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PAYTON II PAYOFF With hard work, Oregon State guard leads team — SEE SPORTS, B1 PortlandTribune TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2015 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY TRIBUNE PHOTO: VANCE W. TONG Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury is hoping that “A Home for Everyone,” the latest plan to curb homelessness, will cut the homeless population number in half by 2017. LOCAL EFFORT TO END HOMELESSNESS UNDAUNTED HOME FOR THE BY PREDECESSOR’S RESULTS HOLIDAYS — Homelessness HOMELESS PLAN hasn’t been reduced HIGHLIGHTS Among its features: in county despite ■ A push to fi nd housing for 690 AND BEYOND homeless veterans by the end of 10-year effort the year. ■ More shelters and transitional By NICK BUDNICK campgrounds. The Tribune ■ Improve health care. ABOVE: Charles ■ Make services more mobile. Adams chats as This time, says Multnomah ■ Repair program helps Portland workers build a County Chair Deborah Kaf- new wheelchair oury, a local effort to drasti- The goal this time around: to ramp on his cally cut the number of cut those numbers in half by Northeast homeless people will suc- 2017, they say. homeowners stay in their dwellings Portland home, ceed. Given that the previous effort part of a new Kafoury and Marc Jolin, did not end homelessness, Kaf- By JIM REDDEN city program to head of a city-county housing oury is aware that the public The Tribune help longtime initiative, have been meeting may be skeptical of the latest residents keep with members of the local me- one. But she says this effort will “It’s a wonderful thing. I living in their dia to build public support and benefi t from better technology, can’t get out of my house. neighborhoods. momentum for a $3-million a broader coalition, and an in- They’re saving me,” says LEFT: The labor boost in spending on housing creased focus on shelters to Charles Adams, who is 68 and and materials and services in the area. They help homeless people find a disabled. for Adams’ ramp face plenty of challenges in the safe place to escape the ele- Work is underway on a new initiative, which Kaf- ments. was donated by city program to help homeown- oury ticks off one-by- The effort received a generous ers like Adams, in gentrifying one: Skyrocketing “We’ve got major boost in Septem- parts of town, remain in their partners with rents. Low housing va- ber when Mayor Char- homes. the REACH cancy rates. Stagnant these tidal lie Hales, then running Last Wednesday, workers nonprofi t wages. waves for reelection, declared were building a wheelchair organizations. Economically, she a housing emergency ramp and replacing siding on TRIBUNE PHOTO: says, “We’ve got these coming at and joined with Kaf- Adams’ house in the 5200 block JONATHAN HOUSE tidal waves coming at us.” oury to commit to of Northeast 15th Avenue. us.” — Deborah spending $30 million in Adams was born and raised There’s another Kafoury, the coming year, with in Portland. As a child, he sur- challenge: recent his- Multnomah $20 million coming vived the Vanport Flood that de- tory. County Chair from the city. The fund- stroyed all the homes of Port- WHO GETS In 2004, as part of a ing will support a city- land’s largest African-American THE GRANTS? federal-led effort, the county plan launched community at the time. In addition to city and county under her processor, “They were washed away like REACH, other launched what was dubbed “A Jeff Cogen: A Home for Every- matchboxes. I was mad at my fa- nonprofi ts 10-year plan to end homeless- one: a United Community Plan ther because he wouldn’t go receiving the ness in Portland and Mult- to End Homelessness for Port- back and rescue my goldfi sh,” repair grant nomah County.” land/Multnomah County. funds include: he remembers. Rebuilding Officials say it connected Jolin, a longtime housing ac- Adams has lived in the North- Together, 12,500 people with housing. But tivist, says there’s been a lot of east Portland house since 1981 Unlimited more than a decade later, de- talk in the public sphere: “Do and says the repairs should en- Choices, spite greater funding and focus, we have a plan, do we have a able him to stay there until he Portland the number of people without strategy?” dies. Community housing in the county hasn’t He says the detailed action “After that, my children will Reinvestment noticeably changed, Kafoury plans prepared by the leaders have it, and I hope they keep it Initiiative, and acknowledges. According to the of the A Home for Everyone ini- Community so they will always have a house Energy Project. federal government, the county tiative should settle the ques- in the city,” he said. Each organiza- has about 4,000 people who are tion. “It goes beyond what we Adams could not afford the tion receives homeless. Meanwhile, a home- did in