Former Housing Director Slams Administration in Letter to City Council

The former director of the Portland Housing Bureau, Helmi Hisserich, who resigned after being placed on administrative leave in October by Mayor Keith Wilson after the two repeatedly clashed over housing and homeless policy, took aim at the administration in a letter this week to the City Council.

In the letter, first reported by The Portland Mercury, Hisserich wrote that she felt she’d been scapegoated by the city administration when it revealed to the council in November that the housing bureau had found $21 million in unspent rental services fees that had not been divulged to council until after they adjusted the city’s budget during their technical adjustment process.

“On October 30th, with no prior verbal or written warning, I was put on administrative leave with no explanation. I was told to hand over my computer, my badge, my phone and leave through the back door without speaking to anyone,” Hisserich wrote in her 11-page letter. “To add insult to injury, while I was on administrative leave, the city administrator briefed city councilors about unspent public funds in a manner that suggested I had done something wrong.”

Hisserich provided a meticulous timeline of how she says she discovered the unspent money and then reported it to her superiors, who she alleges advised her against sharing the information with the councilors.

“In July 2025, I initiated an internal audit of the rental registration fees, found unspent funds that had accrued 2021-2024 – before I joined the bureau - and I informed [deupty city administrator] Donnie Oliviera about them in August 2025,“ Hisserich wrote. ”Instead of supporting my efforts to daylight the problem, the city administrator delayed the release of this information to coincide with their plan to displace me."

The administration shared information about the unspent funds to council in mid-November, as was first reported by The Oregonian. The disclosure came after the council had already passed technical adjustments to the city’s 2025-2026 budget, during which council is tasked with balancing the budget.

Hisserich said in her email that in a September meeting with Oliviera, he “proceeded to tell us the optics were bad, this was going to be a big PR problem and no one would really care why the funds were unspent. I asked if these should be included in the fall [technical adjustment ordinance] and he said that ‘ship had sailed.’”

Hisserich alleged that the city administration then used her discovery of unspent money as a pretext to discredit her—and bury a study of a policy study the mayor didn’t like.

“I believe the city administration used the information about unspent funds as a smoke screen to cover their true intent which is to undermine the social housing study which was an unanimously approved legislative priority,” Hisserich wrote.

To understand the dispute, it helps to know the city’s new structure. Bureau directors report to the city administrators, who in turn report to the mayor. But Hisserich was appointed by former City Commissioner Carmen Rubio under the previous form of government, and her policy aims more closely aligned with those of progressive city councilors—a different branch of city government.

As reported by several media outlets, Hisserich had clashed with Wilson over his ambitious plan to expand the city’s emergency overnight shelter system. Hisserich prior to joining the city worked as a social housing expert, and the left-leaning half of council in August tasked Hisserich with drafting a plan for how a social housing model might work in Portland.

Hisserich in the letter touted the benefits of the social housing model, and she alleged that since Wilson took office, she’s been routinely excluded from housing-related meetings amongst top city, state and regional officials.

On Oct. 30, the mayor asked Hisserich to resign without cause. Hisserich shortly after accepted a severance package of $240,000.

Cody Bowman, a spokesman for Wilson, says the mayor has been in “close communication” with councilors about how best to use the unspent funds.

“While we’re unable to comment on personnel matters, I will share that the City has regular financial and budget monitoring processes in place to ensure city finances and programs are managed responsibly,” Bowman says, “and this incident was a result of financial practices that are not aligned with the City’s approach to transparent budgeting.”