HHS and HUD announced joint "Treatment First" actions on homelessness on August 17, five days after the two departments and ONDCP released a Treatment First best-practices toolkit; HHS described the move as a shift away from what it called the failed Housing First policies of the Biden administration. In Portland, public records obtained by the Portland Mercury showed Portland Solutions staff coordinating public messaging with the PR firm for Urban Alchemy, whose city shelter contract runs to $90.4 million through 2028 and whose Portland sites have drawn at least 156 complaints since 2023. New York City's Human Resources Administration rejected about 75% of nearly 30,000 rent-arrears One-Shot Deal requests in the first quarter of 2026, and the Justice Department is negotiating a settlement, estimated earlier this year at $1.5 billion, with property owners suing over the COVID eviction moratorium.
Public records obtained by the Mercury showed Portland Solutions staff coordinating public messaging with Riff City Strategies, the PR firm for Urban Alchemy, which holds the city's largest homeless services contract at $90.4 million through 2028. Complaints filed against the nonprofit's Portland shelter sites since 2023 have reached at least 156, including allegations of staff drug use and sexual harassment; the records showed city staff sharing draft press responses with the firm, recommending journalists, and connecting the firm to Mayor Keith Wilson's office. A Portland police spokesperson declined a request to collaborate on a story promoting the nonprofit, writing that PPB should not promote "a business that's mentioned in at least one criminal investigation."
Councilors Candace Avalos and Sameer Kanal issued a May 8 memo requesting more oversight of the contract after earlier KATU reporting counted more than 80 complaints against Urban Alchemy sites between 2023 and 2025.
Campaign filings showed Fixing Multnomah County, a PAC former Commissioner Sharon Meieran founded in October 2025, raised $70,116 — including $10,000 apiece from developer Homer Williams and former City Commissioner Amanda Fritz — to produce a 23-page county restructuring plan that uses homeless services as its case study and is central to her campaign for county chair against Commissioners Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton. Seth Woolley said the plan meets the definition of an in-kind contribution subject to the county's $603-per-donor limit; Meieran said the plan is publicly available to any candidate and does not need to be reported. A county spokesperson said no formal complaint has been filed.
Multnomah County's $603-per-donor contribution limit for county candidates comes from a charter amendment voters approved in 2016.
The Portland Housing Bureau announced the opening of 73Foster, a REACH CDC development on SE Foster Road with 63 units ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, of which 29 are family-sized and 22 are permanent supportive housing. The project was funded through the voter-approved Metro Affordable Housing Bond, with energy-efficiency features funded by the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund.
The bureau's Metro bond scorecard counts $211 million in bond spending producing affordable homes for more than 5,300 Portlanders to date.
United for ALICE released 2024 data showing 38 percent of Clark County's roughly 202,000 households do not earn enough to cover basics including housing, food, childcare, healthcare, and transportation, though they earn above the poverty level. The data showed 74 percent of single-female-headed households with children face financial hardship, and identified Fruit Valley and downtown Vancouver as the ZIP codes with the most struggling households.
The poverty level in Clark County is an annual income of $15,960 or less; United for ALICE's data counts 15,266 county residents below it.
Pendleton Mayor McKennon McDonald and Library Director Jennifer Johnson traveled to Portland to study the city's homelessness response, touring the Portland Solutions coordination hub, the Clinton Triangle shelter site, and the NW Glisan Oasis day center, and meeting with Mayor Keith Wilson and Portland Solutions Director Skyler Brocker-Knapp. The pair said they hoped to adapt elements of Portland's system to Pendleton's smaller scale.
Pendleton hosts a seasonal warming shelter and a transitional housing complex but no year-round overnight shelter.
A tiny home village with 123 units and 208 beds opened in the parking lot of the Sun Valley Metrolink station, operated by the nonprofit Hope the Mission — its 36th shelter location and fourth village opened in four months. Move-ins began August 17 at a pace of 25 residents per day until the village reaches capacity. Mayor Karen Bass said the site is part of a plan to build more than 500 tiny homes across Los Angeles.
A second Hope the Mission tiny home village opened less than two months earlier at the Van Nuys Amtrak/Metrolink station.
Proponents of a ballot measure to reserve a quarter of the Santa Monica Airport's 192 acres for up to 3,000 units of income-restricted housing missed the signature deadline to qualify for the November 2028 ballot, after previously missing a June deadline for the November 2026 ballot. Supporters said they will drop signature gathering and instead lobby the City Council directly once the next council is seated.
The Santa Monica Airport is slated to close at the end of 2028.
Councilmember Dan Strauss's six-bill RV package was submitted to the City Council's Public Safety Committee this week, including a measure that would ban RVs more than 6 feet 8 inches wide from residential streets starting in July 2027, restricting them to permitted overnight parking in industrial zones. Strauss said unpermitted RV residents would get three warnings before towing. Critics including We Heart Seattle and the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness questioned the balance between the punitive and support elements of the package.
The package as announced August 7 included $5 million to move people out of vehicle homelessness, and a companion bill would cap RV residency permits near 500 people.
