Portland, Multnomah County review early success in homelessness plan, however, questions remain

The Board of Commissioners and Portland City Council are set to review progress on early milestones in the Homelessness Response Action Plan.

The plan was unveiled by Multnomah County and the City of Portland in June 2024 and approved as part of a new intergovernmental agreement between both the city and county in July 2024.

In the original plan, the goals were listed as:

Shelter or house an additional 2,699 people (the number equivalent to 50% of the unsheltered people on the by-name list as of January 2024) by Dec. 31, 2025, growing the community’s existing work providing shelter and rehousing services for thousands of people a year.
Add 1,000 shelter beds in two years (including beds in development and new beds), and provide the housing and health resources people need to move through shelters more quickly, through a new Community Sheltering Strategy developed jointly by Portland, Gresham, and Multnomah County leaders and a range of shelter operators.
Add hundreds more behavioral health beds (including stabilization, residential, and substance use) and open a drop-off sobering center.
Increase the number of adults leaving shelters for permanent housing by 15% by Dec. 31, 2025.
Ensure 75% of people housed in permanent supportive housing retain their housing 24 months after placement.
Reduce unsheltered homelessness for specific priority populations (people of color, people who identify as LGBTQIA2S+) at a rate equal to or greater than their proportion of the overall population in the baseline number.

An amendment added the following action items:

Better meeting the housing needs of refugees and asylum seekers through coordination with other government and community partners
Supporting and expanding the behavioral health workforce
Increasing outreach services at library locations
Funding additional day services for people experiencing homelessness
Better meeting the accessible housing and shelter needs of people with physical disabilities
Increasing access to behavioral healthcare for people who have been involved in the criminal justice system by committing ongoing funding to the Department of Community Justice’s Stabilization and Readiness Program
Developing an integrated healthcare management platform to coordinate care across housing and healthcare providers
Further acknowledging the geographic diversity and different service environments of East County cities
Adding a general member of the public to the Community Advisory Subcommittee – an oversight committee for the plan and for the Joint Office – to better align with the County’s requirements for Community Budget Advisory Committees

According to the team, officials have completed two-thirds of the goals of the Homelessness Response Action Plan.

In the new public dashboard tracking the Plan’s progress, Multnomah County claims to have sheltered or housed 6,931 people since January 2024 – which they say is already 37% of the way to the total goal of housing/sheltering 18,795 individuals by December 2025.

This dashboard insight shows the system is on track to meet the Plan’s goal of sheltering or housing an additional 2,699 people by the end of 2025, connecting with plans to open 429 additional shelter units by December 2024. 87 additional units are in active development which will be completed by December 2025.

“I’m not seeing anything about workforce in this presentation, so when someone is making good choices, getting into the safe rest village, finally saying yes to services, finally getting seen again, finally getting into Medicaid/Medicare cause they’ve been off the grid for so long, that’s a lot of our caseload out there. And so, then if you are saying yes to recovery you better be saying yes to staying busy and that means saying yes to the workforce. So, I didn’t hear anything about workforce today.” Commissioner Dan Ryan said.

Another goal includes improving the percentage of adults who exit shelters to permanent housing to at least 41%. The data states the current rate is 23%.

https://katu.com/news/local/hrap

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Author: KATU News
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News post in at: October 9, 2024, 3:02 am.

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