Two Portland housing development projects that have become a “political football” in recent months crossed into the end zone after city councilors finally approved their funding.
In a 10-2 vote Wednesday, June 3, Portland City Council allocated $2.5 million in city funds to two homeownership development projects: one at the corner of Northeast Williams and Russell streets, and another project led by Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI), in North Portland.
The route to funding the projects was punctuated by obstacles. For months, the process was one of political and personal allegiances, something District 2 Councilor Sameer Kanal and District 1 Councilor Loretta Smith separately said made a “political football” out of homeownership opportunities for Black Portlanders.
Allocating funding to the specific projects is part of an ongoing process to address the city’s past harms against Black Portlanders, particularly in the Albina neighborhood. The Williams and Russell project sits across from Legacy Emanuel Hospital, and blocks from Interstate 5. Those projects dispossessed and displaced generations of Black Portlanders in the 1960s and 1970s.
Officials have clashed over whether to address those past policies by granting money to nonprofits ad hoc, without a formal bidding process, or by implementing systems that are less likely to fluctuate based on who holds a seat on the City Council.
“I care about longevity, I care about systems, and I care about equity,” District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos told the Mercury June 2. She also chairs the city’s Housing and Permitting Committee.
Avalos said the projects themselves are of clear value to the community, but how the city decides what projects are funded should have a clear and equitable process.
“We can set up a future where it’s easy for these projects to get funded, because they will qualify, because we’ve created systems where they will,” Avalos said.
In a meeting regarding funding for the projects in April, Smith—whose outspoken and fervent support for the projects led to fireworks during city budget discussions—said her commitment was to building homeownership opportunities for Black Portlanders who have a notably lower rate of homeownership than white and Asian Portlanders.
“That’s the problem,” Smith said. “That’s why I want to give SEI and give Williams and Russell this money. So that Black folks can also own homes in this city that they pay taxes to. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.”
Smith first advocated for SEI as a lobbyist
Multiple councilors raised concerns about the grants, saying the process was inconsistent and there was little transparency about the projects.
“Without an established process, there is no guarantee that these dollars are going to be getting into the hands of community members in the future,” District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo said before casting her “no” vote on June 3. “It is going to be based on the whims of whoever is sitting in these seats.”
Morillo and Avalos voted against Wednesday’s ordinance, citing process issues and a concern that councilors could be handing millions in taxpayer funding to people they know.
The assertions are not unfounded. State records show Smith was registered as a lobbyist for SEI from 2023 through 2025. Prior to that, she represented SEI in partnership with the afterschool program network OregonASK to lobby for funds from the State Legislature in 2020. Smith confirmed to the Mercury June 3 that she had worked on behalf of SEI and other organizations, including Latino Network, NAYA, and others. She has also been registered as a lobbyist for Albina Vision Trust, Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, Bridge Meadows, and REAP Inc., according to state records.
“I’ve gotten all sorts of money for a number of community-based organizations,” Smith said. “I don’t have a relationship with those folks anymore, and not a private relationship. But as long as I am here, as long as I’m in this seat, I’m going to make sure that our community-based organizations of color, that they get the same opportunities that affluent developers get.”
She added that communities of color need opportunities to build wealth, saying rent assistance is not enough in the long term.
“Homeownership changed the trajectory of my life when I was raising my son as a single mother,” Smith said. “Buying my first home was my pivot out of poverty. It provided us with a little bit of stability and opportunity that my son is going to be able to benefit from.”
The SEI project will receive $1.5 million to help with the second phase of a project bringing 49 units, including townhouses and duplexes, plus wetland restoration to 13th Avenue near the Columbia River, according to draft plans. The Williams and Russell project will receive $1 million toward the construction of 85 affordable one- to three-bedroom units, a daycare, as well as 20 townhomes, and a business hub.
The developers will be required to go through a grant agreement process before receiving the funds. Projects will need to serve households earning at or below 120 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), and prioritize households earning 60 to 80 percent AMI. It also requires the projects to increase access for first-time homebuyers, and to do culturally appropriate marketing outreach to potential homebuyers.
The projects themselves enjoy broad support from local organizations, including the Coalition of Communities of Color, the Welcome Home Coalition, the Portland Metro Chamber, and others. That support stayed intact, despite high tensions and councilors’ noticeable blitz to claim credit for funding them.
The Metro Chamber’s president and CEO, Andrew Hoan, vocally supported the two projects in public testimony in late May. One of a handful of guests invited to speak in support of the project, Hoan said the projects expand affordable housing for Black Portlanders, and multi-generational wealth building requires new development and homeownership. He said the organizations leading the projects should be trusted to deliver.
