasons for that, fear of retaliation and other factors
16:56:22  that we have complainants who sort of drop out of the process and don't want
16:56:24  to pursue it anymore.

16:56:28 And the actual
16:56:31  filing of HUD and Cully complaints is relatively rare
16:56:34  but that is a tool that fair housing council has available
16:56:37  to it, to assist individuals with filing those complaints.

16:56:41 So we take these complaints to State agencies, the
16:56:47  Oregon bureau or Department of Housing and
16:56:50  urban development, they also address
16:56:54  Federally protected class 
16:56:54 discrimination.

16:56:58 Claims we would bring are things like source
16:57:01  of income discrimination and other
16:57:04  state protected classes, marital status would be another one.

16:57:07 That's a little bit of an
16:57:10  overview, sort of an early sampling of what's going to be
16:57:14  a pretty comprehensive report on statewide 
16:57:17 data, looking back since 2014 at all of the complaints
16:57:20  that fair housing council of Oregon has received.

16:57:22 With that I'll kick it back over to Allan.

16:57:28 Thank you for giving me time to present the data, it's pretty
16:57:30  interesting stuff.

16:57:33 >> I'll turn it over to Breonne and the team, I want to make sure
16:57:36  that folks who have comments will make those here.

16:57:39 There are other pieces to talk about, we're happy to pick this conversation up another time.
16:57:41 

16:57:44 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: We only have a few minutes if anyone has
16:57:47  any questions or comments.

16:57:47 Barb?

16:57:48 >> Hi, thanks for the presentation.

16:57:52 I asked about getting a
16:57:54  copy of your audit report at the beginning of the meeting.

16:57:58 I would have found it helpful to have followed along with the
16:57:59  printed material.

16:58:02 Can you maybe email that to 
16:58:04 us?

16:58:07 >> ALLAN LAZO: Yeah, we can send it
16:58:09  to the bureau.

16:58:14 >> You've said before you have 13 to 1500 cases or complaints
16:58:17  a year and just now you
16:58:21  said 20% are race,
16:58:23  where you've advocated for resolution.

16:58:25 So that's about 300.

16:58:28 Can you talk to how you advocate for
16:58:33  resolution, please?
16:58:33 

16:58:38 >> Resolutions can be done in a number of different
16:58:41  forms that can take place in terms of informal negotiations
16:58:44  with landlords where essentially we will say
16:58:47  that the landlord, if you don't reform your conduct, you may be
16:58:51  facing a fair housing allegation filed with the State
16:58:52  agency.

16:58:55 And that might lead to the landlord changing
16:58:56  their conduct.

16:58:59 That's one form of mediation that we engage 
16:59:02 in, which we consider to be informal advocacy,
16:59:05  because we're not actually filing something with the State
16:59:07  agency or in Federal Court.

16:59:11 We also have the power to
16:59:14  file complaints with BULI or
16:59:17  HUD and help support individuals through those investigation processes and 
16:59:20 BULI can come back and find for probable
16:59:23  cause that discrimination has occurred which could lead to
16:59:27  further conciliation and actual
16:59:30  awards of money or other kinds of
16:59:31  settlements through the State agency.

16:59:35 And we have the authority to file complaints
16:59:38  directly in Federal Court if we want to or more
16:59:42  often, more commonly,
16:59:45  to coordinate with external counsel, so a private attorney or
16:59:48  an attorney outside the agency to help file
16:59:51  a complaint in Federal District Court
16:59:55  or in State Court.
16:59:56 

17:00:01 Those are some of the ways we engage in informal advocacy in terms of filing complaints.
17:00:02 

17:00:06 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thanks, Matt.

17:00:11 Mara, we're at 5:00.

17:00:13 So let's do some fast talking.

17:00:15 >> I'm always coming down to the wire here.

17:00:16 Thank you so much for that presentation.

17:00:18 It was super informative.

17:00:21 That's exactly the kind of information I think this committee wants
17:00:24  and needs and feels like will inform our work going 
17:00:25 forward.

17:00:28 I just wanted to throw out there, because I feel like
17:00:31  we've talked about it in this committee before, around like
17:00:34  disability being one of the more common things that gets
17:00:37  reported, and also can sort of be I guess
17:00:41  bona fide allegation or whatever
17:00:42  Matt called it there.

17:00:45 Because it's so -- oftentimes we can see that intersection very 
17:00:46 clearly, right?

17:00:49 It's like, I asked for my service animal and they said
17:00:51  we don't take service animals or something like that.

17:00:55 Or they charged a fee when they shouldn't have.

17:00:58 So yeah, I'm interested in learning more about -- and even 
17:01:01 in, Matt, those -- I can't remember what they were called, but as you went through
17:01:05  them, it was like specifically things about disability were kind of called 
17:01:05 out.

17:01:08 And again, I love my community
17:01:12  of fierce advocates, I fight for their rights all the
17:01:15  time but I want to make sure we're figuring out why is that
17:01:18  predominantly the people reaching out to fair
17:01:21  housing council and what can we do to open that up a little
17:01:22  more.

17:01:24 Thanks, guys.

17:01:27 >> I'll try to be real quick here, but there's a
17:01:30  couple of reasons for that, one of them being there are actual built-in
17:01:34  processes for persons with disabilities to make reasonable accommodation requests and things
17:01:34  of that nature.

17:01:38 So there's more of a written paper trail with a lot of
17:01:39  disability related complaints.

17:01:42 Whereas with things like race or gender or
17:01:45  some of these other protected classes, it's a
17:01:48  lot easier for landlords and housing providers to obscure the real
17:01:52  reason and provide pretexts for excuses or other reasons for why
17:01:54  they're doing what they're doing.

17:01:57 And there's not as much of a paper trail.
17:01:58 

17:02:01 It could be more he said/she said.

17:02:04 So there's underreporting and there's also a lot of what
17:02:08  I would call 
17:02:13 historical, you know, disenfranchisement or historical
17:02:17  oppression that leads to underreporting from
17:02:20  people from certain racial or
17:02:23  ethnic groups as well, which is why
17:02:26  you see a higher percentage for disability, which
17:02:29  may not be a reflection that disability is the absolute 
17:02:29 leader.

17:02:32 It may just be that some of the other things are
17:02:36  harder to prove.
17:02:36 

17:02:38 >> BREONNE DEDECKER: Thanks, fair housing council of Oregon.

17:02:42 A lot to reflect on as you all
17:02:46  move forward and start thinking about refining these
17:02:47  recommendations.

17:02:50 The next full meeting of this body will be in July
17:02:53  where the presentation will focus
17:02:56  on disproportionate housing needs.
17:02:56 

17:02:58 I'm sure we'll have interesting things to talk about.

17:03:00 With that, thank you for joining us today.