Six Month Reflection: Spring Forward

Blog Post

Published

March 17, 2021 5:14 pm

March 17, 2021

Dear Friends,

So much has happened in our city and across the country in the last six months. Together and collectively we have experienced and endured a lot. In my role as City Commissioner, one significant change has been the composition of our current City Council. In January, we welcomed Commissioner Mingus Mapps and Commissioner Carmen Rubio—two community-centered leaders with lived experience and strong moral compasses. They both add so much value to the tapestry of our diverse council team and I look forward to working closely with them.

Hope for a brighter future has been the driving force behind my service to the city I love. I ran for this position to bring people together, build bridges, and address the many issues our city faces. I am staying true to my promise, and I am proud of what I have accomplished with my team so far.

As a relentless advocate for strategic focus, alignment, and action--I was pleased to encourage our City Council to identify three top priorities—Houselessness, Economic Recovery, and Community Safety. These priorities are directly connected to my portfolio assignments—the Bureau of Development Services, the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and the Portland Housing Bureau. It has only been six months, and we are delivering results.

Houselessness and Community Safety

As we respond to the houselessness crisis, we clearly need more options for managed shelters with health and wellness services. To that end, I convened meetings with Mayor Wheeler, Multnomah County Chair Kafoury, and County Commissioner Meieran to find ways to expand creative shelter capacity. As a result, the Joint Office of Homeless Services is now seeking to invest up to $3 million in new, innovative creative shelter solutions through a public Request For Programmatic Qualifications, ensuring desperately needed shelter capacity expansion by the end of the year.

We also agreed to launch a “Safe Park” Program—to provide a safe, legal place to park for people experiencing homelessness and living out of their vehicles. This program will have two components—one for those who have recently become houseless and need a safe place to park for the night; the other will be for those who have been living out of their automobiles or RVs for longer periods of time. Both options will offer families and individuals safety, stability, and better access to services.

Houselessness is a complex issue and requires many complex solutions. While I am always going to keep working on new policies and practices to improve concrete outcomes for our houseless neighbors—one of our biggest challenges is improving the fundamental system we currently have. I will focus my efforts on the following areas: breaking down service-delivery silosto improve efficiency and amplifying data to measure what matters.

My office has convened a “City Council Streets to Stability Task Force,” which brings staff from all council offices together to find common solutions and work across bureaus to coordinate a response to the crisis. The goal is to sort issues out directly and leverage knowledge and capacity for a unified impact.

I believe we need to improve the way we utilize data to get results, which is why one of the first meetings I took as a City Commissioner was with Community Solutions, a nationally renowned organization with a proven track record of helping communities improve how they use data in response to chronic houselessness. After five months of engagement, I am excited to announce we formalized a partnership between Community Solutions and the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

This partnership will provide accurate information about where we are—and where we are going. It will give us the ability to learn each of our houseless neighbors by name—and track how they engage with each aspect of our continuum of care. We also need to understand which of our investments are working, and which are not. Community Solutions will be a key part of the solution in the long-term.

Economic Recovery

Our city was resourceful, responsible, and quick to act when COVID-19 forced businesses to shut down last spring--and then again last fall. Businesses have been nimble through it all. We now need to match that sense of urgency with a thoughtful and swift response to help our businesses re-open safely.

To that end, I’ve been working with the Bureau of Development Services (BDS) on innovative ways to stimulate the economy by reducing barriers to generate much-needed revenue. On March 3, Council unanimously approved an emergency ordinance that temporarily makes it easier for businesses in commercial districts with design overlay zones to install exterior lighting and roll-down security gates at the entrances of buildings. Now, until the end of the Mayor’s declared COVID emergency, businesses can go straight to getting a building permit without a design review, saving design review fees and valuable time in the process.

In April, I will support another ordinance to temporarily ease requirements in the City’s zoning code to help Portland’s small businesses adapt to the way people want to shop, work, and do business during this phase of the pandemic. The proposed ordinance will relax restrictions on the businesses people operate out of their homes and allow more businesses like barbershops and fitness centers to move operations outside.

The current economic downturn also highlights the important connection between the City’s permitting process and the overall economy. Permitting services support a vibrant, healthy Portland by providing jobs and keeping the construction sector working, increasing housing supply, assisting homeowners wishing to make changes to their homes, helping new businesses to open, supporting existing businesses as they navigate the pandemic, and more.

People often assume BDS only provides services to big businesses—this is not the case. They support small businesses, homeowners, and affordable housing developments at a high rate—impacting the stability of multiple City revenue streams. It is within the community’s best interest to provide timely and efficient permitting services—yet for years, many would say permitting in Portland has been slow, unpredictable, inconsistent, and at times, unpleasant.

Another common misconception is that BDS is the only source for permitting review and approval—but, in fact, the work is done through a partnership between BDS, Portland Fire & Rescue, and the Bureaus of Environmental Services, Housing, Parks & Recreation, Transportation, and Water. As such, we assembled a Permit Streamlining & Accountability Task Force with representatives from alldevelopment review bureaus, the Development Review Advisory Committee, and other stakeholders. The time is now to collectively tackle chronic permitting challenges.

And now, as we see the first hint of spring—signs of relief are also emerging. Vaccinations are up, and COVID-19 cases are down. There is more light, brighter skies, and a sense of hope in the air. For me, hope is an action. Hope fueled my daily walks to the winter homeless shelter during the community’s most dangerous stretch of severe winter weather in years last month. There I witnessed kindness, compassion, and evidence of what is possible when people unite and commit to serve for the greater good. I am inspired by the action of hope—and the opportunity to do truly meaningful work with all of you. I am confident and well suited for this challenging role. My life experience led me to this chapter of service, and I am grateful to be your Commissioner, in the city I love.

Warmly,

Image removed. Dan Ryan