the 10-year plan and $9,500 the city is spending on his $500 to admin- less count in January found ap- builds on it ... It addresses a ister each grant. proximately 1,880 people who wider range of issues.” See REPAIRS / Page 2 were sleeping without shelter, according to Jolin. [email protected] Rachel Robinson and Joseph Tourists will help pay Culhane are among more than 2,000 Portland Airbnb hosts. The city’s for affordable housing share of lodging taxes collected dedicated to the fund, which currently from hosts will Airbnb units remove housing stock, gets about $600,000 a year from loan now be set aside repayments. The fund balance is cur- for affordable rently only $1 million. housing projects. so lodging taxes will help replace it The Portland Housing Bureau hopes TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO to leverage the new revenue stream to By STEVE LAW removed from the market. sell a bond measure next year that The Tribune By a 4-1 vote, the Portland City could raise $12 million to $30 million for Council agreed Wednesday to dedicate new affordable housing, says bureau Out-of-town visitors staying in at least $1.2 million a year in lodging Director Kurt Creager. Airbnb rentals will help replace taxes from short-term rentals to the The city has an estimated 24,000-unit some of the affordable housing city’s Housing Investment Fund. That stock those short-term rentals have will triple the amount of annual funds See TAXES / Page 3 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that refl ects the POWELL’S PICS stories of our communities. Thank you Inside — SEE LIFE, PAGE B10 for reading our newspapers.” — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Tuesday, December 22, 2015 Ruling deals blow to liquor inspectors’ bid to carry guns Judge fi nds OLCC inspectors aren’t cops and don’t deserve their own union By NICK BUDNICK The Tribune An administrative judge has dealt a blow to an effort by the state’s liquor in- spectors to carry guns on the job. Julie Reading, an administrative law judge for the state Employment Relations Board, has issued a tentative ruling rejecting a bid by a group calling itself the Oregon Liquor Control Commission Peace Officers Associa- tion to form its own union to win the right to bear firearms in their work. Currently, OLCC inspectors have the pow- er to detain suspects, make arrests and issue citations pertaining to liquor law violations. They carry pepper spray, handcuffs, batons and large flashlights. They wear a badge and can don body armor if they want to. TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE Now they’re taking on major new responsi- Gentrifi cation pressures are apparent along Adams’ street as workers complete a contemporary residential infi ll project just two doors away. bilities as OLCC takes on an oversight role of recreational marijuana sales . But that’s not enough to justify forming their own union, Reading wrote in her Dec. 16 recommended ruling. The group believed Repairs: that forming its own union would be the best Labor, materials donated way to bargain with OLCC management over whether they should be armed — just like ■ grants; $2.4 million to help fi rst-time regular law enforcement officers. From page 1 Portland among least affordable cities homebuyers; $2.6 million to create Right now, the same union represents in- The bad news about Portland’s housing costs continued last week when affordable ownership homes; $4.5 spectors and other employees: Council 75 of house. When his insurance compa- Apartment List reported that 57 percent of city renters were “cost-burdened” in million to create affordable rental Oregon AFSCME, the American Federation ny threatened to cancel his home- 2014, among the highest percentage of any major American city. homes; $3.5 million to redevelop one of County, State and Municipal Employees. owners’ coverage, he contacted Renters and homeowners are considered cost-burdened if they pay more 30 or more publicly owned affordable The inspectors, however, enlisted the help REACH, a Portland nonprofi t percent of their income for housing. Nationwide, that share rose from 49.3 per- housing property; and $3 million to of a national group, the Fraternal Order of whose Community Builders Pro- cent to 53.4 percent last year. But in Portland the increase was greater — it buy land for future development. Police, to bid to form their own union. They gram repairs around 200 homes a jumped from 51.1 percent to 57 percent of renters. City offi cials admit the $20 million argued that their job has evolved to being year so their owners can continue Surprisingly, Portland’s share is higher than many cities with higher average is not enough to completely mitigate very similar to police, and the anti-strike rents, including San Francisco (42.5 percent), Seattle (46 percent), Boston living in them.