The city's Human Resources Administration rejected about 75% of the nearly 30,000 One-Shot Deal requests related to rent arrears filed between January 1 and March 31, 2026, according to city data. The agency received 54,705 One-Shot Deal requests in total over that quarter and approved about 36% of the nearly 19,000 applications for unpaid utility bills. Advocates said procedural requirements have made approval increasingly difficult despite Mamdani's campaign pledges on eviction prevention.
The rejection rate for rent-arrears One-Shot Deal requests was 62% in April–June 2022, when the city received about 17,200 applications.
City Limits · 2026-08-14 · on HPD's first-half 2026 affordable housing financing totals
New York City financed 12,491 affordable homes in the first six months of 2026 — 4,951 preserved units and 6,632 new units, plus 908 public housing units preserved through NYCHA's PACT program — the lowest half-year total since 2022. The city said more than half the units will serve extremely and very low-income households, and 2,000 were set aside for formerly homeless New Yorkers. Mamdani's housing plan requires financing 10,000 new and 10,000 preserved affordable units every six months to hit its 10-year targets.
The Adams administration financed 15,380 affordable units in its final half-year in office.
La Casa Norte broke ground August 12 on the conversion of the former North Hotel at 1622 N. California Ave. into a non-congregate shelter with 40 private rooms for youth ages 18–24, each with its own bathroom and mini kitchen. The approximately $6 million project received city approval in summer 2024, with remaining construction set to begin this month and renovation complete in mid-2027. The nonprofit said 12 young people moved into the completed first floor this spring and three have transitioned to stable housing.
Through its Non-Congregate Shelter Acquisition program, the city is working to convert approximately 300 traditional shelter beds into non-congregate settings.
The CTA board approved $9 million in pilot programs with four nonprofits, three of which will place crisis intervention teams on the Red, Blue and Green lines to aid riders experiencing homelessness, substance use disorder and mental health issues; the fourth funds 20 community violence intervention specialists on the downtown Red Line. The board also renewed a $4.2 million annual outreach agreement with the Department of Family and Support Services and amended a second DFSS pact to add $412,500 for at least 30 dedicated shelter beds for CTA riders, set to be available before winter.
The terms of all current CTA, Metra and Pace board members expire September 1, when the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority board is seated.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced joint "Treatment First" actions on homelessness, directing closer coordination between federal housing and behavioral health systems and outreach to Continuums of Care, housing providers, treatment and recovery grantees, state and tribal partners, and faith-based organizations. HHS described the announcement as the latest action in a shift away from what the release called the failed Housing First policies of the Biden administration.
HUD, HHS, and ONDCP released the "Best Practices Toolkit: Addressing Homelessness and Addiction Through Treatment First" on August 12 (HUD release HUD-NO-26-059).
The American Prospect · 2026-08-14 · on the DOJ settlement talks over COVID eviction-moratorium damages
The Justice Department is in settlement talks with rental property owners, led by Darby Development, who sued in 2021 claiming damages from the federal COVID eviction moratorium, after DOJ declined late last year to seek Supreme Court review of an appellate ruling that revived the case. The settlement was estimated earlier this year at $1.5 billion covering about 1,500 property owners, and plaintiffs' counsel said the group has grown to more than 2,000 plaintiffs, requiring a new damages estimate. The Prospect reported the plaintiff class is dominated by LLCs and investment vehicles controlled by Starwood Capital Group, Dominium, and Morgan Properties, though it also includes small proprietors.
The Supreme Court held in summer 2021 that the CDC's extension of the moratorium exceeded executive authority, the ruling DOJ originally cited in seeking dismissal of the claims-court suit.
HUD updated its program allocation spreadsheet to include 2026 National Housing Trust Fund state allocations of $255 million, up from $223 million in 2025, after the Office of Management and Budget had delayed their release. NLIHC reported the funds were released on August 3, following a June letter from Senator Jack Reed and other senators pressing OMB. The HTF amounts had previously been omitted from HUD's spreadsheet without explanation.
The HTF, established in 2008 and first funded with grants to states in 2016, is capitalized through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contributions rather than annual appropriations.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a Housing Advisory Council, chaired by JPMorganChase, to press for zoning and permitting reform, expanded capital for housing production, and skilled-trades workforce measures following passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Council members include James Hardie, UMH Properties, and Citi. The Chamber said it will distribute its Strong Foundations playbook through its network of 1,500 state and local chambers to identify local barriers.
A March analysis cited in the article puts the U.S. housing shortage at 4.7 million homes.
2026-08-26 — Original FY2026 CoC Program Competition application deadline; competition paused while HUD's First Circuit appeal (case 26-1923) proceeds (source)
2026-08-31 — House returns from recess to take up the Senate-amended continuing resolution funding the government through December 11 (source)
2026-09-08 — Comments due on HUD's proposed rescission of the 2024 floodplain and Federal Flood Risk Management Standard rules (source)
2026-09-14 — Comments close on HUD's Notice on Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Formula (source)
2026-10-09 — Comments due on HUD's proposed rule amending its Fair Housing Act disparate-impact standard (source)