Portland, OR. — Three Portland city councilors have introduced a resolution urging the Mayor to allocate roughly $21 million in unspent Rental Services Office (RSO) funds toward renter-stabilization programs, positioning the measure as an upstream strategy to slow the rising inflow into homelessness. The proposal comes as city bureaus have been ordered to prepare deep budget-cut scenarios for next year and as economists warn of broader economic pressures facing Portland.
The resolution—sponsored by Councilors Candace Avalos, Jamie Dunphy, and Loretta Smith—follows a Portland Housing Bureau review that identified accumulated RSO funds that had not yet been programmed. The resolution frames the moment as urgent, citing recent Multnomah County data showing that while approximately 1,100 people exit homelessness into housing each month, about 1,400 become newly homeless, a trend that continues to outpace local rehousing capacity.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Avalos said in a statement included with the announcement. She noted that renters—particularly in East Portland—are facing acute hardship made worse by reduced federal and state rental assistance.
Dunphy said that although the proposed investment would not entirely reverse the trend, it offers the city “an incredible opportunity…to help control the bleeding.”
Smith, who chairs the council’s Homelessness and Housing Committee, described the resolution as an effort to intervene “before families fall into crisis,” directing resources to households most at risk of eviction.
How the Funds Would Be Used
The resolution outlines specific spending priorities across several fiscal years, including:
- $4 million annually for three years for flexible rent assistance to prevent evictions.
- $2 million over three years to expand eviction defense, legal services, mediation, and rapid rehousing.
- $3 million over three years for rent subsidies for people exiting homelessness.
- $1.5 million for a Right to Counsel pilot in FY 2026-27.
- $9 million for emergency housing vouchers in FY 2026-27.
- Additional allocations for landlord-tenant education, nonprofit affordable-housing stabilization, and downpayment assistance.
The resolution also asks the Mayor to commit 20 percent of future rental registration revenue, or at least $2 million annually, toward a revolving loan fund for acquiring market-rate properties or banking land to expand the city’s non-market housing stock.
Budget Directive and Economic Backdrop
The council’s proposal arrives as the Mayor has instructed every bureau to prepare 10, 20, and 30 percent cut scenarios for FY 2026-27, warning departments to brace for “major service reductions” absent structural changes to city spending. (Source: Mayor’s Nov. 27, 2025 budget directive.)
At the same time, Portland’s broader economic landscape remains fragile. A recent analysis of the city’s fiscal and business climate points to declining downtown activity, population loss, reduced investment, and erosion of the tax base as significant challenges shaping the city’s future budgeting and service capacity.
Supporters of the resolution argue that targeted upstream interventions, especially those that keep people housed, are more cost-effective than downstream emergency responses such as shelter expansion, policing impacts, and sanitation costs.
Next Steps
If the Mayor does not incorporate the allocations into the proposed FY 2026-27 budget, the resolution states that councilors may introduce amendments during the budget process to ensure the investments are funded as recommended.
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