Jamey Evenstar's Questionnaire Answers

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Running for Portland City Council District 4

Question 1: In your view, what are the primary causes of the housing crisis?

The primary causes of the housing crisis are a combination of a private market that prioritizes profits over people, and governments that don't believe housing is a human right. We should have, from the beginning, considered housing to be basic infrastructure like roads and schools and resourced them to be abundant, affordable, and attainable to all ages, stages, and wages.

Question 2: What are the main policies that you would champion to address the current housing crisis?

I have a comprehensive plan for laying the foundation for a social housing future here called the Portland Community Housing Plan. But I would first focus my efforts on the kinds of tenants protections that can provide stability for tenants in both public and private market housing. The very first policy I would pursue is lowering the amount a rent can increase before it triggers Mandatory Relocation Assistance (which is a law I wrote) from 10% to 5%. Additionally, we can apply covenants and standard agreements to any public money used to finance private market housing. In exchange for rent buy downs, construction loans, SDC waivers, or other financial incentives, we can require rent control and standardized leases that do not expire.

We should also pursue a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase law which gives tenants and the City first rights to organize and purchase rental properties before they go on the open market. In my previous role at the City, I worked extensively with community partners like Living Cully to draft a proposal.. To update the proposal for 2027, a city revolving loan fund could be used to help resident cooperatives and nonprofit housing providers purchase for-sale housing in order to prevent the displacement of current residents and permanently protect properties as part of Portland’s social housing ecosystem. You can see more of the housing policies I would champion on my website at www.evenstarforportland.com.

Question 3: Provide an explanation of your work around the policies listed above, and why you believe they are important?

I have been a member of Portland Tenant's United since it began (member card #5!) and have been paying dues ever since. I helped get Chloe Eudaly elected and then became her Policy Director where I led her tenant protection agenda. I wrote and passed Mandatory Relocation in February 2017, and then spent the next two years developing a comprehensive package of screening criteria and security deposit reforms call Fair Housing in Renting that passed in 2019. I also drafted a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase policy that we weren't able to get passed before COVID. Since the passage of these policies, I've been asked to consult in other cities and states to help get similar policies passed. In some cases, other places have been able to improve upon what we started and I think we should learn from them and continue to improve our own. I believe we are at a time where housing providers are finally experiencing the consequences of the affordability crisis and are in a position to pivot toward a more stable limited profit model that relies on a less volatile financing structure. We should take advantage of the moment, create a revolving loan fund at the city, and start financing properties to require the kinds of tenant protections that we are currently pre-empted by State law from codifying outright.

Question 4: Do you rent or own your residence?

Rent

Question 5: If you own, when were you last a renter?

N/A

Question 6: In PTU’s most recent survey of tenants, harassment of tenants by landlords was one of the top issues faced by Portland tenants. What would you do to address harassment of tenants by landlords?

The first thing we need to do is figure out how we can give the City the authority to adjudicate tenant disputes. Using the court system, no matter how good the law is, won't ever work very well. If we can bring these kinds of disputes in-house, we are better able to mediate and create accountability. In-house mediation is a mechanism that could also be applied to the standard agreements we apply to public financing.

Question 7: If elected, would you advocate to overturn the State of Oregon's preemption preventing municipalities from implementing local rent control, and work towards local rent control with a lower annual increase cap?

Yes

Question 8: Please share more about your thoughts on rent control.

The current rent control amounts used at the State actually came about after we passed Relo and mimic the amount we set locally at 10%. A healthy market averages about 2%-3% annually so even 5% is being generous. I would want to establish a local rent control board that set rent control and relo amounts on an annual basis so we had a logical approach that didn't rely on shifting political winds every year.

Question 9: If elected, would you support the right of tenants to collectively bargain their leases?

Yes

Question 10: Please share more about your thoughts on tenants' right to collectively bargain.

I would love to move toward a social housing system where leases are standardized by the city and tenants collectively bargain for things like amenities and livability issues. In social housing systems like Vienna, tenant organizing is powerful so I am very interested to see what kind of powerhouse they could become here. 

Question 11: Other local tenant groups have launched a Renter’s Bill of Rights campaign. Have you pledged to support the Renter’s Bill of Rights?

No

Question 12: Please share more about your thoughts on Renter’s Bill of Rights. What are two or three policies that you are particularly passionate about?

I have not committed to the pledge yet because I continue to have concerns about the specificity of some of the policy aims, and whether some of them have any legal pathway. As the only person to have written tenant law in Portland, I don't want to make promises I don't know are possible because my endorsement comes with greater weight. I absolutely support and endorse the values behind it and would champion many of the efforts. I have also put together my own set of tenant protection policies in my Portland Community Housing Plan that you can find on my website.

Question 13: How would you ensure that policies and processes which affect tenants meaningfully include impacted renters, and reflect the diversity of the tenants affected?

Creating tenant policy in Portland taught me some very important lessons. The most important is that while tenants are a powerful group when organized as a whole, there are still disproportionate impacts experienced by people of color that should be prioritized within any organizing movement. In my role as a policy maker, I would be first listening to the voices of those most impacted, and prioritize solutions that addressed issues of racism over other solutions that impacted a broader set of tenants. My aim in policy making is to connect with community advocates early on in the process, co-create the north star goals and outcomes they want to achieve, and then work collectively to carve out the path to those outcomes. It requires that I stay agnostic to the path while staying laser focused on the goal so that I can remain open to the solutions proposed by others.

Question 14: Would you refuse or return campaign contributions from Multifamily NW's Equitable Housing PAC, The Good Landlord PAC, More Housing Now! PAC, or similar real estate industry PACs?

Yes

Question 15: Are there other ways, besides those you have already mentioned, that you will champion housing affordability, expand tenant rights, and fight displacement?

When I worked for the Bureau of Transportation, I developed a comprehensive anti-displacement framework called Building Belonging that gives project managers and planners a way to understand the risk their infrastructure projects have on market forces that could lead to gentrification. This gives the City the opportunity to mitigate the risk by redesigning the project to lessen impacts and the opportunity to plan ahead with partners and resources to anchor economically vulnerable residents to their neighborhoods of choice before high risk projects even begin.

While this toolkit was developed in PBOT, it was done in collaboration with the Bureau of Development Services and was designed to be a framework any department could use when investing in neighborhoods. I would work to implement this tool city-wide and make it an embedded component of our asset management and infrastructure development work. The new housing revolving loan fund would create opportunities to proactively pair affordable housing development with non-housing infrastructure that has the potential to drive up property values and rents.

In addition, I would consult with stakeholders to assess the successes and challenges of the NE Portland Preference Policy, in order to continue prioritizing housing opportunities in the Albina district for Black Portlanders and others whose families were directly, adversely impacted by past City actions.