The 9th Circuit on Friday denied the Department of Veterans Affairs' petition for rehearing, leaving in place the 2024 order requiring 2,550 housing units on the West LA VA campus and stating that no further rehearing petitions will be entertained. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $30 million tenant-protection package, citing Apartment List data showing city rents up 25.6% in the past year. A House Oversight subcommittee hearing on fraud in federally funded homelessness services is set for September 15, with Los Angeles as the announced case study and Mayor Karen Bass saying she is not available to appear. August CPI put shelter costs up 0.3% for the month and 3.0% over the year. The Portland section runs two items; the weekend's other local candidates were repeats of stories from last week.
Only two fresh Portland-area stories cleared the weekend; the other candidates were repeats of items that ran last week, so the elsewhere and national sections carry most of today's edition.
Portland City Administrator Raymond Lee met with Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon in Texas to discuss the future of the Moda Center. The Oregonian reported it was the first known in-person meeting between the Blazers owner and a city official in months; Dundon had been largely absent from the arena negotiations to that point.
Portland City Council voted September 3 to open development talks with Albina Vision Trust for city-owned property next to the Moda Center.
Legin Commons, a 124-unit affordable housing development co-developed by Our Just Future and APANO on the edge of Portland Community College's Southeast Campus in the Jade District, held its grand opening September 10. The project is partially funded by the voter-approved Metro Affordable Housing Bond and is named for the Legin Restaurant, demolished in 2012 for the campus expansion. APANO said the complex is still accepting applications and expects some tenants to begin moving in within the next two weeks.
PCC designated the underused 1.6-acre parcel for affordable housing in 2021 and signed a ground lease with Our Just Future to make the property available for development.
The 9th Circuit on Friday denied the Department of Veterans Affairs' petition for rehearing, with more than two-thirds of the court's 29 judges ruling against the VA, leaving in place U.S. District Judge David Carter's September 2024 order requiring 2,550 housing units — 750 temporary and 1,800 permanent — on the 400-acre West LA VA campus. The court said no further rehearing petitions will be entertained. The VA declined to comment.
The 2024 order sets deadlines of 750 temporary units within 18 months and 1,800 permanent units within six years.
Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $30 million package of tenant-protection reforms Thursday, citing a "rent emergency" as Apartment List data showed San Francisco rents up 25.6% in the past year. The package earmarks $3 million to expand full-scope eviction counsel to 400 households and directs $27 million through the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to about 650 extremely low-income households as federal Emergency Housing Vouchers expire. Other elements include a $1 million tenant-education campaign, a 25% increase in Ellis Act relocation payouts, and legislation from Supervisor Jackie Fielder barring nonpayment evictions for tenants less than one month behind.
The federal Emergency Housing Voucher program, which has supported more than 900 people in San Francisco since the pandemic, is set to expire at the end of 2026, four years earlier than originally envisioned.
The Standard reported that the candidates running for District 10 supervisor could determine the outcome of the standoff over 60 tiny cabins that have sat unused in storage at the Jerrold Commons homeless shelter in the Bayview. Supervisor Shamann Walton criticized the mayor's office last year when officials moved the cabins from the Mission to the Bayview.
The Standard reported September 2 that the cabins cost $7 million and had sat empty for nearly a year.
Phoenix City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a zoning change extending the special permit for the city's Safe Outdoor Space, a sanctioned camping site that opened in 2023. The 5.5-acre property at 15th Avenue and Jackson Street can hold up to 200 camp sites, with tents provided by the city under a shade structure. Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington credited the city's Office of Homeless Solutions for its work with residents at the site.
The site opened in 2023 near the former "Zone" encampment, which a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered Phoenix to clear that year.
UMOM New Day Centers received more than twice as many families seeking heat respite this summer as last summer, and Phoenix City Council on Wednesday increased the nonprofit's heat-season contract from a planned $300,000 to $772,904.80. The funding covers heat respite centers operating seven days a week for families with minor children experiencing homelessness. Four speakers addressed the council in support of the increase before the vote.
City Manager Eric Batista sent the City Council an ordinance, for its September 15 meeting, that would prohibit camping, sleeping or lying on public property and bar living in vehicles on public ways or in public parking lots for more than 24 consecutive hours, with a $25-per-day fine for people who remain after a notice to vacate. The ordinance is part of Batista's "Disrupting the Cycle" framework, which pairs enforcement with expanded shelter capacity, a live bed-availability dashboard, and centralized shelter access. Worcester has 197 beds across four permanent year-round shelters, with 136 temporary beds added last winter.
The 2026 Point in Time count identified 1,187 unhoused people in Worcester County, down from the previous year.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · 2026-09-09
The Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency scheduled a hearing, "Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services," for September 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Subcommittee Chairman Tim Burchett said the panel would present Los Angeles as "a case study of failed policy, fraud, and mismanagement"; the announced witnesses are Paul Webster of the Cicero Institute and Jonathan Choe of the Discovery Institute. Mayor Karen Bass, whom Burchett asked in a September 2 letter to testify and produce LAHSA contracting records, said she is not available to appear, with her office offering to work with the subcommittee on a later date.
HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity on June 11; a federal judge in August issued a preliminary injunction halting the suspension while LAHSA's lawsuit proceeds.
Bureau of Labor Statistics · 2026-09-11 · on August CPI shelter and rent figures
BLS reported the CPI-U rose 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, after a 0.1% rise in July, with the all-items index up 3.4% over the last 12 months. The shelter index rose 0.3% in August and 3.0% over the year, and the indexes for rent and owners' equivalent rent each rose 0.2% for the month.
The September CPI is scheduled for release October 14 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) introduced H.R. 10168, the Veterans Housing Opportunity Act, which would create a five-year HUD-VASH National Pool Pilot Program letting HUD identify public housing agencies with chronically underused HUD-VASH vouchers and reallocate them to communities with greater veteran homelessness needs. The bill was introduced August 27 and referred to the House Financial Services Committee.
HUD-VASH pairs Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance with VA case management; the VA reported more than 95,000 formerly homeless veterans were housed through the program as of March 2026.
2026-09-15 — House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing, "Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services," 2:00 p.m. ET (source)
2026-09-15 — Worcester City Council takes up the proposed public camping ordinance, 6:30 p.m. ET (source)
2026-09-28 — Bipartisan Policy Center webinar on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act and HUD's Housing Choice Voucher program, with HUD Assistant Secretary Benjamin Hobbs, 2:00 p.m. ET (source)
2026-10-14 — BLS releases the September 2026 Consumer Price Index, 8:30 a.m. ET (source)