Transcript
Automatically generated transcript. It may contain errors and includes testimony in languages other than English that is not individually marked up for assistive technology.
Jamie Dunphy
In the sessions ahead, we will be dealing with the budgets and programs fully inside the City of Portland.
But today we're going to begin with an item partially in and partially out of our jurisdiction, the continuum of our shared responsibility for housing, homelessness response, behavioral health response, public environmental management, and public safety between the City of Portland and Multnomah County.
Today we're going to get an update on the homelessness data from the county and overviews of our respective budgets addressing this work.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
And during questioning at the end, it's my hope that we can come to an understanding of what the mayor and the chair have proposed in their budgets and to identify where our amendment process may yield the best collaboration, efficiency, and dare I say synergy.
I'm now passing this over to Jillian Schoney and Ryan Deibert from the county to kick us off.
Jillian Schoney
Welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council President.
That was very well done as usual.
I feel no need to say more.
I'm just gonna kick it over to my colleague Ryan Deibert to give you our most recent monthly data that is up on the Homeless Services Department dashboard.
Take it away.
Josh Roper
Great.
Ryan Deibert
Good afternoon, Council President, Chair, Mayor, Councilors, Commissioners.
For the record, Ryan Deibert.
I use he/him pronouns, Deputy Director of the Homelessness Response System.
That shared system was established by each of your elected bodies through an intergovernmental agreement to help guide our shared investments and shared priorities across jurisdictions and with our partners across multiple sectors.
Central to that shared work is an agreement to monitor our system-wide performance against 12 key performance indicators that both of your legislative bodies adopted at the beginning of this year.
We'll begin publishing quarterly reports using those new KPIs next month, but many of the data sources are already available, and we're regularly reviewing monthly updates to those data with our steering and oversight implementation and community advisory committees.
Consistent with that practice, we wanted to start today by grounding you in the current trends that we're observing.
And then following the mayor and chair's reports on their respective budget proposals, we'll share with you some of our best estimates for how those proposed budgets might shape these trends in the coming fiscal year.
The data I'll share here all come from the dashboard maintained by the Multnomah County Homeless Services Department, but they reflect data from all publicly funded homeless next slide, please.
First, I wanna start by noting that our systems are collectively sheltering and housing more people than ever before.
In the first 2 years of our Homelessness Response Action Plan, you'll recall that we collectively sheltered or housed more than 23,000 people, far exceeding our initial 2-year goals and serving almost 50% more people than in the 2 years prior.
Steve Novick
Next slide, please.
Ryan Deibert
As of February of this year, more than 9,000 people who were formerly homeless were being supported by our systems in permanent housing, and hundreds more transition from homelessness into housing every month.
Even with that though, this graph demonstrates that over the past 2 years, inflow into homelessness, which we track as our new KPI number 5, shown here as the green line on this graph, has consistently outpaced outflow, KPI number 10, shown here as the orange line.
On average over the last 6 months, that gap between those 2 lines is roughly 360 more people entering homelessness each month than are leaving.
It's important to understand though that the volume of movement in and out of homelessness is pretty large in each month.
So on average, we have about 1,675 people entering homelessness each month, Roughly 3/4 of whom haven't accessed services before, or at least in the last 2 years.
We also have about 1,300 people who are exiting homelessness each month.
About a third of those are exiting to permanent housing, 400 or so each month.
We track that as our new KPI number 11.
But most, about 70% of those folks are leaving homelessness to inactivity.
So in other words, they accessed services at some point, but then left services and didn't next slide, please.
So again, pulling from several of our new KPIs, again via the Homeless Services Systemwide Dashboard, when you have inflow outpacing outflow each month, that means that the total number of people known to be experiencing homelessness, which is our new KPI number 1, has continued to grow over time.
So this picture is the graphic form of our by-name list.
And you can see that the number of people experiencing homelessness As of our most recent data from February, that list stands at 18,250 people.
This is the general upward curve that we've observed over the past 2 years that we've tracked this by-name list.
But later in today's presentation, we'll be taking a closer look at how different budget decisions before you this year can start to bend the shape of that curve.
On the last day of each month, the Homeless Services Department also pulls a snapshot of which proportion of those people are known to be sheltered.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you.
Ryan Deibert
Our new KPI number 8.
That's currently about a third of the total population experiencing homelessness.
That's represented there in the orange in the middle of each month's bar versus those who are known to be unsheltered.
So right now, just under half represented by the dark green at the bottom of each monthly bar or an unknown status.
That's our light, the light blue section, roughly a quarter right now.
As people come onto the by-name list through inflow, they add to the total number.
As they leave the by-name list through outflow, they get subtracted.
Commissioner Singleton
Thank you.
Ryan Deibert
From the total number.
So together, those are some of the core system-level metrics that we are currently following monthly.
Again, you'll see this curve show up in several of the slides that we're going to discuss later today.
But in the meantime, I'll transition it back to Jillian to introduce the Chair and Mayor's executive budget presentations.
Jillian Schoney
Yeah, so for part 2 is the proposed executive budgets.
We'll first start with Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega-Peterson, and then we'll follow with Mayor Wilson and team.
And each of you aim for about 7 minutes.
7 Minutes total for us to stay on time.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Good afternoon.
Oh, thank you, thank you.
Um, okay, thank you everyone.
Yep, I'll try to keep it to 7 minutes.
Um, so we'll go ahead and get started.
So this, um, what I'm going to talk about today is just give an overview, and I think all, all of us are aware that this is a really tough budget cycle.
Um, there were tough decisions to be made, hard decisions.
There were no easy or good decisions that thank you.
There's a lot of decisions to be made in putting the budget together.
But this is really, you know, this budget also is the second year where we've had to take cuts to the county budget as well, which has been, you know, which is those accumulating impacts are felt through all of the departments across the county.
So I wanted to highlight some facts here on this slide just overall about the county budget.
So we have about $3.9 billion budget.
Our operating budget is about $2.9 billion.
Of that, we have $794 million in general fund dollars, which as we all know is the most flexible dollars that we have, but also some of the most valuable dollars that we have to fund county programs.
That general fund is about a 2.3% decrease from our last year's adopted budget.
Overall, we have about a 3.9% decrease overall for all funding sources across the county from last year to this year.
Um, I think a few changes worth noting for our federal and state funding.
Um, there is, uh, the $94.2 million decrease is primarily from $64.7 million decrease in Homeless Services Department and a $2.9 million reduction for the Health Department.
So that's where we're seeing some of those impacts for state, federal, or other government cuts.
For the Supportive Housing Services Measure Fund, we have a $20 million— $20.4 million decrease in this fund.
And that's a combination of the Metro's most recent forecast, which was revised downward by about $2.4 million, and a reduction in the assumed carryover of those one-time-only dollars that we've had from year to year in previous years.
We have an increase in some funds, including the Preschool for All Fund, and we have the Multnomah County Library Capital Construction Fund.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Yes.
This is a significant decrease, but that has to do with the fact that we're actually building our libraries.
And we invite everyone to check out our new East County Library in Gresham, Oregon, when it's open a little bit later next month.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Yes, just in case you're wondering.
We have the majority of our FTE decreases actually in the Health Department, in our Department of Community Justice, which does parole and probation and juvenile, and our Department of County Assets.
The reductions incorporate state and federal rebalances that we have taken over the course of the past fiscal year, and we are fully funding our reserves for both the general fund and the business income tax.
Okay, next slide.
So this gets into some of the highlights for the Homeless Services Department budget, as well as some of the deficits that we have across the board.
So our Homeless Services Department's total budget is $2.5 million.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
$239 Million.
We also have some SHS dollars in other county departments that total about $16.8 million.
There are county general fund investments in my budget that support our overall homelessness response system that are reflected in the Homeless Response Action Plan.
So these investments exist across the county to support all aspects of our system that commits to providing the services someone needs to leave homelessness.
Or to never have to experience it in the first place.
For example, I've added $2.5 million of county general funds in our Department of County Human Services for eviction prevention and prioritized behavioral health programs.
And I'll get more into those behavioral health programs in a couple slides.
I also invested $10 million in one-time-only dollars to mitigate the impact of shelter closures and to provide more efficiency in housing placements from shelters.
So when we take a look at some of our HREP goals, This is actually a really key investment that is going to help make reaching our goals possible.
So that's important.
Having that $10 million for those purposes is going to be really important.
I will say that, and then we do have the $67 million gap in homeless services.
Part of that is explained by the revisions of the budget and the SHS funding that I talked about earlier.
And some of it is from the changes in the agreements of the city dollars that we had previously received.
All right, next slide.
So as we were putting together the Homeless Services Department budget for both the department and myself, our key principles in this were really keeping people housed, prioritizing housing placements, and maximizing shelter effectiveness.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
We— I wanted to make sure that no one would lose their county-supported housing due to a cut in our budget.
We have nearly 9,000 formerly homeless neighbors in this county who are sustained right now in short- and long-term housing, and so keeping those folks housed was a huge priority for me.
We want to make sure that the progress that we've made is going to be kept.
In prioritizing housing placements, that is essential to ending someone's homelessness permanently.
It's an intentional strategy informed by the recent county report on shelter outcomes, which shows that by increasing By increasing the outflow of people from shelters into homes, we can ensure a better balance in our homeless services system and more effectively use limited resources.
And that truly will enable us to reach our goal of resolving homelessness, placing people in permanent housing with the services they need to stay there.
And then I already mentioned in terms of maximizing shelter effectiveness, the importance of that $10 million one-time only investment to improve the efficacy of shelter placement into housing.
Keith Wilson
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Next slide, please.
Okay, this is taking a look at our Homeless Services Department overall.
I gave that total a little bit earlier.
We do have some contingency dollars in there.
Loretta Smith
There are—.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
And so I think this is just— we can just take a look at this slide and move on to the next one.
Loretta Smith
Okay.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
So what we wanted to do is to really make sure that we are building on the success that we've had before.
So right now we know that we are moving more people off the street into housing than ever before.
83% Of people housed remain housed 2 or more years later, and that's something that I think we can all be proud of with the investments that we've made in the system.
We also have made great progress in our data upgrades measuring the thank you.
So this report is providing a comprehensive overview of the homeless services department's scope, progress.
It's providing transparency, and recent independent analysis from the Oregonian confirmed our data collection is sound and the best available.
We have seen multiple years of decreasing homeless services department budget while we know that the service needs are increasing.
So we really need to focus, and my focus this year was on the better balance between prevention, shelter, and housing.
And that's one of the great things about having the homeless resources excuse me.
Homelessness response system is that coordination across departments with Portland and our other cities and partners to avoid duplication.
We know that we have record evictions this year.
Investing in ongoing rent assistance and prevention are 2 of the ways in this budget that we're addressing that.
There is 1,677 24-hour, 7-day-a-week shelter beds that are preserved, including the new Harrison Village and an expansion of our DV shelter system.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Let's go ahead and go to the next slide.
I went through a couple of these talking points before, so we could take a look at that.
I think one of those worth noting is that we are planning to house 3,119 people with county housing programs this year.
Next slide.
And I know I'm about out of time.
