PDX Agenda Tracker: Ban the Bots, Fund the Future | April 3-4, 2025
Portland takes aim at algorithmic rent hikes, explores social housing alternatives, launches new urban renewal areas, and reckons with climate justice and public-private power plays.
Dear Readers,
After last week’s jam-packed Agenda Tracker, this week is thankfully lighter—but that doesn’t mean there’s no critical work happening. While I’m on the subject of length, I want to acknowledge how overwhelming the volume of information can be—and commit to managing it better on my end. I’ll aim to keep these posts closer to 2,000 words and publish more frequently instead of cramming too much into one issue. That may mean being more selective about what I include, but I want readers to feel informed and energized, not overwhelmed.
I’m especially encouraged by two housing-related items coming before the City Council. Both represent a shift from predatory, extractive practices toward a vision of housing as a human right. One directs the City to study public, cooperative, and other non-market housing models—a long-overdue move that could lay the groundwork for social housing in Portland. The other would ban anti-competitive rental practices, including the use of algorithmic rent-setting tools that have been shown to inflate rents and function as a form of corporate price-fixing. Unsurprisingly, the landlord lobby is working hard to kill this ordinance. Please get in touch with your Council representatives and let them know you support this commonsense step toward housing justice.
Last week, I provided a general overview of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts. Later this week, I’ll dig into the implementation process for Portland’s six newly established TIF districts. As I noted, we urgently need anti-displacement protections embedded in the City’s overall TIF policy framework. While that hasn’t happened, there are still opportunities to add them to the individual plans. I want to ensure Street Wonk readers are ready to show up and speak out when they arise.
Finally, I hope to see many of you at the Hands Off! rally and march this Saturday. We need to show Washington—and the world—that Portland won’t sit quietly while the far right tries to roll back hard-won rights and destroy our democracy. Let’s keep showing up—for housing, for justice, and for each other.
With Love, Hope & Solidarity,
Chloe
Hello! If you’ve been thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, now’s the time! If money is tight, I encourage you to take advantage of the budget option $3/month or $30/year. If you’re doing alright, I hope you’ll subscribe at the standard rate $6/month or $60/year. And if your finances are out of sight, may I suggest a sustainer-level subscription at $100/year?Portland City Council
Wednesday, April 2nd | 9:30am
Consent Agenda
6-11: Create Six New Tax Increment Financing District Debt Service Funds. These were detailed in last week’s Agenda Tracker.
Time Certain
5: City Administrator Report (Presentation) This is the first in a series of monthly updates from the City Administrator to the City Council. The goal is to keep the Council informed with high-level updates on city operations. These briefings will be shared at the first Council meeting each month and may evolve over time to better meet the needs of both the Council and the public.
Regular Agenda
15: Require the City Administrator to study alternative housing financing and ownership models and deliver a report of findings to Council (Resolution). The City Council will vote on whether to direct the City Administrator to research non-market housing models—including public, cooperative, and community-owned housing—and report back by February 2026. This resolution marks a shift toward exploring social housing as a long-term strategy for affordability, stability, and decommodification of housing in Portland.
While this is just a study, not an implementation plan, it’s a significant step toward breaking our dependence on speculative, profit-driven development. The timeline is slow, but the vision is promising.
Take Action
We’re in year 15 of an affordable housing crisis. Contact your Councilors to express support, urge inclusion and prioritization of tenant-led, land trust, and co-op voices, and ask for a faster timeline.
Provide written or oral testimony to the City Council.
Further Reading
Portland council members want city to consider backing 'social housing' (KGW)
A Plan to Solve the Housing Crisis Through Social Housing (People’s Policy Project)
The social housing secret: how Vienna became the world’s most livable city (The Guardian)
16: Amend Affordable Housing Code to add prohibition of anti-competitive rental practices, including the sale and use of algorithmic devices (add Code Section 30.01.088) (Ordinance). City Council will vote on a new section of the Affordable Housing Code that bans anti-competitive rental practices, including using and selling algorithmic rent-setting software like RealPage’s YieldStar. These tools allow landlords to share private rent data and coordinate pricing—behavior that closely resembles price-fixing and has been shown to inflate rents artificially.
This practice is currently under federal investigation by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and some of the landlords and property management firms opposing Portland’s ordinance are named in that investigation.
If adopted, Portland would join a growing number of cities acting to curb this exploitative practice—a rare local check on corporate tools that treat housing like a commodity rather than a basic human need.