“They are outstanding partners that will be good stewards of these resources,” Hoan said. “We have the highest regard for their work and for their commitment to excellence. They should have our community and this Council’s full confidence. They have earned our trust.”
Initial proposal would have cut into social housing funds
The funding for both projects will come from the city’s construction excise tax, rather than a new social housing revolving loan fund, as initially proposed by Smith.
Pulling money from that fund was a sticking point, as councilors and supporters of social housing efforts were unwilling to grant money from a new fund meant to address affordable housing and other tenets of social housing in the long term.
Avalos told the Mercury that social housing efforts ideally offer sustainable community infrastructure beyond the housing itself. And the revolving loan fund balance will increase over time to generate further opportunities to fund other projects.
“I wanted to create a system where we could build on these dollars, which is what a revolving loan fund does,” Avalos said. “But also create some standards for how we can get these projects funded.”
Avalos said racial justice is built into social housing strategies, including through the city’s Unified Housing Strategy she cosponsored last year. She was among a small group of councilors who traveled to Austria last year on a fact-finding trip to see how social housing has transformed Vienna. Avalos has been an ardent proponent of the model, which she said helps bring robust infrastructure and generational stability.
“It creates stability where you can not only age in place but you can wage in place,” Avalos said. “You can increase your wage, increase your economic prosperity, and not worry that by increasing your wage you’re risking your housing.”
Significant ideological differences have become clear in repeated discussions about how to address the city’s affordable housing crisis, which disproportionately impacts marginalized Portlanders. Councilors spoke often of a need to compromise, and political alignments held firm until the final vote.
“While I think that there were some shenanigans that held this process hostage, unfortunately for strange reasons, if I’m ever held hostage I hope the negotiator is Loretta Smith, because I’ll be free.” Zimmerman joked after the first reading of the proposal that moved it on to a final vote. “It might take some time, but I’ll be free.”
Same policy with different branding fetches new votes
The result of those negotiations came exactly a week after the City Council failed to reach enough votes on identical legislation, proposed by Kanal as an amendment to Mayor Keith Wilson’s draft budget.
As with the June 3 ordinance, that proposal would have used the construction excise tax funds to allocate $2.5 million to the projects. But as was common throughout the budget process, councilors cast votes along ideological lines.
Kanal’s amendment failed in a 6-5 vote on May 20. Councilors Morillo, Avalos, Kanal, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Mitch Green, and Jamie Dunphy voted yes to fund the projects. Councilors Dan Ryan, Steve Novick, Olivia Clark, Zimmerman, and Smith voted no. Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney was absent. The next week, every councilor who did not vote for Kanal’s amendment—with the exception of Novick—cosponsored the new iteration of the ordinance.
Smith said she had been working on her own ordinance, and didn’t want to vote for a quick amendment without having all the details.
“It was a compromise that—I think it worked,” Smith said. “But he had not let me know about that before he dropped it.”
Opportunities to fund the projects were available as early as January, but political maneuvers delayed the funding for months. In December 2025, all three District 1 councilors—Smith, Avalos, and Dunphy—introduced the “Slow the Inflow” resolution to allocate unspent Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) funds to rent assistance and eviction defense.
But Zimmerman brought a competing ordinance through the Finance Committee, which included the $2.5 million for the SEI and Williams and Russell projects, while also redirecting $5.6 million in funding to Prosper Portland’s Broadway Corridor affordable housing project. At the same time, Smith was in charge of drafting an ordinance that would align with the Slow the Inflow resolution, but Avalos said the language started to diverge from the initial resolution.
Still, changes in the confirmed amount of unbudgeted Housing Bureau balances created uncertainty, and Dunphy tabled the legislation indefinitely. The Housing Bureau balances also offered opportunities for everyone to get a win. The legislation morphed into the “Keep Portland Housed” package during April’s routine budget adjustment, and ultimately passed. It created a $17.5 million revolving loan fund for social housing and permanent public ownership, rent assistance, and other affordable housing developments.
Smith’s efforts to fund the projects through the social housing dollars failed to garner enough support for Williams and Russell, or SEI. Avalos voted no on that and other development projects, saying she was committed to a system-based approach to housing equity.
“What are we building if we’re going to continue to make decisions this way, project by project, based on who gets brought forward?” Avalos said in the meeting. “That’s not a system, that is decision-making based on access and timing, and I am not willing to call that equity. Equity has to mean that there is a pathway, clear, consistent, and accessible for everyone.”
For months, deciding where the money would come from, and whether city councilors should hand pick developers to fund, became sticking points for the city’s legislative body. Now, regardless of who takes credit for it, new affordable homeownership opportunities are available in a neighborhood where the city’s government has repeatedly fumbled policies that affect Black Portlanders.
