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MINUTES – Eugene City Council June 24, 2019 Page 4 Work Session residential revenue for down payment assistance; asked what a housing consumer advocate is; said that it would be helpful if the recommendations were created within some context related to other programs. o Councilor Pryor – said his main interest in approving the CET was to provide flexibility andoptions for spending the money; however, more options means having to decide where thatmoney is and isn’t going; said he wanted the fact that housing needs in Eugene are not staticor one-size fits all to be considered; said one of his intentions is that the CET funding couldbe leveraged with other sources of funds to create a bigger impact. o Councilor Taylor – pointed out that no additional money would be coming in for the firsttwo years; said that helping with down payments and first and last month’s rent is crucial. o Councilor Zelenka – clarified that the SDC offset with general fund money is only temporaryfor two years and additional money will come in the third year; talked about how manypeople are housing burdened in Eugene and the need to educate people about helpfulhousing programs; said he thinks this money should be a source for the renter protectionscommittee recommendations. o Councilor Syrett – asked about additional outreach and engagement happening with rentalhousing fund money; agreed with Councilor Yeh that it would be helpful to have context forrecommendations that are proposed, including existing programs and how they connect. o Mayor Vinis – said part of the pressure on renters is that the short supply of housing isdriving prices up; said that remediation and protection for renters is critical, but so is thesupply and the need to build more affordable housing. o Councilor Zelenka – asked if there was a method in place to track the number of housingunits built since the implementation of the CET; said he wants to be able to point to theincremental changes made by implementing the CET; supported making it clear what theCity Council priorities were. MOTION: Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved that the vast majority of the CET funds be used on direct assistance to renters and homebuyers with at least 15 percent of the residential CET revenue set aside for down payment assistance. o Councilor Syrett – shared concerns about precluding the advisory committee from comingback with recommendations that might not line up with this motion; asked if City Councilcould change the spending ratio with a future motion o Councilor Clark – talked about wanting to increase assistance for low-income individuals tohelp people buy homes rather than rent them; said the community is skewed towards a highnumber of rentals and HB 2001 will make it even more skewed; noted that prices won’t godown as more units are created. o Councilor Pryor – said the flexibility of the CET funds is one of its strong suits andsupported going thorough more of a process and getting more feedback before narrowingdown the focus area for the money. o Councilor Zelenka – clarified that his motion directs a majority of the money in onedirection but leaves flexibility for the rest of the funds; said he wants to give the committeethat will be formed in August some clear direction from City Council. VOTE ON MOTION: PASSED 4:3, Councilors Semple, Syrett, and Pryor opposed. MOTION AND VOTE: Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Yeh, moved to extend the meeting by 10 minutes. PASSED 5:2, Councilors Zelenka and Clark opposed. September 9, 2019, Meeting – Item 2A