By Aaron Kirk Douglas
Open letter to City of Portland City Council and Mayor Keith Wilson
Re: City Council Doc. 2025-478 ($20.7M in unspent Rental Services Office funds).
Public hearing: Wed., Jan. 21, 6 p.m.
Dear Chair and Councilors,
I’m a Portland resident and an apartment owner. I support the Council’s direction to spend the roughly $20.7 million in unspent Rental Services Office funds on rent assistance, eviction prevention, and renter stabilization. Keeping people housed is humane—and cheaper than dealing with homelessness after the fact.
I also want to raise a transparency issue that matters to both renters and housing providers. Portland created the Residential Rental Registration Program to build a reliable inventory of rental units and provide regular updates. Owners report unit addresses annually. That should give Portland a clear count of rentals—and how the supply changes over time.
I don’t see Portland consistently delivering that promise to the public. The city can publish aggregated trend reporting without disclosing confidential details. We should be able to answer, year after year:
- Are we gaining or losing rental units?
- Are units leaving through condo conversions or sales into owner occupancy?
- Are regulations and operating costs shrinking the rental inventory?
- Are tenant protections working without reducing supply?
I support tenant services and stabilization. I’m not objecting to how you propose to spend these funds. I’m asking Council and the Mayor to recommit to the registry’s original purpose by publishing an annual “Rental Inventory Snapshot” showing registered long-term rental units, net change from the prior year, and changes by housing type and neighborhood.
Housing providers pay the fee, and those costs often show up in rents over time. Renters deserve both: meaningful help when they need it and clear reporting on whether Portland’s rental supply is stable, growing, or shrinking.
Respectfully,
Aaron Kirk Douglas
About the author:
Aaron Kirk Douglas is a multifaceted storyteller and market analyst. His career spans journalism, creative nonfiction, filmmaking, and real estate research. He serves as Director of Market Intelligence at HFO Investment Real Estate/GREA, the Pacific Northwest’s leading multifamily brokerage.