I want to— I did want to get to the behavioral health investments, though.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Councilor Herbold.
So for those struggling with addiction, this budget sustains a wide variety of substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery options provided by the county in collaboration with over 100 community partners.
And that includes our Downtown Behavioral Health Resource Center, which has welcomed over 100,000 total visits since opening less than 4 years ago.
My budget ensures that this critical program will not see a reduction in hours or days open.
It also preserves core functions of our corrections house transition services programs to ensure that individuals exiting jail have immediate resources and improved access to healthcare upon release.
There is the $1 million investment in our Stabilization Readiness Program, which is run through our Department of Community Justice, which connects high-risk, high-need justice-involved individuals to supervision and services with low-barrier, low-barrier day shelter services in our central downtown business district.
This year we have a $12.4 million investment in the building of our permanent sobering and crisis stabilization center, and we have almost half a million dollars in general fund for deflection and sobering services to support this shared resource in our community.
And with that, I will turn things back over to the mayor.
Keith Wilson
Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our Multnomah County colleagues for visiting us here today, and good afternoon to the thank you, Councilor Smith.
City of Portland, council colleagues, thank you for this opportunity and to these words on our budget.
Everybody in Portland should be able to live, get around, work, and recreate without facing harm, violence, or fear.
Public health and a sense of safety should be a universal right regardless of age, race, religion, sexuality, national origin, disability, or their housing status.
The City of Portland has stepped up to respond to the humanitarian crisis and most urgent challenges on our street.
Regarding our budget, we will no longer exchange funds with Multnomah County for homeless services and instead focus on providing outreach and core shelter services to our most vulnerable neighbors, as well as public space activation and maintenance.
Although Portland Solutions provides important programmatic services, reliance on one-time funding has required us to realign some funding sources and reduce some services.
Those are: our city shelter services will see a net reduction of 31%, taking the overall spend to just under $40 million.
City outreach will be reduced by 37%, or $2.8 million will be its funding amount.
Impact Reduction Program?
The total budget is set at $15 million, and it's proposed to cut its reliance on general fund by 10%.
The Public Environment Management Office, or PMO, will use 68% fewer general fund dollars by realigning previously appropriated Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund dollars to conduct approved fund-aligned programming.
On October 7th, 2015, the Portland City Council declared a housing and homelessness emergency.
To address the city's growing homeless and affordable housing crisis.
This ordinance, which has been renewed repeatedly since, emphasizes the need for emergency shelter, the ongoing shortage of affordable housing units, and the immediate need to provide and maintain housing for those who need it most.
In addition to reallocating pass-through funding historically sent to Multnomah County's Homeless Services Department, the bureau will take slight reductions in external materials and legal services.
Candace Avalos
Thank you.
Keith Wilson
Of $675,000.
Funding agreements with the Bureau of Technology will be reduced by $252,000, and we will eliminate 2 vacant data analyst positions for $298,000.
Most other services will remain intact.
Next slide.
Our budget was crafted with a significant deficit.
In turn, we had to focus on core values and deliverables with the administration and our directors focusing on a shared vision with shared priorities, shared necessity, and unfortunately shared sacrifices throughout our entire city.
Next slide.
A brief introduction as we begin to unveil Portland's Promise is a program in which we frame my approach to our investments today and in the future through the administration.
And today we'll focus on housing, which is one of our 4 foundations.
And I'd like to turn it over to Josh Roper in our Portland Housing Bureau.
Josh, thank you.
Josh Roper
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
Good afternoon, councilors and commissioners.
I'm going to spend a little time walking us through the budget.
I'll start with the housing goals for the city.
3 Listed here.
Reducing affordable housing unit vacancies is a major priority.
So piloting a home sharing program.
So the goal is to have 250 new affordable home share rooms available over the course of that pilot, and then a target of 700 Portlanders being reunified with their loved ones.
And you'll see moonshot goals to the side of 2,500 new housing permits issued in Central City by the end of 2030, and then 20,000 new housing permits issued by December 31st, 2032.
Next slide.
So I'll dive into the budget.
This is the Supplemental PHP budget, the spring budget adjustment.
This is the piece that is focused on immediate stabilization and eviction defense.
You'll see portfolio stabilization at the top.
This has been referred to as buydown, rent buydown, debt buydown work that has a stabilizing effect.
There are 3 buckets of sort of connected financial assistance, rent assistance, expanded rent assistance, and new rent So the first is focused on households before they face eviction.
The second is connected to our eviction legal defense program.
And the third is for folks who are experiencing homelessness, housing placements out of homelessness.
Then there's eviction defense services.
This is also bundled together with a potential right to counsel pilot.
Down payment assistance for tenants.
This is work that the Housing Bureau does already.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
Josh Roper
So that will supplement current work.
And then an expansion of our landlord and tenant education work with that last line.
Next slide.
And then a few other things from the same process.
So there is a social housing-focused revolving loan fund or acquisition fund.
We have a new housing investment manager.
I'm very excited about that.
She is already getting started on looking into how that will work.
Broadway Corridor Parcel 6 development, that's using TIF River District funds, and then gap financing for a specific project is the last item there.
Next slide.
And then zooming out a little bit, so $134 million for affordable multifamily development.
Our affordable multifamily development program aims to produce and preserve regulated affordable housing for low-income Portlanders.
It leverages city resources to finance the development and preservation of high-quality, long-term rent-regulated housing up to 99 years.
It also leverages other resources beyond city coffers.
And then a list of partners we work with, a non-exclusive list.
Next slide.
There's also an economic opportunity initiative in the budget for $2.1 million this is funded using CDBG, or Community Development Block Grant, dollars, and it is administered by Prosper.
So it's a pass-through to Prosper, and they administer that money.
Next slide.
Homeowner Access and Retention for $14.6 million.
This program provides services and assistance that promote homeownership and housing stability for low- to moderate-income Portlanders.
It prioritizes households and families who have been displaced or are at risk of displacement while strengthening residents' financial stability.
This includes direct services, and we also administer subrecipient contracts with service providers to deliver services like home repair.
And this also includes down payment assistance.
Next slide.
Our inclusionary housing program— this is both inclusionary housing and our development incentives work.
So that includes certain fee exemptions, property tax exemptions, bonus density, the administration of those programs.
This promotes affordable housing and otherwise market-rate developments, in particular inclusionary housing does that.
And then it assists affordable housing developed and operated by nonprofit and for-profit partners through financial incentives.
So filling gaps.
And then it also supports the creation of more affordable homeownership opportunities for low to moderate income households.
Next slide.
The Rental Services Office.
This is $27.3 million, and we'll see overlap with some of what I talked about earlier from the budget adjustment, spring budget adjustment.
This is an office in the Housing Bureau that's responsible for research and policy recommendations, program development, and regulation related to landlord-tenant policy in Portland.
It improves tenants' ability to access and maintain housing through policies for— including contract management, application and screening rules, security deposit rules, and mandatory renter relocation, and provides direct services and contracts with a range of partners, some of whom are listed here.
Next slide.
And then $3 million federal grant administration.
These aren't all of our federal grants, but we wanted to highlight this bucket.
So this is the Emergency Solutions Grant and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, or HOPWA.
So ESG and HOPWA.
And this pot of money helps people who are experiencing homelessness regain stability and permanent housing, provides housing assistance and supportive services for low-income people with HIV/AIDS and their families when we're talking about HOPWA.
And then a list of grant recipients at the bottom there.
Next slide.
Okay, I'll turn it over to Skyler.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Thanks, Josh.
Skyler Brokernop, Director of Portland Solutions, for the record.
Good to see you all.
Just very quickly, so we will be doing a budget work session on Portland Solutions budget May 12th.
So for all of my city colleagues, we'll have that in front of you.
We'll have a lot deeper dive on that.
County colleagues, you're welcome to watch it if you want more budget work session fun.
It will be online.
But just a quick overview, as the mayor mentioned, so we're seeing about a third reduction, give or take, for the shelter services budget.
We provide currently overnight alternative shelter and day center services right now, and we've already had some news.
So you all have gotten emails thank you.
I know there's been some questions about our Northwest Northrup overnight shelter.
We're still in legal negotiations on when that would close, so I'll let you know as soon as we have a finalized date.
There's been some media on certain dates, but I promise you there's not a finalized date yet.
The lawyers are still negotiating, so as soon as we know, you will know.
But right now we're just figuring out when that ramp-down period would be.
The Centennial overnight shelter is ramping down right now for the end of this month.
So it'll be closed later this week.
We've had a long process with that organization as they've dissolved and will be dissolved at the end of this fiscal year, Sunstone Way.
And then Widler Village, you also got an email about, which is an alternative shelter that we are slowly closing down.
It's the oldest Safe Rest Village in the portfolio.
It has probably about 23 pods that are no longer usable.
They're end of life.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
But 15 will be reallocated across the system.
So we're looking at the best ways to add those pods to other villages for the most efficient kind of use of resources.
More to come on that as well.
So we're still looking at what the total budget might be and what some different proposals would be from our shelter services team.
That will be part of the discussion for the budget work session on the 12th.
Next slide, please.
And then just quickly on our city outreach team.
So it's called the Street Services Coordination Center, and they're seeing about a third of their budget cut as well, just due to funding constraints.
Most of that will be from a loss of a contracted outreach team.
So we're retaining our city FTE, so it's about 9 outreach workers, and we're gonna be losing a contracted outreach service.
Josh Roper
Thank you.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
But we're hoping to make it work.
We'll dive in more during that budget work session on the 12th again, but I'll leave it there because I know we're tight on time.
Jillian Schoney
Thanks.
Wonderful.
Thanks to all of you.
Okay, now to part 3, the impact of proposed budgets.
So thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Mayor, staff.
Our final section of the presentation is laying out a few scenarios relative to inflow and outflow.
The goal of this exercise is to inform the investment I'm going to lay out 2 investment decisions before you that y'all will debate and discuss over the next several weeks.
Your final decisions will also lay the groundwork for the goal setting related to our new key performance indicators that the SOC will take up later this summer after all of you collectively set the trajectory.
Before we get to those scenarios, I'm going to explain in very brief how we estimate projected inflow and outflow because they are different.
Meghan Moyer
Thank you.
Jillian Schoney
Next slide.
So first, a reminder that we don't completely control inflow.
There are a variety of factors that directly or indirectly influence an individual or a family's ability to stay housed.
What we've done here to illustrate that is pull a variety of news headlines, of recent news headlines, stories about layoffs or low wages or not enough work in the face of rising costs of living impeding a family's ability to pay that rent, um, manage increases in food bills, utility bills, gas bills, costly health events, trauma that happens such as domestic violence.
I think all of you are very well aware of that.
And if you read through the first part of Portland State's recently released Pathways report, it's the financial challenges and trauma that are the 2 leading common experiences that causes someone to become homeless.
Next slide.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Jillian Schoney
In addition to that, there are the investment decisions made by other governments, the consequences of which land on our— the doorstep of local government and the literal doorstep of members of our community.
Recent examples include the state largely walking away from eviction prevention, the federal cuts to food assistance that have already affected tens of thousands of Oregonians, and the threat that HUD is about to walk away in large part from investments in permanent supportive housing.
