With HUD's emergency stay motion fully briefed since August 24, a three-judge First Circuit panel on August 27 ordered both sides to file supplemental briefs on two statutory questions in the Continuum of Care NOFO appeal; HUD's brief is due August 31 at 5 p.m., with the appellees' response and any reply due at two-day intervals after that. In a separate case, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun on August 26 blocked HUD's restructuring of Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants, ordering the funds distributed under the previous year's framework. In Portland, Northwest Bank filed suit August 25 alleging the owners of the Pearl District building housing the 200-bed NW Northrup Shelter defaulted on a $6 million loan; the shelter is scheduled to close September 18. St. Paul officials said the encampment at Shepard Road and Randolph Avenue more than tripled in size after the Pig's Eye Park closure, with seven former Pig's Eye residents known to have used shelter services after a $1 million investment in capacity.
Northwest Bank filed a lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court on August 25 alleging that developer Vanessa Sturgeon, Sturgeon Development Partners and North Pearl LLC defaulted on a $6 million loan on the Pearl District building that houses the 200-bed NW Northrup Shelter and now owe $7.2 million in payments and interest. The city leases the building for $18,000 a month; the shelter is set to close permanently on September 18, one year after opening. Mayoral spokesman Cody Bowman said the city does not anticipate the lawsuit will affect the planned closure.
In March, the owners of the neighboring ORO Apartments sued the city of Portland and shelter operator the Salvation Army for $6 million in Multnomah County Circuit Court; that suit remains ongoing.
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, toured the Outsiders Inn men's shelter inside St. Paul Lutheran Church in Vancouver on August 27, where staff urged her to protect federal housing dollars, including HOME-ARP and Community Development Block Grant funding administered through local governments. Staff said some funding for outreach and housing stability work is awaiting HUD approval, and case manager Renae Rush said about 15 men at the shelter are "document ready" for housing but have waited a year or longer. Perez said she would follow up on the funding concerns.
St. Paul Lutheran Church has been part of Vancouver's homelessness response since 2003, when it began hosting the Winter Hospitality Overflow overnight shelter program.
OPB · 2026-08-25 · on the "Drazan Plan" campaign agenda rollout
Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan held a press conference at Terry Schrunk Plaza in downtown Portland on August 25 to elaborate on the "Drazan Plan," her agenda if elected governor. On housing, she promised to streamline permitting and make land more available for building; on homelessness, she said she would track how money is spent and demand measurable results, saying success should be measured "by how many people are actually moving off of our streets that are in recovery, in treatment and moving towards long-term stability." Gov. Tina Kotek's campaign called the plan "simply her latest effort to distract Oregonians from her history of being Donald Trump's stand-in."
It has been more than four decades since Oregonians elected a Republican governor; Drazan and Kotek also faced each other in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
The Oregonian reported the first fundraising comparison in the county chair race: Julia Brim-Edwards has raised just over $164,000, Sharon Meieran about $73,000 and Shannon Singleton $23,000, according to financial disclosure records. The paper reported that two leading candidates are touting growing rosters of labor and institutional backers while a third is publicly forswearing such support.
AFSCME Local 88, the county's largest employee union, endorsed Brim-Edwards on August 21.
Street Roots · 2026-08-26 · on tear gas lawsuits by Gray's Landing low-income housing tenants
Street Roots reported on two lawsuits seeking to limit federal officers' use of chemical munitions near the ICE facility on South Macadam Avenue — one filed by the ACLU on behalf of protesters and journalists, the other by REACH Community Development, owner of the adjacent low-income Gray's Landing apartments, alongside residents. Two orders by federal judges in Oregon limiting tear gas use are on hold, and appellate judges heard oral arguments on July 10. DOJ attorneys argued federal officers are protected from "incidental" impacts to bystanders caused by crowd-control measures.
The appellate panel heard oral arguments on the merits of both cases on July 10; two of the three judges were appointed by President Trump.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued an August 20 ruling making permanent a set of protections for Berkeley Homeless Union members, under which vehicles used as shelter cannot be impounded unless they pose a concrete safety threat and members must be allowed to relocate during a camp closure or be given a replacement tent if their dwelling is destroyed. BHU attorney Anthony Prince said hundreds of members live in at least 12 encampments across the city. Residents of the Eighth and Harrison encampment have received notice that the camp will be closed on September 8.
Under Chen's earlier order, homeless advocates were required to propose, and city officials to approve or reject, a list of new campsites for 23 camp residents by August 27.
The Palo Alto City Council unanimously approved the first phase of a pilot parking permit program for people living in RVs on Coyote Hill Road and Embarcadero Road, while declining to advance a companion proposal that would have designated one side of 21 residential blocks for RV parking, 13 of them in the Ventura neighborhood. The permit pilot would accommodate around three dozen RVs and cost about $400,000 for the first year and a little over $200,000 to maintain after that. Council members directed staff to continue exploring other RV parking sites locally and regionally and to collect demographic data on residents living in RVs.
The permit pilot could begin as soon as March 2027.
