FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mayor Wheeler Introduces Four Notable Items in City Council This Week
This week’s agenda includes PS3’s, affordable housing and plastics reduction.
Item 1251: Public Safety Support Specialists (PS3s)
Functionally, this ordinance would ratify a tentative agreement with the Portland Police Association, ultimately clearing the path for the Portland Police Bureau to post the position.
The vision of the PS3s is a part of the Mayor’s vision around community policing. Fundamentally, PS3s will assist PPB in responding to non-emergency calls that do not require police authority, such as responding to car theft or delivering food boxes to a family in need. Hiring more PS3s means that the City increases the bandwidth of officers to engage the community and more time to do more than run from call to call.
INFO ON SPECIFIC DUTIES:
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Item 1240: Single-Use Plastics Restriction
This ordinance will reduce use of single-use plastics, including plastic straws. This policy also addresses cutlery (plastic utensils) and condiment packaging, specifically for delivery/fast food scenarios. The rule would go into effect July 1, 2019.
Item 1246: Affordable Housing
This ordinance will fund construction of King Parks Apartments, a new affordable multifamily housing development located in the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area, creating 70 additional units of affordable housing, mostly targeted for N/NE Preference Policy families.
The project focuses on households who are formerly homeless or at homelessness, as well as survivors of domestic violence.
Item 1247: Affordable Housing
This ordinance will fund the rehabilitation of the Henry Building, an affordable multifamily housing development located in the Downtown Water Front Urban Renewal Area, adding 173 extremely low barrier housing units to the City’s affordable housing portfolio.
The Henry serves a high needs population many of whom receive supportive services and/or are transitioning from homelessness.
Items 1227, 1228 and 1229: Affordable Housing
Together, these ordinance will insure that three new apartment buildings, which will provide 134 units of new rental housing, will also provide 13 units of affordable housing. Three units will be affordable to households earning up to 60% of median family income and the remaining 10 will be affordable to households earning up to 80% of median family income for 99 years, as part of the Inclusionary Housing Program.
These projects will join the other 37 private sector projects in the Inclusionary Housing permit approval pipeline, making a minimum of 276 units affordable in otherwise market-rate developments.
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