We here at the local level are asked to respond to the consequences of all those decisions, and we do.
The city and the county both spend millions of dollars each year on eviction prevention, and County Human Services spends millions more on other stability programs to keep people housed, particularly households with children.
But it's not enough to overcome what we can't control, as we thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'm going to start with the good news.
We are seeing a decline in homelessness.
We're seeing a decline in homelessness that we see in our monthly inflow data.
The big exception to this, and I want to give credit where credit is due, is that more deeply affordable housing is the leading homelessness prevention strategy, and I don't want to leave that unsaid.
The city and the region do have measurable, measurable control over that with Metro and the state as partners.
We need to build more housing overall and correct for what the market will never build.
BPS and PHB are putting a lot of time and energy and smart thinking into that right now, and they recently presented to the SOC last Friday, and it's just, it's all great, phenomenal work.
So I want to say that, all that.
So what all of this means is that it is impossible to predict with absolute certainty that every single household would have become homeless if not for our eviction prevention support.
For example, if we prevent the court-ordered eviction of one person or family, we cannot yes.
Confident— confidently translate that into a one-for-one reduction in inflow to literal homelessness.
So what do we do for inflow?
What we do in our calculation is that we look at overall trends— how many people are new to our system each month compared to the overall investments in imminent prevention work and specifically the changes in those event— uh, uh, in those investments from one fiscal year to the next.
In other words, if inflow numbers are on an upward trend and we cut our eviction prevention investments, we project generally that inflow will get worse.
Conversely, if inflow is staying roughly the same and y'all choose to increase our eviction prevention investments, we estimate generally that inflow would decrease.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you.
Jillian Schoney
Outflow is different.
It's much more straightforward.
We know that for about $13,000 on our, our average cost per housing placement, you increase our outflow by 1.
So we can estimate with higher confidence how your investments will influence outflow.
For example, on Wednesday, a person was in one of our shelters.
We housed them on Thursday.
We've got that move-in date put in HMIS.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you.
Jillian Schoney
And so it is, it is a one-to-one from our homeless count directly off of our by-name list and into our housed count.
Much more straightforward.
So next slide.
Knowing that these are estimations, my proposition to you is that we should use our best data to focus on what we can control to reshape our impact.
And right now our system is not financially sustainable.
It's not balanced.
We can't get there in one fiscal year, especially in a cuts year, but we can begin to set ourselves on a better trajectory that over time will create that effective, balanced, and reliable homelessness response system we need here in Portland and Multnomah County.
With that, I'll pass it to Ryan, who will run through some high-level projections for you.
Eric Zimmerman
Thank you, Mayor.
Ryan Deibert
So if I did my job in the intro, this curve should look familiar.
Each of the red bars here reflects the actual data from our by-name list of the total number of people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County measured each month for the past 2 years.
So again, that's our KPI number one that we're tracking and will continue to track.
Again, remember that within this graph, there's a really dynamic picture of thousands of people moving in and out of homelessness each month.
It's definitely not static.
So this is definitely not a static population, but with inflow outpacing outflow, the overall numbers continue to grow each month.
So the first scenario that we wanted to present today assumes that we continue with essentially the same level and mix of investments in prevention and housing placement that we have in our current fiscal year that's underway right now.
Unsurprisingly, the general trend represented here by the black line continues on the same general course with continued growth in the by-name list, adding hundreds of people each month and totaling several thousand additional people experiencing homelessness over the next 2 years.
More specifically, I would say this is the picture of maintaining heavy investments in shelter, especially at the expense of housing placement to move people quickly out of shelter and back to stability.
In that scenario, things only continue to get worse.
Our shelters will fill up, We get further and further away from outflow beating inflow.
If you go to the next slide, I'm glad to say though that the mayor and chair are proposing a better scenario.
So this slide illustrates the estimated impacts of the proposed executive budgets on both the city and the county side.
You just heard the summaries of those.
This is what it looks like to bring those together numerically.
Again, the status quo is represented by the black line and the estimated impact of the proposed executive budgets are represented by the blue line.
Even with the revenue constraints that we face in fiscal year '27, these budgets propose moving to that more balanced system by cutting some shelter resources while adding resources to prevention and housing placement work.
You can see the meaningful change in the trajectory here when you do that.
We begin to bend the curve.
That's the good news.
But with constrained resources, we still do not beat inflow by an estimate of a little more than 1,600 people across the fiscal year.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you.
Ryan Deibert
So again, this is what it looks like to rebalance our system in the right direction, even if it's not fully resourced for maximum impact.
If we can go to the next slide.
Luckily for you, as the legislative bodies for our jurisdictions, your decisions don't have to end at the executive budget proposals.
You've charged us to help you think collectively about how you can do more.
And so we wanna help you consider some additional scenarios, specifically—.
Eric Zimmerman
Thank you.
Ryan Deibert
We want you to understand how increases in levels of effort on the front end in prevention and on the back end in housing placement affect the estimated trajectories.
So this first scenario isn't a hypothetical, actually.
Since the Chair's proposed budget was filed, the Department of County Human Services did some work to estimate what it would take to draw down more Medicaid-funded eviction prevention money from the one-time health-related social needs that's a federally funded Medicaid money that's carved out for eviction prevention to support people on the Oregon Health Plan who are facing both health and housing instability.
The program started through Oregon's most recent Medicaid waiver, and it's due to expire in September of 2027.
So in that sense, this is use it or lose it, likely one-time statewide resource.
Mitch Green
Thank you.
Ryan Deibert
And DCHS is pretty certain we can use more of it in Multnomah County in the next year.
If DCHS were to hire 3 more limited duration FTE at a total cost of around $300,000, they think that would give them the capacity to draw down an additional $7.8 million in Medicaid prevention assistance for eligible households that they otherwise wouldn't have the capacity to serve.
We estimate that the subsequent reduction in inflow would further bend this curve beyond the current proposed budgets should the county board decide to go in that direction.
Again, the status quo is the black line, the proposed executive budgets are the blue line, and the dashed yellow line shows the estimated impact of that additional Medicaid prevention spending coming into our community.
So again, inflow would still outpace outflow for the year, but less so than without the additional federal resources in the mix.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you.
Ryan Deibert
Next slide.
And then last, we wanna demonstrate a scenario that builds on that additional Medicaid-funded prevention resource and adds an additional $5 million in investment in housing placement beyond the current proposed budgets.
So that scenario is represented here as the green dotted line.
So combined, we estimate that those actions would draw us nearly even even.
Even, inflow to outflow on the year, shifting us from year-to-year increases of people experiencing homelessness in the thousands instead to increases potentially in the hundreds.
In several of those months across the next fiscal year under this scenario, you might see outflow outpacing inflow.
And on average across the year, monthly inflow might outpace outflow by closer to 30 people compared to our current rates of about 300.
So it's important to keep in mind that the outflow-focused housing placement investments are scalable too.
So for each $5 million that you invest, it's reasonable to expect that you increase annual outflow by more than 300 people.
We estimate that you'd need to increase housing placement investments by roughly $11 million beyond the executive proposed budgets to get to a net neutral line here where inflow equals outflow for the year.
Investments beyond that additional $11 million could actually bend that curve negative again.
In a budget year as tough as this one though, I anticipate that it's both— this is both a challenging and sobering set of projections, but I hope it helps us collectively understand that you have some solid options to begin moving things in the right direction.
And that your alignment across our jurisdictions can sustain and expand on that progress in future fiscal years.
I'll kick it back to Jillian.
Jillian Schoney
Yeah, just some key takeaways, Council President, before I kick it back to you.
What we— I think we have demonstrated is that your budgets can and should work together to bend the curve.
I think the proposed budgets have done that.
Continued heavy investments in shelter at the expense of prevention and placement will only lead to increased increases in overall homelessness and unsheltered homelessness.
We need enough prevention, enough shelter, and enough placement to create an effective, balanced, and reliable system.
And cuts are hard, yet the proposals in front of you do put us on a better pathway forward.
So I think that is to be noted and celebrated.
Thank you so much.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you very much, team.
So colleagues, we have about 75 minutes and there are 14 of us.
That means we each get We have about 5 minutes of time to ask questions and back and forth.
So, uh, uh, City Council colleagues, feel free to throw your hand up in the queue.
Uh, County colleagues, just make eye contact with me and I'll add you to the list.
Uh, Councilor Green.
Mitch Green
Thank you, uh, Council President.
I threw my hand up because I had a technical question on the slide, but I guess we're, we're just now in the broad thing, so I'll— maybe I'll ask my question and come back in the queue if I, I have more.
Or maybe I'll do it all now.
We'll see.
Can you go back to the trend line?
I think the first trend line data that you were presenting, please.
Ryan?
Yeah, that's it.
Perfect.
Ryan Deibert
So my question is, on the predicted trend line, is that a sort of So what we're able to do is to, we take, we look at the current trends in inflow, we project that forward.
We look at our current levels of investment in moving people back into housing, subtract that from inflow, and that's how you get that line carried forward.
Thank you.
Steve Novick
Okay.
Mitch Green
I think that answers my question.
It's a little hard to see that continuing on a straight line out that years.
I understand forecasting is an imprecise science.
But if that's the case, that's alarming.
I appreciate the sort of later slides where you look at the effect of the proposed budgets and then, you know, sort of a function of the effort approach.
Sameer Kanal
Yes.
Mitch Green
To bend or sort of flatten the curve.
That's good.
I want to make sure I heard you correctly though.
You said at the end of your presentation that for each $5 million that we invest— and I'm not sure exactly where we were investing, was it, was it the sort of placement stuff?
Okay, placements.
Then for each $5 million, we reduce or we increase outflows by 300 people.
Is—.
Did I hear that correctly?
Ryan Deibert
Yeah, it varies depending on the level of intervention.
Our current estimates of around $13,000 per household would yield about 380 households that you could place.
For folks with higher levels of acuity that need additional support, those costs can be higher.
So I hedged my statement to 300 instead of 380.
Mitch Green
Okay, that's good to know that there's already that hedge built in 'cause I was gonna then ask, Does this scale linearly?
Like if you were to say, okay, $5 million gets you something, but does $10 million get you twice what $5 million got?
Does $15 million get you 3 times what $5 million got?
I sort of start to— I feel like intuitively that there's going to be some bottleneck and scale issues there potentially.
But the $300 versus the $350 is a way to kind of hedge that a little bit.
So in our proposed budget, that we're contemplating, we are not sending $31 million to the county, and we are instead putting that into Portland Solutions to do our own overnight shelter program and alternative shelter program.
That, by my math, that's— you divide 5 into $30 million 6 times, so that would reduce— that would increase outflow by 1,800 people.
That's not true.
Candace Avalos
Roughly?
Ryan Deibert
Roughly, if you were to invest it that way, yes.
Mitch Green
So instead of maintaining a year of an overnight shelter program that on the first data slide shows that we've only increased our unsheltered population since then, we could, we could house 1,800 people by this.
Okay, I think that's all I've got for now.
Candace Avalos
Thanks.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Green.
Next in the queue is going to be Avalos Singleton Novick.
Councilor Avalos.
