Multnomah Homeless Crisis Gets $38 Million In City, County Aid

PORTLAND, OR — What can $38 million buy these days? It turns out a lot when you're shopping for services for the homeless. Multnomah County and the City of Portland both realized they had surpluses.

As a result, they decided to combine forces – Portland chipping in $18.8 million and the county throwing in $19.2 million – to see what they can do to help fight the growing homeless problem.

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So, what does $38 million allow?

• Up to 400 new shelter beds, including congregate shelter space, motel rooms and sleeping pods, that will bring people out of the elements and offer connections to health and housing services. The Joint Office of Homeless Services and Multnomah County are currently pursuing the purchase or lease of four new sites.

• An additional 20-25 positions to grow the community’s roster of service navigation outreach workers. They will be rapidly deployed to high-impact locations citywide, including Old Town Chinatown, and also around existing shelter locations.
• Expanded behavioral health services, including additional teams in Old Town Chinatown who can offer service connections and provide de-escalation. This package also builds on a successful County behavioral health pilot project. It will add two teams of support specialists who can provide critical stability for people in motel shelters experiencing serious behavioral health challenges, while also leveraging Supportive Housing Services funding that’s creating long-term housing options for these individuals.
• Funding for a significant expansion of storage and hygiene services for unsheltered neighbors, and continued support for the use of portable toilets throughout the community.
• The creation of a Street Services Coordination Center, with partners including the Joint Office and the City’s Office of Management and Finance. The coordination center will align public space management activities with the homelessness response system, including helping to create a shelter referral pathway for navigation workers and first responders including Portland Street Response, Park Rangers, the Impact Reduction Program and other agencies.
• Expanded staffing and resources for cleanup programs like SOLVE, Central City Concern’s Clean Start, and the City’s Impact Reduction Program, as well as financial support for community-based, volunteer cleanup programs already active in the community.

"Houselessness has been a top priority of my administration since Day One," Mayor Ted Wheeler said. "The problem has worsened and we can’t take it on alone. I'm looking forward to partnering with Multnomah County to address this issue to ensure all Portlanders have a safe and healthy place to call home."

Multnomah Chair Deborah Kafoury agreed.

"All of us here today see with clear eyes what’s been happening over the course of the 40 years that led us here: a fundamental breakdown in how we care for the most vulnerable people in our country, she said.

"This represents a rare opportunity for us to come together, pool our resources, and inject an immediate infusion into our system to address homelessness in our community."

City and County commissioners both still need to formally approve the funding.