City officials told the St. Paul City Council's Public Safety Committee that the encampment near Shepard Road and Randolph Avenue more than tripled in size after the city closed the Pig's Eye Park encampment. Assistant Mayor Cedrick Baker said that despite a $1 million investment to expand shelter capacity, the city is aware of only seven former Pig's Eye Park residents who used the provided shelter services. Officials said the Randolph site, a former auto salvage yard, has soil contaminated with lead and carcinogens and flooding risks, and gave no timeline for future encampment closures.
CBS Minnesota reported on August 9 that the same encampment had doubled in size after the Pig's Eye closure.
Olympia launched a pilot program allowing people to live in RVs and other vehicles for up to six months with a permit: residential properties can host one vehicle in a driveway and churches up to two in their parking lots, and any host site must provide restroom access, with outdoor storage, garbage and septic hookups prohibited. City Manager Jay Burney authorized the program, citing an ordinance declaring a public health emergency over homelessness, and Community Development Director Tim Smith presented it to the city council this week.
Olympia city code previously barred parking a vehicle used for camping in one place for more than 24 hours.
CourtListener · 2026-08-27 · on First Circuit supplemental-briefing order on HUD's emergency stay motion · Update — first covered 2026-08-25
With HUD's emergency stay motion fully briefed since August 24, a three-judge First Circuit panel — Judges Montecalvo, Aframe and Dunlap — on August 27 ordered both sides to file supplemental memoranda on two statutory questions: whether 42 U.S.C. § 11382(a) gives the Secretary discretion to set aside Continuum of Care funds beyond the congressionally mandated set-asides in § 11386b(a) and (b), and what "bonuses or other incentives" means in § 11386b(d)(1). HUD's memorandum is due August 31 by 5:00 p.m., with the appellees' response due within two days and any reply two days after that.
The court's August 17 briefing order had stated it "intends to rule promptly on the matter," and the stay motion was fully briefed as of HUD's August 24 reply.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun of the District of Massachusetts on August 26 blocked HUD's plan to restructure Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants, ordering the agency to distribute the funds under the previous year's framework in a suit brought in July by the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center. Joun wrote that HUD's reasons for the replacement funding notice were "pretextual" and that its modernization rationale "belies credulity," noting the proposal contained only five awards and excluded organizations with annual budgets below $5 million; the plan would have affected more than 100 community-based nonprofit fair housing organizations. A HUD spokesperson said the agency "stands behind the lawfulness of its NOFOs" and will avail itself of all legal options.
The affected organizations collectively handle about 75% of housing discrimination complaints filed in the U.S., per the article.
NAHRO reported that HUD published PIH Notice 2026-21, setting operating subsidy grant eligibility calculations for calendar year 2027, with new provisions beyond the usual annual terms. The notice asserts HUD's right to "terminate, reduce, or limit the availability of a grant" for performance or substantial noncompliance, makes Operating Subsidy recipients and their contractors responsible for complying with all existing and future executive orders, and references a proposed HUD Unified Grant System whose reporting requirements would apply to all grant recipients. NAHRO said the notice also states that provisions not specifically struck down by a judge will be considered by HUD to remain in place.
Comments on the proposed HUD Unified Grant System reporting collection are due September 8, 2026, under a 60-day Federal Register notice published July 8, 2026.
2026-08-31 — HUD supplemental memorandum due by 5 p.m. in First Circuit No. 26-1923 on § 11382(a) set-aside discretion and § 11386b(d)(1) "bonuses or other incentives"; appellees' response due within two days, HUD reply two days after that (source)
2026-08-31 — House returns from recess; it must reconcile its CR (through December 4, passed 220-205 on July 23) with the Senate-passed CR (through December 11, passed 90-6 on August 8) ahead of the September 30 funding deadline (source)
2026-08-31 — St. Johns drop-in center closes after Multnomah County pulled funding (source)
2026-08-31 — Portland's council-ordered social housing study final report expected by the end of August (source)
2026-09-08 — Berkeley's Eighth and Harrison encampment scheduled to close, per notices to residents (source)
2026-09-08 — Comments due on HUD's proposed rescission of the 2024 floodplain and Federal Flood Risk Management Standard rules (source)
2026-09-08 — Comments due on HUD's proposed Unified Grant System (HUGS) recipient financial reporting collection, referenced in PIH Notice 2026-21 (source)
2026-09-14 — Comments due on HUD's CDBG-DR allocation formula notice (Docket No. FR-6337-N-02) (source)
2026-09-18 — NW Northrup Shelter in Portland's Pearl District closes permanently, one year after opening (source)
2026-09-28 — Comments due on HUD 30-day information collection notice, "Public Housing Reform; Change in Admission and Occupancy Requirements" (source)
2026-09-30 — FY2026 government funding expires absent a continuing resolution (source)
2026-10-09 — Comments due on HUD's proposed amendments to the Fair Housing Act disparate-impact standard (source)
2026-10-19 — Offset appeals due 5 p.m. ET from original Moving to Work agencies under HUD Notice PIH 2026-22 (source)
2026-10-27 — Comments due on HUD 60-day information collection notice, "Public Housing Capital Fund Program" (source)