Candace Avalos
Great, thank you.
Thank you all for your presentation.
Um, before I get to my question, I just want to acknowledge something important that I'm seeing in these presentations.
I really appreciate the emphasis on eviction prevention and rent assistance, rapid rehousing, uh, and housing stabilization strategies.
Those investments matter deeply, and they have a real impact on Portlanders that are trying to stay housed.
I also want to be clear that many of those investments happened because members of this council pushed hard for them prior— during prior budget discussions and the spring budget adjustment that we just did last week or 2 weeks ago.
So I want to thank my co-sponsors of Keep Portland Housed who partnered with me to ensure that we're investing in the stabilizing methods that we are seeing in this data are helpful.
Because frankly, without those investments, much of the— what I see of the broader direction of the city's presentation is still heavily centered on shelter operations and public environment management, downstream crisis response.
And so I think it's important that we recognize the distinction between investments that stabilize people upstream versus investments that manage the impacts of homelessness after they've already fallen into crisis.
And what also stood out to me is that the data and projections that we were shown appear to reinforce the importance of those upstream investments.
The presentations identify housing costs, wage stagnation, evictions, and broader economic instability as the major drivers of inflows.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Candace Avalos
And also those projections are showing or suggesting that increasing prevention investments improves the long-term trajectory compared to simply continuing the current approach.
So what I'm trying to better understand is whether the city and county are operating from different theories of change when it comes to the homelessness response system, because the county presentation to me seems to point strongly toward prevention and stabilization and reducing inflow upstream.
While I see many of the city's investments still appear concentrated in shelter activation, public environment.
So my question is, if the data and projections are telling us that prevention and housing stabilization meaningful— meaningfully reduce inflow, how are the city and county currently dividing responsibilities across the homelessness response system?
And does the city see its role differently from the county when it comes to prevention versus downstream response?
Councilmember Koyama Lane, And I'll just for time, I'll add my second part of my question and anyone is willing or is able to answer.
And then I also just in general worry that we are increasingly investing in managing the visibility of homelessness rather than reducing homelessness itself.
So how are we ensuring that activation, shelter management, and public environment strategies are not crowding out investments in prevention, stabilization, and permanent exits to housing?
I don't know who that— who can answer that.
I don't know if that's like a leadership question, if that's, you know, you all as staff.
I'll just kind of leave it open for whoever is willing.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Thanks.
Jillian Schoney
Do either the mayor or the chair want to take that first, and then we can layer in?
Josh Roper
You can go ahead, Mayor.
Keith Wilson
I think Councilor Avalos— I think Councilor Avalos has already heard from me so much over the last year or so, so I would say from the high level, I understand your question.
We want the most effective dollars to be used where necessary.
I think Councilor Green hit on a very important point.
You know, if there's $40 million in the sheltering services, the majority of that is in our alternative shelters and SRV sites.
I'd be loath to close those because those are individuals that are currently housed in it 24/7.
So if we were to use that, That strategy of taking $5 million reduction in shelter for 300 souls to be housed at 18,000 souls that are listed, it would only reduce it by 600.
And we would be— we wouldn't be able to provide a public safety response to those suffering on the street.
So I'd be loath to remove and reduce that because as the City of Portland and as the mayor, you know, our purview is public safety.
Jillian Schoney
Thank you.
Keith Wilson
And public space to care for our community members.
And so my point would be, I think we have to continue to have a shelter system and a fully funded continuum of care.
But I think if we remove one in favor or overweight another, then we have a system that's not gonna be fully functioning and meeting our community members where they're at at that particular moment.
So.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yeah, I'll just add a little bit to, I think, Yes, we have different responsibilities, and I think we— the city gets a lot of the immediate things are on fire, literally, calls.
We have all the first responders.
We manage the public space.
I think as long as there are people living in the public space, the city will be asked to manage that.
So I just named that.
I think we're going to probably be in the shelter system or some similar kind of business as long as there are people living on the streets.
Councilor Smith.
The streets of Portland.
And so I think there's a tension there.
But I also will say we work with our county partners every single day because of exactly what Jillian and Ryan were walking us through.
So I'll just mention today I had a call with someone at the county about, okay, if we're able to have a little bit of carryover of this color of money, could we use this for a few more placements?
And how would that help both the city and the county in the system to house more So that's happening every single day, and we're trying to make sure those hydraulics make sense.
We're just doing the best we can with the information we have, and I think it's always a balance, and you're always trying to learn, but you're doing it in real time because we're taking emails, phone calls, and thousands of reports every single day on what's going on on the streets of Portland.
So I think we're all just trying to manage all those manifestations and really help people.
There's a lot of ways to do that, and I think it's not a one-to-one.
So what the mayor is saying about alternatives thank you.
Loretta Smith
So I think that's a great question.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
So when we think about alternative shelter, what I've seen personally is there are some folks who we could put with the housing placement right now and they will succeed and they will do great, and that's awesome.
And there's some folks that are going to need some time to stabilize, to have wraparound services, and are not quite ready.
And an alternative shelter is a great spot for them for right now.
It's an expensive resource, but I always say you also have to think about the ROI.
So a jail bed, a the return on investment of your investment dollars.
So a jail bed, a bed at Unity, a bed at a hospital, an ED visit, those are all incredibly expensive as well.
So I think we're just weighing all those different elements, but I think we have to be really intentional in how we make those investments.
And I think the mayor and the chair really debated all of those pieces with their proposed budgets.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
And Councilor, if I could, I just, I appreciate the question so much.
I think there is a difference in the roles between the city and the county, and I think— and I'm happy to explain my perspective on that.
But I think the important thing is like it's not just about the difference in roles, but how are we making sure that in the work that's being done, whatever it is, that we're not duplicating services, that we're not creating parallel systems that aren't working, that we're not— that we're being efficient about and really leaning into the strengths of each of our governments.
So for me, Multnomah County is responsible Councilor Smith.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Thank you, Mayor.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
I think that we're all responsible for addressing homelessness overall, which is why for me, as I was putting my budget together, making sure that we were investing in our overall system in a smart way so that we're not overinvesting in one part of our system in an unsustainable way that doesn't actually bend that curve that we were seeing before.
And that was why the decision to have to cut shelter beds, for instance, was made so that we could have more resources to invest in eviction prevention, in housing placement dollars, Thank you.
And in permanent housing, right?
Um, I think the thing that I haven't heard yet that is so critical though to the success that we're having is something that is truly a city-focused, um, a city responsibility is housing and building housing.
Like, that is just something that, that is not in the wheelhouse of the county, but it is critical to the solutions that we need in order to get more affordable housing options for people.
And then I will say the other thing that the that the county does that we, we are, you know, always in dialogue and in partnership, but really, um, is a, is a, um, county thing as the local, um, mental health authority, is behavioral health issues and, and the investments that we've made there and the work that we do with our partners too.
Candace Avalos
Thank you for those responses.
Um, I'll— I think I'll just end because I, uh, Commissioner Singleton, you're after me, right?
So maybe I'll pose this because you might want to speak to this because I know we've discussed this a lot around like public space management and, you know, That being an explicit role of the city, yes.
But I think my growing concern is that exactly what the Chair said of like these parallel systems.
And if the county is deciding based on their data to make certain investments in things that are going to actually start to work to that, if the city's not on the same page and they're making investments in things that you are de-investing from, there's another word for that, uninvesting?
Jamie Dunphy
Disinvesting.
Candace Avalos
Disinvesting, okay, thank you.
Then what does that mean for our partnership?
That's what I don't understand as we're entering this budget, trying to figure out again, what is our specific role that we have all identified as the city's role?
And I agree that housing is our main one, but this is what I'm trying to square is like, if we are disinvesting, why can I not think of that word?
In an area at the county that we're investing in at the city.
I mean, I'm not saying that that's not overall a negative thing, right?
There might be things where it's like, we're gonna go lower here so we can go higher there.
But I don't know that I'm really seeing how the data is reflecting how those investments are shifting.
And I just want to understand, you know, especially from the mayor and the chair who are proposing the first budget, how you're looking at that, how you're working together to come to the investments that you've put forward.
So I'll just leave that as open-ended for people to respond to.
But thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Avalos.
Next 3 are going to be Singleton, Novick, Kanal.
Commissioner Singleton.
Commissioner Singleton
Thank you.
And Councilor Avalos, I agree.
I think some of our conversation has been How does the council want to show up in this work?
And if it is around community safety and public space management, there are lots of options for you all on what that means.
And you and I've talked a little bit about a model in Seattle, a program called We Deliver Care, that does this very differently than we do here.
I think that you have day centers and thinking about how you want to invest in those.
It may be that overnight-only shelters make 24/7 makes sense for services.
I think that's part of what we're all wrestling with, and I think you all will have to wrestle with as a council as you're looking at how you want to show up in the budget.
But I do agree, the duplicative administrative structure is something that comes up not just in this part of the system.
It is coming out as a core recommendation out of the Eviction Prevention Workgroup.
I think that's a good point.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Commissioner Singleton
I think we've heard from the legal services group that contractors do not want to continue having legal services contracts with both the city and the county, and our rent assistance contractors do not want to continue managing 2 contracts, one with the city and the county.
So I do think we have to figure out how to say, you all do legal services and eviction prevention well, you pay for that.
We do this part well, we'll pay for that.
And if there's additional funds that need to pass through, then that's something we should consider.
And I'd love to keep getting into the weeds on the actual numbers with you on that as all of our budgets progress.
I do want to ask a couple of questions, and I apologize because the slides aren't numbered, so I'm just going to say it's the housing goals slide, and it talks about reducing vacancies and affordable units.
I know on the last steering and oversight committee, we heard that there are 1,600 vacant units in Affordable housing.
Do we know what the income level, the AMI level of those units are?
Josh Roper
I don't have that offhand, but we can look into it.
Okay.
Commissioner Singleton
I would love to look at what those— no, and if there's any at 0 to 30, like, okay, let's get those right now, right?
We've got folks on fixed income who qualify for that.
Let's move them.
I'm concerned that most of them are in the 60% AMI level.
And we know from our data that the folks in our homelessness services system So they're still not making enough money to live in those vacant units.
And we have got to reconcile, I think, as 2 bodies, are we going to continue to subsidize in private market, or are we going to put subsidies into our affordable portfolio and buy these rents down so that we can serve more people?
I think we have to have a more earnest conversation about that.
Loretta Smith
And there's been a lot of, you know, the mayor has been very vocal about this.
Josh Roper
I think we have to have a more earnest We've conversation about that.
Commissioner Singleton
And there's been a lot known of, you know, about these vacancies for almost a year now, and I don't feel like I'm seeing a lot of movement on how we're filling them.
I don't know what is needed or if you all have an idea or a concept on what will move forward next.
I know this is about budget, but I feel like if I need to make budget investments to activate those vacancies, I want to know that now.
So I'm curious what the plan is or if there is a plan to address those vacant units.
Josh Roper
Yeah, I'll say you're right.
Right.
At a high level, I don't have the specific numbers, but it is primarily the 60% units, not the deeper affordability units.
One piece is the budget adjustment, $8.8 million, that is focused on some form of buydown that it's meant to translate into lower rents.
