People for Portland Has Spent $69,000 Lobbying City Hall Since the Beginning of the Year

People for Portland, the political advocacy group that’s attempting to get an initiative on the November ballot to redirect Metro supportive housing services tax dollars to emergency shelter beds, reported spending $69,000 on lobbying efforts since the beginning of the year.

That’s no small sum, but it pales in comparison to the amount the group spent on lobbying efforts in the second half of 2021. According to its reports, the group spent over $1 million on lobbying last year in a span of six months.

All of the group’s communications documented in its latest quarterly lobbying report to the city, which accounts for efforts from the beginning of the year through March 31, were with the office of Commissioner Dan Ryan, who leads the Portland Housing Bureau and is the city’s liaison to the city-county Joint Office of Homeless Services.

The communications are mostly categorized as texts and emails regarding Ryan’s participation in a virtual forum People for Portland held on homelessness in February, where Ryan spoke at length about his approach to homelessness and said that the county’s “housing first, housing only” policy had failed, and that more investments needed to be made in emergency and alternative shelter. (The other elected who spoke at the forum was Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran, who’s running for county chair and has also been openly critical of the county’s and city’s approaches to homelessness.)

No other city officials were listed on the lobbying report.

The reported expenses of $69,000 likely include other expenditures by the advocacy group, too.

Ryan has pressed the county and city to take more urgent action to address homelessness in the form of emergency shelter, a concept rejected by many housing advocates and a majority of county leaders who tout the necessity of affordable, permanent housing to end homelessness. (The county currently has over 1,600 shelter beds, and added 300 of those over the past year. Another shelter opening up this month will add another 125 beds to the tally.)

Ryan’s priority project, placing six tiny-pod villages across the city and outfitting them with basic hygiene services and case management, has yet to provide housing for any homeless Portlanders.

Last year, the group listed only communications with mayoral aide Sam Adams and Ryan’s office in its two quarterly reports.