Meet Ben Hufford, candidate for Portland City Council District 4

Editor’s note: Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Stay informed with OPB on the presidential race, key congressional battles and other local contests and ballot measures in Oregon and Southwest Washington at opb.org/elections.

Name: Ben Hufford

Age: 55

Pronouns: He/Him

Neighborhood: Hillsdale

Are you a renter or homeowner? Homeowner

Education: Carleton College, BA; Columbia University, Urban Planning; Harvard University, Master of Architecture

Occupation: Architect

How long you’ve lived in the city of Portland: 27 Years

Portland is facing an historic election involving a new voting system and an unusually high number of candidates. Journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive and Oregon Public Broadcasting share a goal of ensuring that Portland voters have the information they need to make informed choices, and we also know candidates’ time is valuable and limited.

That’s why the two news organizations teamed up this cycle to solicit Portland City Council candidates’ perspectives on the big issues in this election. Here’s what they had to say.

For each of the following questions, we asked candidates to limit their answers to 150 words.

Name two existing city policies or budget items you’d make it a priority to change. Why did you select those and how do you plan to line up at least 7 votes on the council to make them happen? Please avoid broad, sweeping statements and instead provide details.

Homelessness is our greatest challenge and City Council should focus there first.

There are truly two distinct problems of homelessness. The first is what drives people into homelessness, and data shows conclusively that the cause is Housing Scarcity. Portland needs to accelerate housing production by rewriting 10-year old permitting and tax policies, reinstating the Statewide 120-day permitting timeline and lowering fees on permits.

The second problem is what to do once people are living unsheltered on the street. We need first to demand accountability from the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and second to provide adequate shelter options and eliminate unsanctioned camping. Portland needs to provide a lot more options, and those options need to include mental health and addiction help.

The right number of unsheltered homeless is 0. Portland City Council needs 7 votes. This is a more solvable problem than it seems.

What previous accomplishments show that you are the best pick in your district? Please be specific.

I’m a successful architect because I know how to build places where people want to be. Anyone who has worked with me professionally over my 28-year career in Portland can attest to my ability to solve challenging problems, make the most out of limited funds, and work with diverse viewpoints to achieve results on a timeline.

My expertise in designing, permitting, and building in Portland will bring the critical experience required to solve Portland’s urgent need for a more plentiful and diverse housing supply.

And, to fix any of our problems we need to stop electing politicians who just want to BE something and start electing people who want to DO something. I have set aside my architecture practice to bring my experience to this City Council and I am committed to making measurable progress for the city I love, not just generating more talk.

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Portland is on track to permit the fewest number of multifamily units in 15 years and remains thousands of units below what’s needed to meet demand. What steps would you take to dramatically and quickly increase the availability of housing?

Portland has had a Housing Emergency Declaration every year since 2015. But our actions do not reflect this urgency. This is our most pressing and existential threat as a city. I testified at City Council on our Housing Production Strategy and have been advising multiple mayoral candidates on housing production.

Portland should accelerate permitting time to 120 days, down from an average over 500. To do this, Portland needs to consolidate permit reviews into 4 client contact points. We are currently 6,400 units behind a functioning market, and by the end of 2025 we are projected to be 15,000 units behind. Portland needs to treat housing as the policy priority that the emergency tells us it is and extend incentives to a greater range of housing development.

ALL housing production is important, and Portland can only effectively have affordable housing if we have enough housing.

The next City Council is going to have to make some very difficult decisions regarding what to fund and how. What essential services must the city provide and how should the city sustainably fund them?

The essential services Portland must provide starts with public safety, which must be more than just police. We must provide a critical link between law enforcement and social services, mental health and drug addiction, systems now in disarray. We must have a transportation system that both efficiently moves people for work and play, and welcomes visitors to our city. Removing trash and graffiti are absolutely part of our essential services. Finally, Portland must provide better value for the economic cost of living here. Taxes are necessary, but they need to be linked to accountability to do more good.

Portland needs to bring as much energy to spending our money effectively as it does to increasing taxes. We don’t need to identify new revenue streams; we need to get accountability on how the current flow of existing dollars into non-measurable outcomes.

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Portlanders have approved many tax measures in the past decade – supporting affordable housing, free preschool programs and green energy initiatives. Are there specific taxes or levies you want eliminated or would choose to not renew? Are there specific taxes or levies you would support creating? Why?

When you have one of the highest marginal tax rates in the nation, it’s easy to say that taxes are too high. They are. But lowering them alone won’t spur investment and job growth until we focus on getting value out of whatever taxes are levied. Right now, we have the worst of both worlds.

Yet it seems like whenever we are asked to contribute our money through taxes or bonds, Portlanders sign up. But our incapacity to deliver results despite having the funds is getting to Portlanders, maybe even changing Portlanders.

So, I would start there. Thank Portlanders for committing our resources and then clearly identify what we are getting in return. Affordable housing, homeless services, downtown cleanliness, safe streets, early childhood education, environmental stewardship: Portland needs to deliver progress in the form of measurable, demonstrable results. We don’t expect perfection, but we expect something good for our efforts.

Do you have any concerns with the changes coming to city elections and city governance? If so, what would you like to see change?

This is an historic election, and we have both opportunities and risks. The greatest risk is that we won’t have a functioning City Council and Mayor. We have set up a system that raises the prospects of a City Council at odds with the elected mayor, and our strategy could lead to gridlock on selecting a City Manager and policies that work.

We could have a fight for the foreseeable future about the scope of the mayor’s power and the mayor could take steps to sideline the council. Already in the proposed organization and responsibility charts issued by the City on the new government, the City Council is isolated - no one reports to the City Council - all bureaus and staff report to City Manager and Mayor.

If this is the case, then City Council could only act to disrupt - this is not the way the City should be run.

Related: Listen to 'OPB Politics Now'

For the five remaining questions, we asked candidates to answer in 50 words or fewer:

Do you favor arresting and jailing people who camp on public property in Portland who refuse repeated offers of shelter, such as the option to sleep in a city-designated tiny home cluster?

Portland needs shelters where people living on the street CAN go. Portland can’t just tell homeless people where they CAN’T go. But no one gets better on the street, and most people get a lot worse, and quickly. We need to integrate policing with links to essential services.

Would you vote yes on a proposal to fund hundreds more police officers than the City Council has already authorized? Why or why not? How would the city pay for it?

Yes. Portland needs to hire and train additional police, and fixing this problem is the opportunity to recalibrate the system to reflect our values, including recruiting people from Portland to live in the community they serve. This is a core service, at the top of the general fund.

Do you support putting the Clean Energy Fund measure back on the ballot? What, if any changes, would you support?

No. The Clean Energy Fund allows Portland to “act locally”, and needs will only grow. Use of the funds should be more closely examined for efficiency, but projects competing to do the most good is a more successful model than attempting to complete the projects by city staff.

Which would you prioritize: Creation of more protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes or improved surfacing of existing degraded driving lanes?

Portland needs to redouble our efforts to create quality options to the dominance of the single occupant car by pursuing alternative transportation options. Both systems need attention, and we shouldn’t have to choose, but even as a committed cyclist I believe well-functioning roads must still be the priority.

Have the problems impacting downtown Portland received too much or too little attention from current city leaders? Why?

Too little, but the question isn’t about attention, it’s about actually doing something. We hear plenty and see no results. The problems of downtown are central to the future of all of Portland. Entertainment, office work, safe sidewalks, tourism, and hosting people downtown is at the core of Portland’s success.