So that is an area that PHB has done work in already, and I think that investment will be meaningful.
And there is broader work happening around vacancy activation led by the mayor and team.
So there is work happening.
It is a large undertaking to sort of shift these units toward usability for people experiencing homelessness in a meaningful way.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Commissioner, I would also just share there's another table that's focused kind of on stabilizing buildings.
So looking at the 20 buildings that are kind of most affected for a lot of different factors and reasons.
Without getting too far into the weeds, and I'm happy to go through it with you at some point, but we looked at kind of BOEC calls per building, and, you know, in some cases it's averaging a call to 911 per unit per month.
So that's really high.
And so there's a lot of vacant units in those buildings, and we're trying to figure out how to stabilize and create some sense of security for folks because We're hearing folks anecdotally are saying, I won't move in there, or folks who are living there are saying, we don't feel safe.
So I think there's a couple different aspects that we're working on to try to make sure that we stabilize current buildings and then also move folks in.
Commissioner Singleton
Thank you.
And I definitely will get into the weeds with you, so I'll follow up.
I would just say at some point we need to bring this to a case staffing level.
I know there are plenty of caseworkers who have a handful of people that they are looking for apartments for.
So to have high-level conversations about vacancies and not connect it to the work on the ground is a disservice.
So we should try to figure that piece out.
My last question, at least for now, although I might have taken more than 5 minutes, are how many 0 to 30% units are in the development pipeline for the Housing Bureau right now?
Josh Roper
Sorry, I'd have to get back to you.
Commissioner Singleton
Okay, no worries.
And part of what I want to start getting yeah.
And generally, when I've looked at the pipeline, it is maybe a couple of units in each building that are at 0 to 30, but the majority being in that 30 to 60, 60 to 80% income level, which is, you know, these are teachers, these are workforce that most of this is built for.
So we're not really addressing the need for folks exiting homelessness.
And that outflow trajectory will never look different if we don't figure out the actual way for those folks to afford housing in the long run.
At a minimum, people who are stuck on fixed income will continue to be at 0 to 30.
So we've got to figure out how to, how to get more development at that end.
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Commissioner Singleton.
We have Novick, Kanal.
Did Jones-Dixon leave?
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Oh, he had to leave.
He had to leave about 15 minutes ago.
Jamie Dunphy
Oh shoot, well, I should have called him sooner.
Okay, we're gonna go Novick, Kanal, Smith.
Steve Novick
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, on out— I have 3 questions.
One on outflow.
I think Ryan said that, um, of the 1,300 per month of outflow, about 400 move into permanent housing and the rest become inactive.
Um, okay, I'm a little confused by that.
It seems like to me outflow would be moving into permanent housing.
What does become inactive mean?
Does it mean that they're still homeless but we don't know, but they aren't accessing services?
Jessica Vega-Peterson
You wanna take that?
Ryan Deibert
Yeah, it means that at some point they've accessed services, they've ended their access to services, and then don't initiate additional services for at least 90 days.
At that point, they're considered inactive and they move off of the list.
There is a chunk of inflow that's accounted for by people coming out of, back out of inactivity.
So they were inactive for at least 90 days, then they access services again, they come back in on inflow, and we track that separately.
But that's what it's meant to capture.
Steve Novick
Okay, so is your best guess that most of them don't actually exit homelessness, they just stop accessing services?
Ryan Deibert
Yeah, if you look, just if you just compare, and I can look it up, the actual numbers, but if you compare the number who leave to inactivity in any given compared to the number who come back from inactivity, the folks who return from inactivity are quite a bit lower than the number of folks who leave to inactivity.
Steve Novick
Huh.
Ryan Deibert
So it's pretty reasonable to assume that they are moving out of that, moving out of homelessness entirely.
Steve Novick
Okay.
We just don't know that they moved into permanent housing, but they might have.
Keith Wilson
Correct.
Steve Novick
Okay.
Next question.
I think this feeds a bit into Councilor Green's comment about scalability and the the chair's comment about the city role being housing.
When you say that we can expect to place one person in housing for every $13,000 we spend, to what extent is that dependent on the overall supply of housing growing?
Could we do that forever with the current supply of housing, or at some point would we run into the fact that we just don't have enough housing, so $13,000 won't buy you a new place?
Jillian Schoney
Josh, do you want to—.
Josh Roper
I mean, I mean, I'd have to look at the numbers to answer that specifically, but at some point, yes, we're going to run out of supply, or we're going to get to a point where vacancy is low enough that there is just a constrained market that really won't accommodate the kind of throughput that we need to lower the numbers.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
And finally, can you give me a sense of what that $13,000 per person pays for?
What is it usually?
Jillian Schoney
Anna Plum's going to come up, interim director of the Homelessness Services Department.
I meant to invite her up earlier, my apologies.
Anna Plum
Good afternoon, everyone.
For the record, my name is Anna Plum.
I'm the interim director for Multnomah County Homeless Services.
So the $13,000 a household is what we estimate for our rapid rehousing program, which is up to 2 years of a combination of rent assistance and case management.
So that $13,000 is exactly I'll say that.
Some of it is rent assistance and some of it is funding to pay for FTE to support folks as they're navigating through housing case management.
I want to be clear, $13,000 is a pretty low estimate.
It's what we use for budgeting because we are able to, across the span of folks' need, kind of land on that as an average.
But we have consistently heard that higher amounts would be better.
And I do also want to flag that all of those estimates are built upon assuming that person only needs that shorter-term investment.
We do know there's a— Jillian kind of alluded to this earlier, or maybe it was Ryan, one of the smart people— that we also have a lot of folks who could— who need a higher thank you.
Steve Novick
I was going to ask about that last point.
I mean, do we have statistics on how many people who got $13,000 worth of assistance for 2 years are fine afterwards and don't need any more assistance?
Anna Plum
Yes, we report on that monthly on our dashboard.
And so, and the key point that you noted is we look at retention and we look at retention rates.
And at 24 months, it's in the high 80s of folks who are maintaining that housing 2 years after the subsidy has ended.
Steve Novick
2 Years after it ended?
Loretta Smith
Yeah.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Novick.
Ryan Deibert
I'm sorry, to your earlier question, I was able to look at the actual numbers because they're available on the Homeless Services Department dashboard.
You can think it varies month to month, but you can think of it's about 900-ish folks that are leaving homelessness to inactivity or to employment.
And about 200-ish that are returning from inactivity.
Steve Novick
So again, so that gap is of people who are not returning is significant.
Thanks.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Novick.
Councilor Kanal, then Smith, then Moyer.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you to presenters.
Always good to have our colleagues from across the river.
I have 2 questions and a comment, so please be brief if you can.
Josh, you had a section on what the RSO office does.
That says that it creates policy recommendations.
Have I missed it, or has the Rental Services Office made any pro-renter policy recommendations to council since 2025?
And is there anything in the works right now on this?
Josh Roper
I think one of the more exciting pieces connected to this is the evaluation work that's getting started.
So that's going to be an opportunity to look with consultant support, but at landlord-tenant policy sort of globally within Portland, including our existing programs, our existing laws, Fair mandatory relocation, other policies.
And out of that, we're going to have sort of a community-involved process, and I suspect some recommendations will come forth from that.
Also, the social housing work— we have a technical assistance panel.
There's a work group that's focused on tenant protections and stability.
So we've convened that group, and they are focused on developing a set of recommendations that will ultimately make its way to council under the sort of social housing umbrella.
Sameer Kanal
I'd like to hear that, and I'd like to make sure that that's centering renters in this conversation when you convene those workgroups.
Thanks.
Sky, there's a slide that talks about closing a safe rest village.
I think there was some missing context there.
The slide referred to the village in District 2 as Widler Village.
What's the other name for that village?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
It's the BIPOC Affinity Village.
We changed it because of the federal requirements, kind of in consultation with the City Attorney's Office.
Sameer Kanal
Yeah, so I think we're seeing a step back from equity here that I want to call out explicitly in terms of that name change without any real knowledge in terms of the executive order.
The mayor also has come out against doing the bare minimum to try to determine if ICE impersonators are harassing immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and other communities of color.
That was earlier today while we've been in here.
And so I wanna just get, keeping it on the housing piece, but noting that there is a broader context, it's really disconcerting to see that step back.
And I wanna know how we're going to ensure that we're doing anything to support beyond, you know, after we're closing this off.
And that's a rhetorical question, so I'll stop here and reserve my other 2 and a half minutes, but thank you.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
I, uh, Councilor, I will just say quickly, um, we are making efforts, um, right now to work with every single member, um, who participant in that village.
Um, a lot of those folks are Spanish-speaking immigrants, so we are working with them, um, to make sure we have Spanish, um, language services wherever they're placed.
Um, but we'll continue to work with each participant.
Happy to talk to you more about it.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Kanal.
Councilor Smith, then Moyer, then Brim Edwards.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you for, uh, the presentation.
I appreciate it.
Um, I appreciate the presentation, Jillian and, and Sky.
Miss, um, Brockman-Knapp, her new name.
Uh, question, uh, there's been a lot of talk about the, uh, overnight shelter in Northwest Portland.
It's a 200-bed, uh, shelter.
How much does that cost to operate a year?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yeah, great question.
I think it's around $2.1 million if I remember correctly, but don't hold me to that.
It's about an $18,000 a month lease, so it is one of our most expensive kind of overnight shelter leases.
And our average kind of participant level has hovered around 130 people maximum, kind of 115 to 130 people.
Loretta Smith
And so we're closing that shelter, correct?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yes, so we're in current negotiations with the landlord, so I don't want to— I mean, Yes, we anticipate closing.
I just don't know exactly when it's going to be.
Loretta Smith
And I'm trying to separate the operator, which is Salvation Army.
Candace Avalos
Correct.
Loretta Smith
And so it costs them $2.1 million to run.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
$2.1 Is the entire cost, I believe.
So the lease would be a part of that and kind of any food service that they offer and bedding and materials, that kind of thing.
Loretta Smith
So I imagine we had to have a private sector lease on the, the North Fruit.
That's, that's separate from the operating costs.
And I imagine we had to have a long-term lease.
Did we have a 5-year or 10-year lease?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
That lease is a little complicated.
So I think it was maximum of 10 years and then has different points within the lease that you can get out of basically the lease at different periods of time.
Loretta Smith
And it's probably going to cost us a lot of money to get out of that lease.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
The negotiations are ongoing.
I think my guess is we will pay maybe a couple extra months, maybe, of the lease cost.
Loretta Smith
Oh, really?
Only a couple months?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
That's my hope, and I'm sorry to the lawyers if I'm overstepping.
Loretta Smith
No, no, what I'm trying to figure out, because I know generally when you have those private sector leases, they won't let you out for 2 months.
They're gonna, they're gonna make you pay a huge premium for breaking the lease.
And if it is a 10-year lease, I'm concerned that we may not have the money in the budget to pay that long-term lease that they're going to request us to pay.
If it was only going to be 2 months, that would have been a done deal.
You wouldn't have to have lawyers.
But we're not going to get out of that unscathed.
And I just want to know what that amount is and where it's coming from.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yeah, absolutely, Councilor.
