Multnomah County commissioners have agreed to cuts across departments to ensure that they can send as much money as possible to the Joint Office of Homeless Services, which coordinates housing assistance, outreach and other needs for struggling Multnomah County residents.
Mayor Ted Wheeler has complained for years that he doesn’t expect to be able to match previous contributions to the Joint Office using existing city revenues alone.
Even with a $72 million budget for this fiscal year, elected officials have warned that they might ask the public to help out more to maintain or increase those services. And now that rallying cry has reached a new pitch.
At last month’s annual meeting of the city and county, Portland Commissioner Nick Fish made a full-throated plug for a campaign called Here Together, which aims to ask voters on the November 2020 ballot to fund likely hundreds of millions of dollars for increased social services to complement two current affordable housing bonds.
If the proposal moves forward, it would likely be on the same ballot as an about $3 billion transportation bond from Metro. The new proposal also would follow voters’ approval last month of a Portland Public Schools property tax levy renewal that is supposed to generate about $100 million a year to fund roughly 30% of teachers in that district.
But the coalition of elected officials, advocates and nonprofit organizations that provide services are optimistic voters will still be willing to pay up.
“Poll after poll, meeting after meeting, confirms that homelessness is the top concern in our community,” said Fish in an interview. “And I would say literally people are screaming at us to do something to address this crisis now.”
The Here Together campaign’s polling of 900 people and focus groups do indicate that voters in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties rank homelessness as their top priority and name mental health and addiction services as the top solutions, along with increasing affordable housing. That holds true across gender and the political spectrum, with 68% of people who identify as conservative saying that it is a high priority -- the lowest percentage of any group.
The results also show that they are more likely to support solutions that include services -- even naming options, such as more caseworkers -- than more arrests.
While there is no price tag yet, the proposal could be in the hundreds of millions. And Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury, who is one of the main drivers of the campaign, said the money would go toward on-the-ground workers who can help guide homeless people through the service system, increasing the amount of services available and providing rent assistance to people who are in housing but on the verge of homelessness.
She thinks that voters’ literacy is high around what is driving the current homelessness crisis, so now is the time for a campaign focused on solutions not already covered by a historically large homeless services budget.
“In the last four years we’ve created the Joint Office of Homeless Services, doubled shelter beds, passed historic tenant protections, built affordable housing units and ensured that 12,000 people have housing instead of being homeless,” Kafoury said. “And yet, for every person we help, someone becomes homeless to take their place. And there are still people we have not reached, and can’t reach without more resources.”
Here Together already has the support of advocates and service providers.
“With so many unknowns with the presidential election and continued cuts coming at the federal level — 2020 becomes a critical year for local communities to deliver ballot measures related to homelessness and housing,” said Israel Bayer, longtime homeless advocate. “It’s not going to get any better anytime soon, and it has the potential to get a whole lot worse. A dedicated source of revenue to support individuals and families having a safe place to call home is the single biggest priority our region faces.”
But there is more cautious endorsement from some of the biggest players.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said that he is on board with the idea that existing funds will not cover the promised services for the 1,400 units being built by the city housing bond. However, he stopped short of saying he is ready to go to the ballot in 2020.
“Here Together, done right, could help provide a reliable source of funding for exactly the kind of services we’re talking about,” Wheeler said.
And Metro, which referred the state’s largest housing bond, has only signed off on a letter that lays out the intent of what a bond campaign might ask for. The councilors have not agreed to refer it to the ballot, which would mean that another agency would have to or the campaign leaders would need to launch a signature gathering drive soon.
That decision will likely be made at the beginning of the year to allow enough time to get the same measure on the ballot in three counties.
A citizen-led initiative would also mean that there would be no governmental body responsible for the administration of a revenue source, if passed.
Metro currently dedicates part of its regular budget to the overhead costs of running the Metro housing bond. They lead the group that decides how the money is spent, then passes the money to the counties, cities, housing authorities and private groups that are building and acquiring apartments that will become supportive housing.
Metro spokesman Jim Middaugh said that Metro worked for years to launch the housing bond and upcoming transportation bond -- signaling that the quick turnaround for a social services measure might be a sticking point.
“That said, our commitment is to work with this coalition on a successful approach to help those most vulnerable in our community,” Middaugh said.
However, leaders with nonprofits such as Impact NW say they feel the lack of resources now.
The nonprofit has an $11 million budget and works with about 25,000 people every year. It even changed its mission statement last year to be completely about homeless and housing services after 53 years as an organization.
But Executive Director Andy Nelson said they still see needs outpace what they can provide. Other nonprofits have signed on to the letter that lays out a framework for what a revenue measure might try to accomplish, however officials with big players like nonprofit Central City Concern said they had not yet made a decision.
“We could easily be doing three times the volume if we had the funding,” Nelson said. “What we’re lacking is the capacity is to really get down with the issue in a significant way. I think the other nonprofits feel the same way.”
-- Molly Harbarger
mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger
Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.