Portland's 200-bed Northrup Shelter closed Friday after one year of operation, and the city's shelter availability website now lists 530 overnight shelter beds, against the 1,500 Mayor Keith Wilson set as a goal for December 2025. HUD reopened the FY2026 Continuum of Care competition with a September 30 application deadline after the First Circuit stayed the order that had vacated the NOFO, while court documents cited by LAist showed more than 1,300 FY2025 CoC renewal grant agreements — about one in five nationally — unexecuted as of September 14. The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the affordable-housing exemption from prevailing-wage requirements applies to projects that convert existing buildings. The edition ran thin: the national section carries two items, and much of the week's coverage already appeared in prior editions.
Three fresh metro items; the rest of the week's local coverage (Vancouver Bridge Shelter camping ban, the Northeast family motel shelter, the renters' forum) ran in prior editions.
The 200-bed Northrup Shelter in the Pearl District, run by the Salvation Army and open 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., closed Friday, one year after opening as part of Mayor Keith Wilson's plan to open 1,500 new overnight shelter beds by December 2025. Wilson announced the closure in April as a budget-balancing measure, calling it "our highest cost facility"; a city spokesperson said the shelter averaged 98 guests nightly in September. The Salvation Army said the shelter served more than 2,700 people in its year of operation, and the city's shelter availability website now lists 530 overnight shelter beds.
Northrup is the second overnight-only shelter to close this year; a Centennial neighborhood shelter closed in April.
The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled September 16 that the affordable-housing exemption from prevailing-wage requirements applies to projects that convert existing buildings, reversing a Bureau of Labor and Industries determination against developer DevNW's 17-unit church conversion in Salem. DevNW's CEO said BOLI's determination added about $50,000 per unit, a 13% increase in overall costs. The ruling is not retroactive, and BOLI declined to comment on whether it will appeal.
BOLI told DevNW in an Aug. 30, 2022 letter that the project did not qualify because it involved renovating a church rather than an apartment building or single-family home.
Longtime residents of older Clark County neighborhoods told the county that cars from new small-lot developments are taking up their on-street parking. The county is considering reducing parking minimums, and eliminating them for affordable housing, senior housing and homes smaller than 1,200 square feet.
Long Beach City Auditor Laura Doud said her office identified irregularities during an audit of two of the city's homeless service providers and has turned the investigation over to an outside agency, which she declined to identify. The audit examined millions of dollars in homeless services contracts, and Doud cited questionable billings and missing documentation.
Doud previously described the findings as "more concerning than a standard, routine audit" and called it one of her office's top audits in 20 years.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League released a 30-second television ad Friday criticizing Councilwoman Nithya Raman's opposition to Municipal Code 41.18, the city's anti-camping law, ahead of the November 3 mayoral election between Raman and Mayor Karen Bass. The union provided $620,000 for the campaign and the Los Angeles Professional Manager's Association contributed another $100,000, for a total of $720,000.
LAPPL president Ricky Mendoza said in the ad campaign that Raman voted more than 75 times against banning encampments near schools, parks and daycares; the runoff is November 3.
The Encinitas City Council voted unanimously on September 16 to end its shelter partnership with Vista's Buena Creek Navigation Center and instead contract with the San Diego Rescue Mission for up to 12 dedicated beds at its South County Lighthouse facility in National City. The Rescue Mission beds would cost $87 per occupied bed per night, with an annual maximum of $381,060; staying at Buena Creek would have cost an estimated $715,000 annually, up from $488,758 in fiscal year 2025-26.
A staff report identified potential state funding of $684,575 over five years through the Permanent Local Housing Allocation program.
Union Tower, a 94-unit affordable housing complex built by Wakeland Housing in National City that opened in May 2026, has placed 24 veterans who were experiencing homelessness into housing. The complex replaced 32 older units on the site and serves households earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income.
The Chicago Park District hired Dannette Salaam for a newly created homeless support specialist position; officials said she has met with more than 60 residents at park encampments and participated in 13 cleanups. The district owns two mobile surveillance units costing nearly $76,000 each plus a $282 monthly service fee, stationed at Ronan Park and Washington Park, and said it is acquiring two more it hopes to have online by the end of the year. Superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has said there are some 60 homeless encampments in the city, mostly in parks.
The district installed the mobile surveillance cameras at Ronan Park in August after a summer of fires and drug arrests at that encampment.
Renovation of the city-owned Comfort Station building in Logan Square Park began, with a construction fence scheduled to go up Monday requiring people living in four tents beside it to relocate. Ald. Anthony Quezada said about five people now live in the square area, down from about 10 earlier this year, and three people who lived in the square have been connected to housing since the start of summer. The work is set to last through at least May 2027.
A nearby encampment at Milwaukee Avenue and Logan Boulevard was cleared in June 2026 ahead of construction of a public plaza.
Prevention Point Philadelphia, a low-barrier services hub in Kensington serving many people who are homeless, dispensed and collected 1.7 million syringes in fiscal year 2025-26 after Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration pulled nearly $1 million in city funding from the syringe exchange, which now receives no public money. The program distributed roughly 8 million syringes in 2023. Parker has said she would "fight tooth and nail to ensure that not one city dollar is invested in the distribution of clean needles."
In 2019 the syringe exchange was fully funded by $1.2 million from the city.
Only two fresh federal items this week — the First Circuit stay, the House oversight hearing, the public charge effective date, the Fed rate move, and the CRA/LIHTC proposal all ran in prior editions.
HUD reopened the FY2026 Continuum of Care Program Competition NOFO on September 18, after the First Circuit stayed the district court order that had vacated it, and set a new federal application deadline of September 30, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. PT. The NOFO is otherwise unchanged except for a technical correction reducing the required project applicant notification period from 15 days to 7 days.
The competition makes available $4.04 billion, with a $1.3 billion set-aside for new projects prioritizing transitional housing, per HUD's June 1 announcement of the original NOFO.
LAist · 2026-09-18 · on unexecuted FY2025 Continuum of Care renewal grant agreements
LAist reported that HUD has not executed more than 1,300 FY2025 Continuum of Care renewal grant agreements nationally — about one in five — as of September 14, according to court documents, with the delays tied to HUD's legal dispute with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority over grant conditions. In Los Angeles, the delays are expected to affect more than 50 local service providers, and dozens of grants totaling nearly $65 million could be affected by the end of the year. HUD told LAist it is not currently required to execute the agreements after the Ninth Circuit issued an emergency stay pending its ruling on HUD's appeal.
The Ninth Circuit stayed Judge David O. Carter's August order directing HUD to execute the agreements; the court is scheduled to hear arguments on HUD's appeal September 22.
2026-09-22 — Ninth Circuit scheduled to hear arguments on HUD's appeal of the order directing execution of FY2025 CoC grant agreements (source)
2026-09-22 — HUD's Sixth Annual Innovative Housing Showcase opens on the National Mall, Washington, D.C. (through September 24) (source)
2026-09-30 — FY2026 CoC Program Competition applications due to HUD, 5:00 p.m. PT (source)
2026-10-01 — FY2027 Fair Market Rents take effect; comments and reevaluation requests due the same day (source)
2026-10-13 — Comments due on HUD's Notice of Research Justifying Additional Incentives for Certain Activities To Reduce Homelessness (FR-6628-N-01) (source)
2026-12-11 — FY2027 continuing resolution expires; the CR signed September 1 funds the government through December 11 (source)