So I will say all of our leases by law have to have a non-appropriations clause.
So if you folks don't appropriate money, kind of, that will go toward that, we are able to get out of that lease.
So there is a penalty clause in that lease, and that would be the extra couple months that we're negotiating over.
So happy to get into the details with you, maybe with the attorneys though, 'cause I don't know what I'm kind of allowed to say while they're in active negotiations.
Loretta Smith
I don't have to go into the attorneys with this.
I'm just thinking, as when I was reading the stories, I was like, this is gonna cost us a lot of money to get out of this lease.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
I think I'm actually— it's looking good.
Okay, okay.
I can, I can keep you updated, but I've actually been really appreciative of the negotiations.
Loretta Smith
So we have 8 overnight shelters, correct?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yes.
Loretta Smith
And how many are we closing in this new budget?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
So right now, we actually this fiscal year have closed the Centennial overnight shelter.
Everything else so Northrop was kind of one of our first decision points because of the cost.
Everything else we're looking at right now.
I'll probably have a proposal for you for the budget work session that we're going to do on the 12th, but my shelter services team is kind of running every single potential option.
Loretta Smith
So the mayor did not identify that he was going to cut any— because he said shelter services were going to be cut 30%, and I'm trying to figure out what does that look like?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yeah, so we are too.
So based on kind of the money— based on the money that we have now within the budget, so a 30% cut, we're looking at a variety of different scenarios that include consolidation or closure or flex capacity only during the winter season, for example, and what all those hydraulics might be.
So I'll be able to present maybe some of those scenarios for you and maybe what we recommend from an operational standpoint.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
So I'm, I'm, I haven't read the entire budget.
We got that late last week, but I'm trying to figure out the— did the mayor not give you direction on what he wanted in terms of overnight shelters?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
He has told us this is the budget that we're to work with and to make some scenarios and some proposals based on that amount of money.
So that's what we're going through right now, is that process.
Loretta Smith
Okay, okay.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Of kind of some options.
Loretta Smith
And, but we do know that we're gonna eliminate Centennial, which is in my district, and the, the Northrop shelter.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yes, and Centennial, we're talking to them about potentially flexing up and using them in the wintertime, but that's an ongoing discussion.
Loretta Smith
Okay, perfect.
Yep, thank you.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yes, absolutely.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Commissioner Moyer, then Brem Edwards, then Koyama Lane.
Meghan Moyer
I do think a lot about what the city is funding and what the county is funding and how we better, um, create a coherent system for people.
I don't want individuals to get caught up in different systems, which is, is hard.
I mean, it just is.
So some of the questions I have is around you know, I think we're both funding various forms of outreach, and I'm really unclear, do we need that much overlapping outreach?
What are city outreach versus county-funded outreach?
I feel similarly around case management.
I have feelings about case management.
I don't think it's appropriate for a provider to then also be case manager.
That's a conflict of interest, um, if it's true case management, which would be having the ability to access resources, uh, and, and help find an appropriate next step in somebody's, uh, journey to— in their recovery.
Um, but I, I'm wondering, to what degree are our 2 systems talking about what— who's doing what type of outreach, what are the resources that they can or can't connect people to, and how do we make sure if I'm going to go to an overnight shelter, how am I still on a path to hopefully housing placement or, or other supports that help me in my homelessness?
Jillian Schoney
Well, sorry.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Okay, sure.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
So I'll start and then I'll pass it to Anna.
But Commissioner, there's a lot there.
So I think outreach, I'll just start with.
So the city outreach, and in this proposed budget, it's really just those 9 people that are FTEs on my team, and they really perform that coordination work within the city.
So they're working with the park rangers and the police, and they're working with our public space management folks, and they're able to kind of look at the whole city.
They get all the reports that come in for requests and outreach worker, but also all the campsite reports, and they're able to try to offer folks services kind of at that juncture.
So it's a slightly different function, I would say, than what the county outreach workers are doing that are contracted, and Anna can speak to that.
But I will say from a coordination aspect, though, we work with all the county contracted outreach workers.
So we have coordination calls.
We talk, I mean, almost daily probably, and are coordinating different resources.
There are different services offered by different outreach teams.
So I think people say outreach is kind of this catch-all, kind of like case management, and you're really seeing a different service connection, a different service delivery with those different people.
So quickly to case management, we're working with Jillian's team right now on a case management kind of inventory So city, county, others to really standardize, because I think you're totally right, is what we're seeing is case management means a very different thing to every single person.
And so trying to standardize that across the system, that's going to take some work.
Outreach, I think we are a little further along.
We've done some more inventory, we've actually consolidated some, and we've been able to coordinate better than we have in previous years.
Loretta Smith
Yep.
Anna Plum
Agree with all of that.
I would just add that in addition to the case management inventory, the county is also working on an outreach manual which will codify what we mean when we say outreach and what are the nuances therein and what are the goals therein.
And that's— we've collaborated with the city on that as well.
And I think it's one of the places where we've been able to say we are doing these services that are slightly different, different as we constrain resources.
How do we really focus in on what the different types of outreach need to be and how can we coordinate?
And Sky and I talk every Friday at 8 AM with all of our outreach workers.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Meghan Moyer
Um, within the, uh, unhoused and sheltered population, um, we got some information.
I, I think everyone's aware of it, where Health Share was able to lay their utilization data and, and health record data on top of our by-names list.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Meghan Moyer
And it was very, very clear that our shelters have a— people who, they may not be there overnight, but had been in shelter.
I think it was a couple-month time period they overlapped.
Um, over 50%, or about 50% of people, uh, who have accessed shelters within that 2-month period had a pre-existing diagnosis of a severe and persistent mental illness.
A significant portion also had a co-occurring substance use disorder.
I'm not sure if I remember the data on people who were just experiencing— self-identified as experiencing substance use disorder, but there is clearly a very significant connection with people who are experiencing homelessness and behavioral health.
That's certainly an area that the county We talk about all the time.
But I am interested because that population also tends to be unhoused longer, tends to live unsheltered more.
What is the overnight-only shelter approach to behavioral health need?
And and how are we thinking about those intersections when people, um, are not receiving services?
I think, you know, both systems— we see it in our jail, so I am assuming the police are seeing this.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Right.
Meghan Moyer
And, and how are we coordinating and talking about yeah, great.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Also great question.
Happy to go kind of in the weeds with you separately, but I'll just say a couple things quickly.
So right now I'm really excited about a potential partnership at one of our overnight shelter sites that we've seen a significant aging population and disabled population.
So not necessarily the SPMI population, but a population significant aging population and disabled population.
That you mentioned, but we're partnering with the Behavioral Health Department and Aging and Disability and really looking at what we can do to connect folks to those resources.
So just shout out to County Behavioral Health, thank you.
And we're also talking to our day center locations and our outreach workers to connect folks to different resources.
So my outreach workers, for example, are around every kind of shelter site in the morning.
They're looking folks that are exiting the overnight shelters in the morning and connecting them to resources when possible.
So trying to make sure we have that connection point at that physical location, but also at those day center locations to be that connection to services.
And I would say we, whenever possible, are trying to connect folks to the alternative shelter or to behavioral health and kind of mental health services.
Overnight shelter is not going to help with that.
It's really there just as that last resort of I need someplace safe and warm to sleep tonight.
So we're really trying to make an effort to make sure that we're connecting folks to those relevant resources when it makes sense.
I think you mentioned it's a huge part of the population.
And so I think what that amazing data showed is that we have a really sick population and it's not super easy to make sure that we resolve that.
I think that's a great point.
I think we need a lot more, frankly, from the state level to be able to help a lot of the folks who are really, really sick.
Commissioner Singleton
I don't know.
Candace Avalos
Sorry.
Anna Plum
I would just add one little thought, which is I think that's one of the reasons we talk so much about making sure folks get to the right shelter, that we have that different type of shelter access so that we can have shelters that are more resourced for folks who have that higher need.
But it's also more importantly when you look at our budget priorities, why we focused on not making cuts to permanent supportive housing, because that is the resource that will end homelessness for a lot of the folks who have that high acuity behavioral health need.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
They need it to be true PSH.
Anna Plum
They need a higher degree of services than we have in our community at this time.
But it's one of the reasons that Multnomah County really emphasized keeping that supportive housing as like the key part of our budget and making sure we didn't make reductions there.
Jillian Schoney
And I just want to layer on here as an example where there yes.
The staff-level work is every day.
So another example with the overnight-onlys that city staff noticed, you know, there are folks being taken to overnight-onlys in the middle of the night, those discharges from our emergency departments.
Those people only get a few hours of sleep and then they want to go back to the ED.
So we are working on a new partnership to figure out how to keep those individuals from going back to the ED and instead getting them into a 24/7 shelter.
There isn't a ton of capacity there, but at a staff level, that day-to-day coordination is happening in a variety of ways.
Candace Avalos
Thank you.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Commissioner Moyer.
I have Commissioner Brem Edwards, then Koyama Lane, then Zimmerman.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Thank you.
Um, so just have a couple comments and then some questions.
So since my first day in the commission, when I came to these chambers, uh, different, uh, lineup at the, at the time, um, I was going to look at you, but I guess you weren't there at that time, but, uh, you were there before.
Um, at the time I said that the city and Multnomah County needed to work together on our biggest challenges, including achieving a net reduction in homelessness and and unsheltered homelessness and moving people into housing, that we essentially needed to end the finger-pointing and work together.
So I want to just say I have appreciated the opportunity for all of us to sit in the same chambers and talk about places where we're doing duplicative work or places where there's gaps and how do we fill those.
I also like seeing the affordable multifamily housing development fund to preserve and finance the development of housing that was in the city's presentation.
Also, I would say one of the first things that I also have said is that the county, even if we have a very effective, efficient system of services and case management, that we have to have places for people to go.
This is back to the chair's comment on housing.
So I really appreciate I appreciate that there has been, from the council and the mayor, really a focus on that piece of the city's work.
Because again, when the county is sort of operating in a highly efficient way, hopefully there'll be a place for people to go to.
I also will say that I appreciate that there's a weekly strike team that's working to get after the vacant units and the barriers to filling them.
Jillian Schoney
Yes.
Julia Brim-Edwards
So I've been a participant in some of those meetings, and I'm glad to see that happening because I think from the public trust standpoint, when people see vacant units and also an increasing number of homeless people that don't have a path to housing, that they expect us to get after that.
I also appreciate the leveraging of the one-time Medicaid eviction money to leverage additional dollars.
I love seeing so my questions are, I think what I heard the conclusion of, even with the— if you take the 2 budgets and then the expected Medicaid dollars, which are one-time, there's still a net increase in overall homelessness with the current 2 budgets.
Ryan Deibert
Correct.
That's what we would estimate.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Okay, so that's one thing.
Then KPI number 8, that's the key performance indicator relating to unsheltered homelessness, is that right?
Loretta Smith
Mm-hmm.
Julia Brim-Edwards
So in the presentation today, what I didn't see is a trend line projected for that key performance indicator.
