Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, issued a timely call this morning for the Portland region to be bold in pursuing greater equity for low-income residents and communities of color as it plans for the future.
Speaking in the Metro Council chamber to a diverse audience of regional leaders from public agencies, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations, Sims noted that sustainability needs to be ”an area of inclusion, not exclusion.”
After a videotaped introduction from Metro Councilor Robert Liberty, who is meeting with urban development officials in China, Sims discussed what HUD will look for as it selects recipients of the first federal grants under a new multi-agency effort known as the Sustainable Communities Initiative. Metro is currently working with a number of partners to develop a regional grant proposal focused on integrating housing affordability into an investment strategy that is being developed to support the creation of great communities throughout region.
“Bold. Audacious. Innovative. Imaginative.” Those were the watchwords Sims delivered when describing what HUD would like to see in grant proposals, adding that he hoped the best ideas would be “exportable” to other American communities. In response to a question about how governments often pay lip service to social equity without backing it up with meaningful action, he noted that the agency “will not respond well to rhetorical grants.” Sims noted the importance of data to evaluate the effectiveness of local actions and suggested that applicants will need to have “a game plan” – realistic strategies to address the problems they identify.
Joining Sims on a panel convened by the Coalition for a Livable Future was john powell (powell does not capitalize his name), director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the Americas at The Ohio State University. Powell applauded the interagency nature of the SCI – a partnership between HUD, the US Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency – but suggested adding the Department of Education because of the important link between neighborhood livability and high-functioning schools. He also noted that while the Portland region is a national leader in a number of areas, it lacks a plan to address the unequal impacts of gentrification and economic crisis on the black community.