The city-county Homelessness Response System adopted numerical two-year targets in September 2026, built on a revised by-name count, with progress to be tracked on a public dashboard.
The elected members of the Homelessness Response System's governing committee voted Friday to reduce the number of people homeless in Multnomah County by 10% by June 2028, which the Oregonian reported is the first numerical target of its kind in at least a decade. The package also set goals to cut unsheltered homelessness 8% and move 12,350 people into housing over two years, which deputy director Ryan Deibert said would require housing 27% more people than in the prior two years and maintaining about $35 million in one-time city and county funding. Mayor Keith Wilson cast the lone no vote, calling the goals "a good starting point" that he said did not reflect the urgency of the crisis.
The goals passed 4–1, with Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Commissioner Shannon Singleton, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall and Councilor Eric Zimmerman in favor and Wilson opposed; the target and the current estimated total of about 14,500 people are countywide, not city-only.
Multnomah County's Homeless Services Department said it will revise its by-name list so that about 3,500 fewer people are counted as currently homeless, lowering the May figure of 18,000 by nearly 20%. Deputy director Anna Plumb called it "a data clean-up" that does not mean those people were housed; the largest change shortens the inactivity window before someone drops off the list from 90–180 days to 60–90 days, on the advice of the consultant Community Solutions. The county said the new method will be applied retroactively to January 2024 and take effect in the next month or so.
The by-name list launched in April 2025; program manager Lori Kelley said the shorter inactivity window accounts for most of the reduction.