And I hope we include it because in the county's budget, there's 700 shelter units that are going to be unfunded, and including several hundred in District 3, including one, Chestnut Tree, that was sort of held up as sort of a high-performing shelter in terms of getting people, placing them into housing.
So my question is, My question is, since it wasn't included as part of the presentation, key performance indicator number 8, with the 2 budgets, do we expect to see a net increase or decrease in unsheltered homelessness?
Anna Plum
I can speak to the folks served in— so it's a little sneak preview for next week's budget presentation.
Our Homeless Services Department is doing our budget presentation next Tuesday.
I'll do the same shout-out that Sky did.
And we did try to estimate not necessarily changes in unsheltered homelessness, but how many folks we think would be served in our shelters based upon where we understand both of our budgets to be.
And we are looking at— for next year, given the reductions that we have proposed and our understanding of like the current status of the city-proposed reductions, it would be slightly less than who we expect to serve this year, but not like a major decrease in who is served in shelter across the whole year.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Okay.
Julia Brim-Edwards
I'm less looking at that because I think one of the things with the public when we say we've placed 500 people into housing, implying that we've reduced that number, but when actually the net number, which, you know, I spent 2 years trying to get a dashboard, which we have now, talking about the net number.
So that's what I'm looking at.
So what I'm interested in, again, is tracking the key performance indicator which was set to understand that as well.
Because while I think we all agree shelter is not the ultimate destination, it is for many people a safe place off the street, a place to stabilize, a place to get basic services where they have bathrooms, showers, laundry.
A place to get food.
So I would appreciate if we continue to track that as well, because we can't just track the overall number.
I mean, that's not what we agreed to.
So I'd appreciate getting— and maybe I'm getting it next week, but I also think this body needs to understand it because it's our joint work.
The last question I had is accountability related to Home Forward.
Um, the lack of action on their vacant units and executive expenditures, um, which I think is really straining public trust.
I don't know who wants to take that.
Jillian Schoney
I mean, I'm recalling this off the top of my head, Commissioner, but, um, based on a variety of things that they've done— they've bought down some rents, they have plugged into our Housing Connector tool to market their units more, they're working with the city on some sort sort of safety, property management safety issues.
My recollection is that from February to March, they saw their vacancy drop by 2%.
So the work is happening.
They're moving in that direction, and we are all working with them in particularly the meetings that you attend on the city side of the equation to continue to help them.
Julia Brim-Edwards
But it's still significantly above what it should be.
I mean, 11% is still—.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Yeah.
Loretta Smith
Yes.
Julia Brim-Edwards
I don't know if anybody wants to speak to the accountability.
So is that— is that from the city's perspective?
Is that their account— accountability, or how's that playing?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
I will say I will not speak for Director Bonaccor, but, um, I do know of a couple pieces that are kind of in play.
And I think, um, as you're aware, The city appoints 5 members of the board, the county appoints 2, Gresham appoints 2.
So I think there are discussions about accountability in terms of board holding folks accountable.
I think there are discussions underway right now, so I don't wanna speak ahead of them, but I think that's fair to say that there are discussions happening because I think folks are also concerned.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Great, thank you very much.
Mitch Green
Yep.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Oh, I'm sorry, this is like maybe a presiding officer question.
So I don't think we have another quarterly meeting until maybe after the budgets are done.
So I'm wondering what the most efficient way, just given sort of all the interconnectedness between the 2 bodies, how we can have a sort of free flow of information between like the totality since we're now at a point where the presiding officers and the presiding officer of the County Commission and the mayor have proposed their budgets.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Yeah.
Julia Brim-Edwards
That it's really now to all of us to sort of make decisions, and it would be helpful to know kind of what the puts and takes are happening on either side of the river.
Jamie Dunphy
Yeah, I'll say that, A, I personally welcome any future conversation with my county colleagues, and I know all my city council colleagues will as well, and we could even potentially do some smaller group things to this topic specifically.
I'm always trying to defer the work back to our committee structure.
So we have a Housing and Permitting Committee, which I think Chair Avalos would be happy to dig into some details as well as Vice Chair Greene.
If anybody has any good ideas of ways we can collaborate, I'm all ears.
And we will continue to have, well, this body's gonna continue to have a series of work sessions like this.
I think we have like 100 more.
So a lot of opportunities for us to hear more about good ideas.
And then we are aiming towards the 3rd week of May for amendments.
So anytime between then and now, I encourage us all to look for opportunities for collaboration or even public discussion about it.
Julia Brim-Edwards
Great, thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Absolutely.
Commissioner— sorry, no, Councilor Koyama Lane, then Zimmerman, then Kanal.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you, Council President.
I would like to start by appreciating the presentation today.
I think it was a really strong and thoughtful framing of the issue.
Thank you.
I have a couple questions.
I think the first question, or at least part of it, was raised earlier, but I'd welcome any additional details or context that can be shared, specifically around the analysis of the cost side of prevention versus response.
Specifically, do we have estimates on how the cost of preventing an eviction compares to the downstream cost of providing homeless services to that same household?
Jillian Schoney
I do not have an exact number on the front end or the back end, but I can tell you it is much, much more expensive to rehouse an individual once they experience literal homelessness than it is to prevent it in the first spot.
But what is hard about all of that, right, is that it is hard, again, how we look at inflow versus outflow.
Outflow is one-to-one, easy to track, easy to measure.
Like, we know the person moves off of our by-name list and into an apartment, right?
That is easy to track, measure, cost out.
Again, on the eviction prevention, you can't say it's one-to-one.
I can't say for every person that DCHS or the Portland Housing Bureau provides eviction prevention services, legal or otherwise, financial assistance, rent assistance, I can't say that that person would have become homeless if not for that investment.
So that's what makes it hard.
But it is much more expensive.
We all know and agree to that.
The cost of that person in shelter, other related services, the housing placement, that is much more expensive than just that 3 to 4 months of rent assistance that we give in an eviction prevention program.
I feel like Singleton's itching to say something.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Yeah, Council President, I would love to Thank you.
Commissioner Singleton
The rent assistance portion is about $5,000 per household in eviction prevention.
It's not the same just because they're not doing— they're not analyzing the cost of staff, but it is a cheaper amount on rent assistance for sure.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Yep.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you.
And then my other question is a clarifying question.
I'm wondering if we're able to state for the record exactly how many How many shelter beds are proposed to be cut in the mayor's budget?
Or can we confirm that we're not sure that— or can we confirm that that number is still unknown at this time?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Unknown.
So that'll be part of the scenarios that we're bringing forward.
There will be a certain number that are cut and there will be some consolidation.
But right now we're looking at different scenarios and then we'll bring forward a couple for you in the budget work session.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
And do we know which work session, what date?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
Okay, thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.
Councilor Zimmerman, then I'll go Zimmerman, Smith, Kanal.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks.
Jamie Dunphy
Um, oh, Kanal fell out of the— never mind, sir.
Eric Zimmerman
So last year, as Mayor Wilson, as you described your, your, your shelter plan, it was the robust kind of the, the The framing of your first year of your administration.
Um, you and I had a conversation that has kind of guided how I've, how I've interpreted how your part fits into this joint effort, um, which is, which is where my support came from.
Largely, the county has always engaged in 24-hour shelters, right?
And we understood Thank you.
And 2 years ago, the County Commission drove to get to the number of 1,000 county-provided shelter beds in the community.
You took office and you put, I think, the last remaining, like, deep need of a Band-Aid, which is you went with the overnight shelters.
And I say that because there was, in my mind, And somewhat of a recognition that, yes, 24-hour was good, but there was still so much that was not being met based on the number of people we were seeing sleep outside that you went quite tactical with the overnight.
That system made sense to me, given that there are challenges that come with that type of a shelter.
But now I'm very concerned given the cuts to the county shelters, because I think largely this body still exists— frankly, it kept the City of Portland at the table when the county got up to 1,000 shelter beds being provided.
I'm not sure that the county and the city would still have a joint agreement but for that.
In large part, I think that was a signal of the county is going to get into the sheltering business.
So given the county's withdrawal, uh, 2 budgets later by— I think we just heard 700 out of that 1,000— I guess I begin to wonder, and you've said in your, in your budget documents that the city's no longer going to send its $30 million to the county, and there's some back and forth.
So Do we truly have a joint agreement anymore?
Do we have a joint effort anymore, or is this kind of moving into performance-based versus an agreement about the types of numbers that we're going to see in terms of funded?
Because the city's approach to sheltering has always been kind of secondary to the county's, and I'm seeing a significant change coming there.
And I'm just kind of wondering, what is the impact of the overnight— excuse me, what is the impact of the county shelter closures on the overnight program that the city now is administering?
It's really to you, Mayor.
Keith Wilson
The budgets are proposed that the chair and I are bringing forward.
And to the question I think Commissioner Moyer noted was, you know, What's the change going to be, if you will?
Sir, we're gonna have to wait and see.
And you are right, the HRAP as it was written, Homeless Response Action Plan, was to— had 2 outcomes, not KPIs, not measurements, but outcomes, which is what we should be striving for.
What do we want to achieve?
One of 'em was that the county would add 1,000 new 24/7 shelter beds.
The other was that it would reduce 50% of the unsheltered population when the HRAAP was designed or developed in June.
Forgive me, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but those were 2 specific outcomes that the City of Portland agreed to, neither of which, if this budget goes forward, will still stand met.
And so we're gonna have to reevaluate the agreement with the county at that particular time and determine what are the outcomes now necessary.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Keith Wilson
To continue that cross-collaboration relationship.
If the question is about how is it gonna affect our sheltering system, Sky, Brandy and her team have been working very hard modeling different funding and outcome expectations, and we are using it as a flexible system.
We will have to increase overnight versus alternative SRV if it's cut any further.
If it currently stands at the amount, they're going to keep open all the SRV and TAS sites, make a meaningful reduction in overnight, but keep a flexible system to meet severe weather, heat domes, cold weather temperatures, so we don't have to have any Portlander on the street at night who wants a bed tonight.
So it's a flexible question with a flexible system that we're building.
Eric Zimmerman
Okay, I appreciate it because this is I think generally most people understand that in the world of shelter, to Commissioner Broom-Edwards' point, we all recognize it's not the end goal, but in the world of shelter, that a 24-hour, like a pod village, is a form of shelter that's better than an overnight.
But there's not enough money to do that broadly, and so we went with an overnight approach for the last Band-Aid, if you will.
I'm just— I am concerned that the challenges with overnight are going to be exacerbated by the fact that we're going to have a lot of people exasperated by the closure of the county's 24-hour shelters and what that impact will do, and if it's going to now demand either more of some form or more of the neighborhood enhancements.
But it remains a huge concern with me given that we largely have improved the sheltering situation in Portland over the last 2 years because of these concurrent efforts, and I feel like we're really retracting from that.
I want to move a little bit.
I appreciate it.
There were some comments earlier about, about Home Forward.
I—.
We had the Steering and Oversight Committee this last week.
At that committee, colleagues, we learned of 1,600 units was reported of Portland-regulated units are vacant.
So regulated units in our community, variety of different owners, operators, but 1,600 are vacant on top of the the articles that we've seen about the 6-month vacancy timeline and how long it takes to fill.
