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A political action committee was formed last week to support a ballot initiative put forth by People for Portland, the new advocacy group that seeks to wrest control of taxpayer dollars spent on homeless services.
In just a week’s time, the PAC has garnered $320,000 in donations from both local and out-of-state developers that own property in Portland’s downtown, Northwest, Southwest and the Central Eastside.
Last month, People for Portland filed paperwork to place an initiative on the November ballot that would require the three county governments in Metro to direct existing tax dollars to fund emergency shelter beds—and would also compel cities to enforce anti-camping laws.
Three developers threw $50,000 apiece into the PAC: the Singer Family, Harmony Capital Investments (a Seattle-based company), and Killian Pacific (a Vancouver, Wash.-based real estate company).
The Downtown Development Group, owned by the Goodman family, has contributed just shy of $25,000. However, a number of other contributing LLCs owned by the Goodmans have given a total of $50,000. Other contributors include developers Mike Menashe, Gregory Specht, the Winkler Development Corporation, Apex Real Estate Partners, and NBP Capital, a development company that owns real estate along the South Waterfront and is majority owned by Nicolas Berggruen, a billionaire.
People for Portland seeks to redirect money from the Metro homeless services tax passed by voters in 2020, which is expected to raise about $250 million a year. The measure would redirect at least 75% of revenue from the tax to emergency shelters until the supply of shelter beds meets demand in each county.
Earlier this month, Metro’s attorneys shot down the initiative’s language, saying it did not meet the requirements of Oregon’s constitution. Shortly thereafter, People for Portland resubmitted the language with only a slight tweak. Metro’s attorneys, for a second time, struck it down. The advocacy group then sued Metro for its determination on April 15. No ruling has been made in the lawsuit.
The political action committee had its filing accepted April 22, and it’s listed on the state database as the PAC formed to support “Initiative Petition MetroInit-02″—the name given to People for Portland’s first initiative filing.
Notably, there is healthy overlap between contributors to this PAC and donors to the Portland United PAC, which is boosting the election of centrist candidate Vadim Mozyrsky to unseat incumbent City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. The Portland United PAC, which The Oregonian reported several weeks ago, is also supporting the reelection of Commissioner Dan Ryan.
People for Portland spokesman Dan Lavey said: “These first contributions are a powerful sign of citizens stepping forward to change the failed policies being stubbornly pushed by politicians out of touch with the people they represent.”