Take Action
Contact your Council members and urge them to vote YES!
Provide written or oral testimony pushing back against landlord lobbyists defending anti-competitive pricing.
Support tenant organizations demanding transparency and fairness in the rental market.
Further Reading
City Council’s First Policy Ordinance Could Ban Use of AI Software to Set Rents (Willamette Week)
Rent Going Up? One Company’s Algorithm Could Be Why. (ProPublica)
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Multnomah County Board of Commissioners
Thursday, April 3rd | 9:30am
Regular Agenda
R.4: Briefing on the Public Discussion Draft of the Climate Justice Plan. Multnomah County is presenting the public discussion draft of its Climate Justice Plan—a community-driven roadmap that centers racial equity, health, and resilience in the face of climate change. The plan lays out broad goals: clean air and water, affordable energy, safe housing, food security, and accessible transportation — all through the lens of environmental justice.
This is not the final plan, but a draft meant for public feedback. While the vision is strong, the next phase must focus on concrete strategies, enforceable policies, and direct investment in frontline communities. Public engagement will determine whether this plan leads to meaningful change or remains aspirational.
Take Action
Submit oral and/or written testimony here.
Watch for public comment opportunities between now and June.
Further Reading
Metro Council
Tuesday, April 1st | 10:30 AM
Nothing of note for Street Wonk this week. Council will adjourn to a work session.10:30am: Community Connector Transit Study—Policy Framework and Vision Considerations (Work Session). Metro is holding a work session to explore long-term policy goals and vision for its Community Connector Transit Study—an effort to improve transit service in areas with limited or no current options, especially in suburban and rural parts of the region. The study evaluates flexible, community-driven transit models (think on-demand shuttles, microtransit, or expanded coverage routes) that could connect people to jobs, services, and existing transit lines.
This is a chance to rethink how transit investments can serve historically underserved communities—but the devil will be in the details. Will these systems be public and union-staffed or contracted out to private firms? Will equity, climate, and affordability drive decision-making, or will cost-efficiency win out?
Take Action
Livestream the workshop here.
Read Metro’s Community Connector Study and urge your Metro Councilor to prioritize public, accessible, and climate-resilient transit models. Call for frontline communities to be meaningfully included in service design and push back against efforts to privatize core public services like transit.
Further Reading
Thursday, April 3rd | 10:30 AM
10:30am: Public-Private Partnerships Workshop (Metro Council and MERC Joint Workshop). Metro and the Metro Exposition and Recreation Commission (MERC) are holding a joint workshop to discuss the use of public-private partnerships (P3s) across the region. These arrangements—where public agencies team up with private developers or corporations—are often framed as innovative and efficient. But without strong public oversight, they can shift control of public assets into private hands, prioritize profit over equity, and undermine long-term community goals.
This workshop could shape how Metro approaches major projects, including venue management, housing, and infrastructure. Now is the time to push for transparency, enforceable community benefits, and public-first planning principles.
Take Action
Livestream the workshop here.
Urge your Metro councilor to oppose any P3s that lack enforceable affordability, labor, or anti-displacement standards.
Further Reading
Wonk Out!
BOOKS
A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos. A sharp vision of climate action rooted in public ownership, housing justice, and racial equity.
Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State by Samuel Stein. A must-read on how real estate developers shape urban policy and what it will take to build housing for people, not profit.
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. For a wide-angle lens on how public life, land use, and housing could be reimagined beyond scarcity and hierarchy.
FILMS
Push: A powerful documentary following UN Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha as she investigates the global housing crisis and corporate landlords.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: A film unpacking the story (and political scapegoating) of public housing in St. Louis, with lessons for today’s debates around social housing.
PODCASTS
Housing After Dark from the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. Grounded stories and analysis from tenants, organizers, and researchers challenging the dominant housing narrative.
Tech Won’t Save Us: Helpful for understanding algorithmic rent-setting and the limits of techno-solutions to systemic problems.
The Dig: Podcast + occasional long reads from a left perspective, often covering housing, climate, labor, and public infrastructure.
NEWSLETTERS & BLOGS
People’s Policy Project: Matt Bruenig’s think tank is particularly good on social housing models.
In the Public Interest: Newsletter tracking privatization of public goods and fighting for democratic alternatives.
Shelterforce: Longtime housing justice publication covering policy, organizing, and tenant power across the U.S.
Hot Take: Climate + media analysis, created by Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt — brilliant takes on climate storytelling, justice, and power.