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Dear Portland,
Last week the City released the results of its internal investigation into dealings with Zenith Energy. Mayor Wilson has stated that the findings “confirm that the City’s public servants continue to do the hard work of adhering to the letter of our laws.” I have not yet had the opportunity to review the nearly 300 pages of documents thoroughly. I plan to do so with my staff in the coming days to understand whether this process was truly responsive to the resolution we passed as well as the many serious concerns raised over the past several years by community and environmental groups. There have been persistent questions about transparency and process when it comes to the City’s dealings with Zenith. Given that history, and the fact that this investigation appears to have been conducted by the same City officials who oversaw the permitting in question, I will be examining these results carefully.
You can read more about the investigation results and community reaction in this piece from the Portland Mercury.
 Supporters of the Zenith resolution in City Hall in 2025
Slow the Inflow: Housing Spending Package Moved to March 5th
Council voted on February 18 to postpone the distribution of some $40 million of Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) funds. This was not an easy vote. The fact that we’re letting more Portlanders fall out of housing and onto our streets every week while the City sits on unspent dollars is unacceptable.
While we must act urgently, we also need to make sure these one-time funds are invested wisely. I have been a supporter of the “Slow The Inflow” package from the beginning. But the proposal that came before Council last week contained a number of earmarks for projects that can and should be funded from other sources. PHB dollars should fund programs we know will keep people housed: rent buy-downs for existing affordable housing, direct rent assistance, and aggressive eviction prevention.
So while I’m disappointed that this Council has yet to coalesce around a plan for these dollars, this move offers us an opportunity to craft a package that is both immediately helpful and fundamentally just.
You can read the statement from “Slow The Inflow” co-sponsor Councilor Avalos here.
Multnomah Safe Rest Village tour
On February 11 I had the opportunity to tour the Multnomah Safe Rest Village (SRV) site. What I saw there was that the City really hasn’t lived up to its end of the bargain in the Multnomah neighborhood. The neighbors I met were broadly supportive of the shelter, but issues around noise, security, and the impacts of a low-barrier shelter model in a residential area are simply not being addressed with the urgency they deserve. Concerned Multnomah residents have persistently engaged with my office, their other councilors, and the mayor, and they’ve presented us with a clear, entirely reasonable set of demands.
They’ve asked us to limit capacity at this site, and to explore splitting off low-barrier units to a more suitable nearby location. My fellow District 4 councilors and I are in agreement that the City needs to take action here. So as we head into upcoming budget negotiations, I intend to fight for the resources we’ll need to get this done.
Thanks to the organizing efforts by a group of supportive neighbors, we’re on track to make the Multnomah Safe Rest Village a success story. And that’s important because Portland needs a lot more temporary shelter sites like this one. But at the end of the day the real crisis we face is a shortage of affordable permanent housing. That’s where Social Housing comes in. Social housing is high-quality, permanently affordable housing that will serve the vast majority of working people in Portland. Learn more about our ongoing efforts to bring this transformational model here, and check out this progress report from Housing Bureau staff on our forthcoming Social Housing Study.
 Multnomah Safe Rest Village alternative shelter site
Standing with PSU Faculty
The PSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is calling on Governor Kotek to unlock emergency education funds to counter proposed cuts that would be the deepest in PSU’s history. As a PSU alum, I jumped at the opportunity to speak to AAUP members at their event on February 10. Because I know this fight is about more than jobs. It’s about students. And it’s about the future of public education in this country. What we’re seeing nationwide and here Oregon is a conscious political choice to abandon the promise of public higher education and force it to operate like a private business. I fully support the demand to unlock the state’s billion-dollar Education Stability Fund, but I also recognize that this is a short-term lifeline for a long-term problem. Finding a permanent solution is going to take a fundamental re-commitment to funding education as a public good, and to a form of university governance that values its educators.
PSU AAUP has asked councilors to support their letter urging the State Legislature take four steps:
- With the Governor, declare a "Higher Education Emergency";
- Increase Public University Support Fund appropriations;
- Expand Oregon Opportunity Grant funding; and
- Convene a workforce alignment conversation.
You can see a clip of my comments on the AAUP panel here on YouTube and Instagram.
In solidarity,
Mitch Green
Save this number: 1-888-622-1510. Call the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC) hotline to report sightings of federal officers and ICE activity in Oregon.
ICE Facility and Protest Actions: We've collected testimonies and evidence from those impacted by ICE violence. If you were harmed at a protest or have other incidents to report, please contact our office at councilor.green@portlandoregon.gov. All submissions become part of public record. Most importantly, several organizations want to build the case against federal overreach and violence, and they want to hear from you so they can help. Report concerns related to federal actions to the Oregon Department of Justice and Attorney General Dan Rayfield.
On February 16: Attorney General Dan Rayfield Submits Evidence and Arguments in Lawsuit Challenging Excessive Use of Force by Federal Agents at Portland ICE Building.
We also encourage you to use ACLU of Oregon Complaint Form to report constitutional violations. Send pictures, video, and a written account of what happened at the Macadam Facility on Saturday, January 31 (and all other dates and instances) to the National Lawyer's Guild in Portland: pdxlegalobserver@nlg.org.
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