John Branam: Strong Values, Bold Leadership

Affordable Housing

The importance of a home cannot be overstated. It is not just the place where you hang your hat; it is the foundation of your life. Studies have shown that a family’s success depends on stable—and affordable—housing. Each time a student changes schools, his or her odds of dropping out increase by 30%.

Sadly, a growing number of residents are struggling to make ends meet. Over the past several years, housing prices and cost-of-living expenses here have skyrocketed and the increasing dichotomy of wealth is leaving many people out in the cold.

It is a problem when some Portlanders pay $600 per square foot to buy a condo in the Pearl, while thousands of others struggle to afford $600 per month in rent. Oregon’s poverty rate doubled from the late 1970s to the 1990s, and the gap between the rich and poor grew four times faster than in the U.S. as a whole. Or, consider that Portland is known for its “food revolution,” with locally grown organic foods and wonderfully inventive restaurants; yet we also live in one of the “hungriest” regions in the nation, with nearly one out of three children going to bed each night after missing at least one meal during the day. I applaud the efforts of Portland Development Commission “Operation Home” and will work closely with them to further increase home ownership for Portlanders of color.

Moreover, these disparities are underscored by the financial argument for affordable housing. The cost of providing stable housing with services for a chronically homeless person is roughly $750 a month, as compared with $1,950 for a shelter bed, $3,420 for a County jail bed and $10,500 for a psychiatric hospital bed. In the long-run, supporting programs that help individuals and families acquire and keep a house help save public dollars.

Furthermore, the development of affordable housing stimulates the economy. According to the Housing Authority of Portland, every dollar in construction wages generates an additional $1.43 in wages for workers in other sectors. Furthermore, the reports explains that every dollar the State of Oregon invests in affordable housing leverages $4.33 in federal and private sector money. It is clear that affordable housing creates jobs, leverages federal and private funds and directs money into long-term stability for communities.

Solutions

Keeping Portland affordable and livable is one of the key reasons I’m running for office and it will be one of my main objectives in office. To meet this pressing problem I will pursue five primary objectives:

• First, I will help lead Portland with a collaborative and visionary leadership style that invites innovative ideas from all, while encouraging us to consider best practices from around the world. We need to encourage multi-use and denser development that is near public transportation routes.
• Second, I will cultivate public-private partnerships with leading non-profits so that we can do together what the City of Portland cannot do alone. Our city is fortunate to have dozens of strong non-profits. (I am a particular fan of the work that REACH has accomplished.) I also believe that it is important that our leaders are intimately familiar with various organizations and efforts. We need to help individuals and families achieve home ownership.
• Third, I would like to examine a city program to sponsor health care for working class families. At the very least, I want to start a conversation on this topic. San Francisco recently launched an ambitious program (which has passed muster in the federal courts) that will offer health care insurance to 100,000 residents. Understanding that unexpected health care costs are a primary reason for bumping families out of their homes and into the streets, it is essential that we provide assistance and coverage for our most vulnerable families.
• Fourth, I will work with existing city leadership to strongly support sustainable economic development initiatives that will offer more Portlanders living-wage jobs and will work to reinvigorate programs like the Housing Investment Fund that help families transition into home ownership.
• And, finally, I will champion the development of meaningful, well-articulated, and forward-thinking partnerships with our school districts, community colleges and universities, to help ensure Portland’s children of today are prepared to be Portland’s leaders of tomorrow. This final initiative is critical. In the long-term the degree to which many of Portland’s children struggle to achieve will translate, with an exponential factor, to the degree to which we are challenged as a city, ten, twenty, and thirty years from now. As tomorrow’s challenges arrive daily we will need all hands on deck with the creative and innovative solutions on the forefront of their minds.

Read more of John's thoughts on these and other issues.

Additional pages in the “ThePlatform” section

Environment

LGBTQ Rights

Education

Homelessness

Public Safety

Arts And Culture

Affordable Housing

Parks And Recreation

Transportation

Economic Development

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