Um, I also— I'm not sure there's much else that we should be talking about, because if we have built units with subsidies to be affordable and we're getting a bevy of excuses about can or can't a 6-month vacancy rate for a Portland affordable unit is criminal.
A 6-month vacancy rate is criminal.
A 6-month vacancy rate is criminal.
I've seen zero leadership on here's what I'm doing to fix it.
And so at this point, not only do I have no faith in the leadership, but I really think all of our bodies— this body, this county, City of Gresham— it's time to reinterview our board nominees to that organization.
Because all I've seen so far in the media has been defense of the operations, defense of the executive.
Mitch Green
Thank you.
Eric Zimmerman
And I find that to be criminal.
So until we start talking about 6 months moving into 1 or 2 months, and until we start talking about dozens of units instead of 1,600 units that are vacant, the rest of this seems fruitless because these are available units that were built for members of our community who I think there are a lot of reasons why people aren't in them because of a lack of urgency, a lack of creative thinking, a lack of designing their system not to be beholden to a pretty bad loan situation, a lack of trying, a lack of leadership.
But I do think it is time, since we have the County Commission and we have the City Council here in one fell swoop, that we get real serious about the fact that we have this semi-public private-public entity with its own governing board who uses our money to put people in housing, and they're not meeting the mark.
And given our own situations at the City of Portland with the Housing Bureau, I think we have a lot of area that we need to, like, dig in only on this, right?
The shelter part of our continuum, we're spending a lot of time Skyler and her team are doing well, but I think collectively we need to get on this vacancy piece of it.
And I need, deeply need leadership to come out of the Housing Bureau and Home Forward for a path forward.
And so I just say that because I'm starting to bubble over in terms of frustration.
And I feel like at this point, Mayor, as a member of the SOC, at this point, Chair, as a member of the SOC, I think we've all given enough time for the situation to develop, and I don't see it developing in a positive direction, and it might take our involvement to right that ship.
And I have no— I'm looking at board members on here, and I just, I don't know who is going to give leadership to that but for us, the combined effort of these 2 bodies.
So I offer that up, and I appreciate your presentation.
Because I'm in the SOC, I have seen almost all of this already, and so thank you to those that presented.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
Eric Zimmerman
I am going to encourage the members of this joint effort to accept— not accept the non-answer from Home Forward that we've gotten for the last several months.
Ryan Deibert
Thanks.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Zimmerman.
Colleagues, we have about 9 minutes left and I got 3 folks in the queue.
So it's going to go Councilor Smith, Commissioner Singleton, and Chair Vega-Petersen will take us home.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Council President.
Councilor Zimmerman, we were thinking the same thing because I wanted to find out, do we have an IGA right now?
Is it good until 2027?
Skyler Brocker-Knapp
June of 2027, yes.
Loretta Smith
It's good until when?
Jillian Schoney
June 30th of 2027.
Loretta Smith
June 30th of 2027.
So I think as we're talking about and negotiating what goes into the IGA, that is the platform that we can use to determine if the county is going to do rental assistance, because that's their bailiwick.
That's what they Yes.
That's their book of business.
It has not been our book of business.
The only reason why we, um, budgeted those funds was because those were the funds that were unbudgeted, and we decided that we wanted to put those somewhere.
What, what my concern is with those, with those budgeted funds was $9 million.
And since we have to create a system, I would like to I would like to pass that over to Multnomah County and let you all do it because that's what you do.
You can get that out the door like yesterday.
I talked to Director Bonacar.
He said we have to create our system, we have to do an RFP.
We probably won't even get that out until September of '26.
Now that's criminal for us to have an emergency and to say we wanted to house folks who are being evicted but yet those funds are not even going to leave the city's coffers until September, October.
Why don't we pass those funds over to Multnomah County?
Because they have relationships, they have contracts with folks who need to get that housing.
We're a joint body.
We can, we can see that.
I'm willing to put an ordinance on the floor, but— Councilor Loretta Smith.
We need to have that conversation with the leaders who are, who are putting together that IGA.
That's a conversation that we need to have like within the next week because we're not going to be able to house those 1,600 people until we get that money out the door.
And that money is being held right here in the '25-'26 budget.
And what's going to end up happening is it's going to get rolled over to our '27-'28 26-27 budget, and they're going to slow walk it, slow walk it out.
And that is just ridiculous to me.
And that's why, you know, the ordinance that I had, I identified Sun School organizations that could get that money out, that they actually do rental assistance.
And I think we need to either, you know, stop being territorial, get that money over to Multnomah County, let them get it out the door before June 30th so these people who are in the balance of being evicted from their homes, that they can get some relief over the summer.
Because if we don't get that money out until September, October, what was all this conversation about this last 6 months, 4 months, about, you know, slowing the flow?
It's not slowing the flow.
It was just, it was just, you know, being very territorial.
I want to do this, I want to make us do that.
And then in that IGA, we need to also say next year Yes.
Are we going to— are we going to continue?
Because that's a one-time-only thing, and I don't want folks thinking that that's what we do, because that's not what we do.
We don't do rent assistance.
We need to be very clear, and I think that's the platform that both the city and the county should use, that IGA, to say, what is your book of business and what is our book of business?
And just be done with it, not trying to boss up on each other.
But just stick to what we know we can do and we can afford to do, because we can't afford to do parallel tracks, and that's what we're doing right now.
Josh Roper
Let me just add, um, or say we share your commitment to getting these dollars out into the community as soon as possible.
And there are different tracks that are possible depending on which pot of money under that $9 million we're referring to.
So there's placement out of shelter, there there's sort of before-facing eviction money.
Loretta Smith
There's long-term, the short-term, and then there's a shelter-to-housing money that we directed to be funded for '25-'26.
It does not look like— and I talked to Michael, he can't get it out before June 30th.
He told me that specifically.
And I'm concerned because we fought for the last 4 months because we were fighting for people who are being evicted right now.
And if we can't help those people, those numbers that you're talking about, that we're netting about 600 people, we're going to be netting more than that over the summer.
So why don't we just get it out and get it gone and help people today?
I mean, I challenge the mayor and the chair to come together to get those dollars out the door.
Jillian Schoney
Well, and what I would offer is that the director of Portland Solutions Housing Bureau, Human Services, and Homeless Services comes together to just talk about how that can work.
Loretta Smith
Right.
Jillian Schoney
If you're amenable to that.
Loretta Smith
Because my thing is— no, no, no, it's another amendment passed.
It's gone.
But what it is, is it— I don't want us to not have that conversation when we can get it out the door right now.
Commissioner Singleton
Yeah.
Loretta Smith
That's what you do.
We don't have to have the longer conversation who's going to do what, but we do need to get that rental assistance money out the door.
Jillian Schoney
Yep.
And it is all tied to also the $10 million in OTO that is in the Chair's proposed on the county side of the equation, how that works with the $2 million.
It is not just about that one pot of money.
Like, our monies should work together.
And I also don't wanna have that conversation outside the context of shelter closures.
Like, we should never have a shelter conversation solely focused on total number of shelter units available.
It should always be directly tied to the amount of housing placement funds in our system.
Right.
Loretta Smith
So we have—.
Jillian Schoney
We are talking about throughput.
A shelter bed should not serve one human a year.
And when we separate those conversations, that's what happens.
Loretta Smith
That's a deep conversation right there, ma'am.
Right?
Jillian Schoney
We need to have multiple, ideally a minimum of 2, ideally 4 a year for every shelter bed.
And we can do the math now to make sure that those pots of money are connected.
And in talking about that throughput—.
Loretta Smith
That's the IGA thing.
I'm talking about right now, these people who are being evicted right now.
That's Yes.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Uh, Commissioner Singleton and then Chair Vega Peterson.
We'll get out of here.
Commissioner Singleton
I will be fast.
Um, I just wanted to say no person on this dais or in the community or over there or any of our providers is happy about shelters closing, but everybody does want that balanced system.
And I think I think it's really important to say out loud that the shelter goals of the original HRAP were an unfunded mandate that were never going to be met because neither entity was putting the dollars in that needed to happen to do that.
If they were, it was one-time-only dollars with no long-term funding stability plan.
I am super frustrated about those previous decisions to use one-time-only dollars for ongoing funds and ongoing programs, but this is where we are.
Loretta Smith
Councilor Smith.
Commissioner Singleton
And I do think it's critical that we keep that perspective that you were just talking about.
Folks have to move through the system and not just be in shelter.
I have run a shelter without housing placement assistance.
It is not fun for the staff.
It is not fun for the people who have to stay there and the people who never get to get into housing.
There's no— the milieu is so challenging.
So we cannot do that to people.
We have to keep this system functioning.
Thanks.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thanks.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
Thank you.
Um, so, and thank you, Councilor, uh, or President Dunphy.
Um, I, I feel like a little bit of the historian here because except possibly for Councilor Novick, I think I've been here the longest of anyone.
And so I really do want to correct the record on a few things that have been said today.
First of all, um, when the joint office was first formed between the city and the county, the— and Commissioner, uh, Smith, you— yes, I was like, wait a second, Commissioner Smith, you were here when this was yes.
And so you were here because I actually was just coming on the board right before the Joint Office was formed.
So, you know, the City of Portland was actually putting more money into the homelessness system in Multnomah County than Multnomah County was when the Joint Office was first formed.
So like, it is disingenuous to say that like this is not something that the city has done.
The city has probably been invested in it just as long as the, as the county has.
And so that is why the joint office was formed, to try to, to, you know, deduplicate some of the work that was happening to make it more efficient.
The same kind of conversation we're having today.
I think it's also, um, it also needs to be stated that, um, the goal that was set for the— in the original HREP was that, um, that we needed to increase the number of people that were being sheltered in Multnomah County by 2,699.
Jillian Schoney
Thank you.
Jessica Vega-Peterson
And so the mayor's correct, we did not make that goal.
We exceeded it.
We met that goal by 125%.
So instead of having a total of 18,658 people by the end of 2025, we had housed or sheltered 23,301 people of that.
So I just wanna make that really clear.
There was a lot of work that made— that went into making sure that we were achieving things.
It is true thank you.
It is true that we are going to be impacted by the shelter beds.
I think, Commissioner Singleton, you said it best when you said nobody is happy to see this, but we have to have a functioning system.
I just want to direct everyone's attention to the letter that I sent out to both the Portland City Council and copied my commissioners on yesterday that goes into details about the decisions that are in my budget.
You should have all received this yesterday.
In there, it includes a a chart of the shelter closings that are planned for the county in 2027.
Included in there are the shelters that were previously funded by City of Portland dollars of that $31 million that you all had been sending over to us, including those that are scheduled for closing and the ones that I have backfilled in my budget with county dollars or SHS dollars.
So I want to make sure that all of that information is available for folks so that we have a clear picture of what we're talking about as we're going forward and making these very important budget decisions, and I look forward to the continued conversation, um, on, on those decisions as we're being made.
Jamie Dunphy
Okay, colleagues, that brings us to a conclusion.
Uh, thank you all so much for your presentation today.
To my county colleagues, thank you for coming over and joining us.
Mr. Mayor, Mr. City Administrator, City Council, thank you all.
We are adjourned.