Up for Debate: Metro's Affordable Housing Bond Measure
Metro's role has evolved from transportation and land-use planning to the oversight and coordination of many of the region's most important institutions—including the Oregon Zoo, the Oregon Convention Center, and Portland's Centers for the Arts. With this $652.8 million bond measure, Metro dives deep into the affordable housing crisis facing our region.
Is Metro up for the challenge? Can it equitably help all three counties—Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas—provide more safe, affordable, and comfortable housing to low-income families? And does this bond measure complement or confuse other efforts to provide affordable housing?
Join us as we debate the pros and cons of Metro's affordable housing bond measure.
Vote Yes
Lynn Peterson has been recognized as a national expert in land use and transportation for the last 30 years. She works to find innovative ways to build safe, healthy, and equitable communities. Peterson is President-elect of the Portland region’s Metro Council and will take office in January 2019. From 2013-2016, Peterson served as the CEO (Secretary) of the Washington State Department of Transportation. Prior to her position for Governor Inslee, Peterson served for Oregon Governor Kitzhaber as his Senior Transportation and Sustainability Policy Advisor, where she oversaw transportation-energy policy, statewide transportation funding discussions, and the implementation of community priorities. Peterson previously served as the first-elected Chair of the Clackamas County Commission and on the Lake Oswego City Council.
Shannon Singleton is the Executive Director at JOIN, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon that provides street outreach and housing placement support to individuals and families experiencing homelessness in its many forms. Before coming to Portland, she worked to help people in Philadelphia, Taos, New Mexico, and in Los Angeles. Here in Portland, Singleton has served as the Director at Salvation Army Female Emergency Shelter, Program Manager at Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, and Program Coordinator at the Portland Housing Bureau. She has also served on the Welcome Home Coalition Steering Committee, Portland Housing Advisory Commission, the Home for Everyone Coordinating Board, and the Executive Committee that passed the historic Yes for Affordable Homes measure in 2016. She is also an instructor in the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University.
Vote No
Andy Duyck has been a Washington County commissioner for 24 years and County Chair for the last eight. In this position he also serves as Chair of the Washington County housing board. In 1983, he founded a manufacturing business, Duyck Machine Inc., which produces metal and plastic components that are marketed throughout the country.
Dr. Gerard Mildner is an Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance at Portland State University, with a PhD in economics from New York University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. He founded the Master of Real Estate Development program at PSU and has written several articles and books about housing policy and growth management.
Moderator
Karol Collymore is the senior manager of community impact at Nike, secretary of the Cascade AIDS Project board of directors, and the former executive director of the Equity Foundation