A recent Oregonian article reported that nearly 1,900 subsidized apartments sit vacant in Portland while the city faces a record housing crisis [1]. This is not simple mismanagement. It is a symptom of a deeper, systemic failure within the paid leadership of our public housing institutions. While the Portland City Council recently approved 8.8 million dollars in funds for “rent buydowns” to help stabilize struggling affordable housing providers [2], we must ask why the professional management of these organizations allowed such poor stewardship of public funds to take root.

The public often asks why these units are not simply filled with homeless persons currently on the streets. This view ignores the reality that a subsidized apartment is a managed real estate asset, not an unconditional handout. A lease is a legal contract that requires mutual performance. To be a successful resident, an individual must be willing to avail themselves of the services provided and exhibit the responsibility required to maintain a home. When we treat our housing inventory as a bottomless charitable gift rather than a managed opportunity, we fail the taxpayers who fund these programs and the residents who are actually ready to succeed within them.

This lack of professional standards is visible at Home Forward, the public housing authority for Multnomah County [3]. While a volunteer board provides oversight, the day to day integrity of the agency ledgers rests with a team of highly paid experts. The board recently brought back Michael Buonocore as interim leader. Buonocore previously led the organization from 2014 to 2022 [4].  His return may provide needed institutional experience, but recycling former leadership is not itself a substitute for professional reform. His return is an improvement, but improvement is not the same as an answer, and it reflects an agency and City Hall reacting to revelations about Home Forward rather than demonstrating that a long term fix is yet in place.

The fiscal disarray remains staggering, and it starts at the top. CEO Ivory Mathews received a 59% pay increase to $342,849 even as the agency's finances deteriorated, and resigned effective May 1, 2026, after Willamette Week revealed she had spent more than $100,000 in public funds on travel over three years [5]. Chief Financial Officer Kandy Sage received a comparable 59% increase, to $247,699, before departing the agency in July 2026 [6].

The agency was forced to admit in July that its finance team had miscalculated the budget by $17.2 million, revealing a total $31 million hole. The error only came to light after interim director Michael Buonocore and interim Chief Financial Officer Andrea Quetell, a consultant brought in from New York, dug into the agency's finances themselves [7]. When senior finance leadership, paid nearly a quarter million dollars a year or more, oversees a $17.2 million error in a deficit projection, the failure is systemic, not incidental [8].

This administrative bloat extends to the daily management of the 7,000 unit portfolio. Ian Davie, the Chief Operating Officer who earned $264,445 in 2025, oversaw a system where vacancies reached record highs and tenants reported serious crime, drug activity, and safety concerns in Home Forward buildings [9].  Home Forward's own published fact sheet reveals the scope of this administrative layer: of 296 full time employees, 107 hold the title of director, manager, or supervisor, meaning more than one in three employees occupies a management role [10].

In any professional real estate firm, such a top heavy structure alongside record vacancies and high executive compensation would be viewed as a profound failure of management. This is a clear signal that jobs need to be terminated and replaced, with no severance pay. No rewards for doing a poor job.

I know what it means to be held accountable for results. As both an attorney and the owner of a Manhattan real estate firm, I was awarded a state contract through a competitive RFP because the combination of legal grounding and real estate expertise was what the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York needed to identify appropriate parcels and homes for purchase.

Portland has no more money to throw at this. It needs new professionals in the back office. Until we hold high paid administrators accountable for results and require tenants to meet the standards of a managed lease, these vacant apartments will remain the price of a system that rewards failure instead of correcting it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michele A. Peters is a retired attorney and former owner of a Manhattan real estate firm. She directed the site selection and implementation of CitiSearch for the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. Having served during the agency transition to the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, she saw that while titles change, the success of community care rests on the direct care worker. She serves on the Board and Planning Committee of the Northwest District Association (NWDA).

SOURCES FOR VERIFICATION (ENDNOTES)

[1] Jonathan Bach & Lillian Mongeau Hughes, Months After Promises to Fill 1,900 Empty Affordable Portland Apartments, Numbers Haven’t Budged, The Oregonian/OregonLive (July 29, 2026).

[2] Alex Zielinski, Portland Approves Plan to Spend $56 Million of Unbudgeted Housing Funds, OPB (Apr. 8, 2026, 11:56 PM), https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/08/portland-56-million-unbudgeted-housing-funds/.

[3] Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 456.055–456.235 (2025); Portland, Or., Resolution No. 22081 (Dec. 11, 1941).

[4]  Alex Zielinski, Beleaguered Head of Portland Public Housing Agency Steps Down, OPB (Apr. 29, 2026, 6:32 PM), https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/29/portland-public-housing-home-forward-director-resigns/.

[5]  Sophie Peel, While Home Forward Struggled, Its CEO Spent More Than $100,000 on Taxpayer-Funded Travel Over Three Years, Willamette Week (Apr. 14, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/2026/04/14/while-home-forward-struggled-its-ceo-spent-more-than-100000-on-taxpayer-funded-travel-over-three-years/; Sophie Peel, County Commissioner and City Councilor Call on Home Forward Board to Resign, Willamette Week (Apr. 29, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2026/04/29/county-commissioner-and-city-councilor-call-on-home-forward-board-to-resign/.

[6]  Sophie Peel, Home Forward’s Real Estate Portfolio Is Fast Approaching Financial Distress, Willamette Week (Feb. 25, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/2026/02/24/home-forwards-real-estate-portfolio-is-fast-approaching-financial-distress/; Sophie Peel, Home Forward’s Chief Financial Officer Departing, Willamette Week (June 12, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2026/06/12/home-forwards-chief-financial-officer-departing/.

[7]  Sophie Peel, Home Forward Said Its Budget Shortfall Had Improved. That Was Wrong, Agency Now Says, Willamette Week (July 15, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2026/07/15/home-forward-said-its-budget-shortfall-had-improved-that-was-wrong-agency-now-says/.

[8] Id.

[9]  Sophie Peel, Home Forward’s Real Estate Portfolio Is Fast Approaching Financial Distress, Willamette Week (Feb. 25, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/2026/02/24/home-forwards-real-estate-portfolio-is-fast-approaching-financial-distress/; Sophie Peel, What’s Next for Home Forward?, Willamette Week (May 6, 2026), https://www.wweek.com/news/2026/05/06/whats-next-for-home-forward/.

[10]  Home Forward, Fact Sheet, https://www.homeforward.org/press/fact-sheet/ (last visited Aug. 10, 2026).