The Louisiana Housing Corp. asked the greater New Orleans and Louisiana Balance of State continuums of care for $42.4 million and $38 million — most of each region's federal homeless services funds — to open a 200-bed transitional shelter in Baton Rouge, and the Balance of State council rejected the application. King County Executive Girmay Zahilay proposed a $19.5 million shelter and housing package his office said would create 612 units, alongside a $20 million county-foundation partnership for 92 units of youth shelter and transitional housing. A federal court granted summary judgment to 21 state attorneys general on Monday, vacating rules that would have required immigration-status verification at federally funded programs including domestic violence shelters. The Portland section runs thin: two fresh metro items, with the rest of the week's local coverage already in prior editions.
Only two fresh metro items today — the rest of the week's local coverage (the Northrup Shelter closure, the BOLI prevailing-wage ruling, Clark County parking standards) ran in prior editions.
KATU reviewed inspection records for Centennial Mills, the vacant Pearl District warehouse complex that burned on August 2. Inspectors flagged blocked fire doors and structurally unsafe areas in June 2000, months after the city bought the property in February 2000, and a February 2013 inspection found a broken sprinkler system, exposed energized electrical equipment and failed support posts; the city confirmed it spent about $19 million on the building over its nearly 25 years of ownership. Portland Fire & Rescue records after the sale to a private developer show crews repeatedly found unhoused people living inside, and missing fire alarm, sprinkler and fire escape inspection documentation.
The city sold the complex to a private developer about two years ago; the new owner did not respond to KATU's questions.
Gov. Tina Kotek released a reelection platform, "Building Oregon's Future Together," organized around affordability, the economy, K-12 schools and defending the state against federal policies. On affordability, she pledged to pursue universal preschool statewide and to continue her effort to increase affordable housing options; OPB reported the plan does not detail how she would pay for those initiatives. The platform lists an increase in new housing starts among her first-term accomplishments, while OPB noted Oregon is on track to build less housing this year than when Kotek took office.
Republican challenger Christine Drazan released her own plan in late August.
King County Executive Girmay Zahilay sent the County Council a proposed $19.5 million shelter and affordable housing package his office said would create 612 units, including $5 million for an 80-unit tiny home village in Seattle's Central District, $2.4 million to keep Mary's Place's 140-unit family shelter open, and $1.8 million for 100 units of veterans housing in Kirkland. He also announced a partnership in which the county and the Schultz Family Foundation would each commit $10 million over three years for 92 units of youth-designated shelter and transitional housing. The county said approximately 1,000 youth and young adults are experiencing homelessness in King County.
Zahilay committed in March 2026 to advancing 500 units of shelter and housing in 500 days under his Breaking the Cycle initiative; the county says its Housing Finance Program pipeline is expected to deliver 3,205 affordable homes between 2026 and 2029.
A presentation to Oceanside's City Council detailed how the city's Housing and Neighborhood Services department spent its $42.6 million 2025-26 budget, with $35 million — 82% — going to federally funded Section 8 rental assistance. Of 190 people served at the 75-bed Oceanside Navigation Center last fiscal year, 10% exited to permanent housing and a little more than 12% to temporary housing; a city spokesperson said that figure "doesn't reflect the full range of positive outcomes." The city's 2026 point-in-time count found 569 people experiencing homelessness, with the unsheltered count up nearly 14% from last year.
Measure X, a half-cent sales tax Oceanside voters passed in 2024, provides $1.5 million to the Navigation Center and $330,000 to the city's safe parking program.
Father Joe's Villages opened single-occupancy units at its downtown San Diego campus for people leaving homelessness, renting at $842 per month with shared bathrooms, kitchen and lounge. President and CEO Jim Vargas said tenants are coming from shelters and from street homelessness and will have access to the organization's meals, health clinic and job center. Move-ins began the week of September 21 and will continue through early November.
UC San Diego researchers counted 110 single-occupancy hotels downtown in 2002 and 35 by 2023.
The Atlanta Regional Commission completed the final draft of its Housing Forward 2035 plan, which estimates the 11-county metro region needs more than 360,000 new homes by 2035. The ARC reported that half of all renters in the metro area are cost-burdened, along with a quarter of homeowners, and said the strategy targets building near employment centers and transit for families earning $55,000 a year or less. The commission expects a final vote on the plan in January.
The outlet's headline says 300K; the article's own estimate is more than 360,000 homes by 2035.
Coconut Grove Spotlight · 2026-09-17 · on Miami-Dade's August Point-in-Time homeless count results
The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust's August 27 Point-in-Time count found the countywide unsheltered count rose from 1,068 to 1,089, while the City of Miami's fell from 537 to 530. Combined with the sheltered count, Miami-Dade's overall homeless population rose from 3,570 last year to 3,748 this year, an increase the outlet put at about 5%. Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book said the agency compares August counts with the previous August because homelessness fluctuates seasonally.
Miami-Dade conducts the count each August and January and reports results to HUD, which helps fund local homelessness programs.
The Louisiana Housing Corp. submitted applications to the greater New Orleans and Louisiana Balance of State continuums of care requesting $42.4 million and $38 million respectively — most of each region's federal homeless services funds, now largely spent on permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing — to establish a 200-bed transitional shelter on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge with a mandatory 20-to-40-hour-per-week services requirement. The Balance of State council rejected the application; a National Housing Law Project attorney said the state could appeal a rejection to HUD and seek to become a solo applicant for the funding. Approximately 3,500 formerly homeless people in the greater New Orleans area rely on the federally funded assistance.
A federal appeals court stayed the Rhode Island district court's August order against HUD's FY2026 funding notice on September 16, restarting the local application processes that order had paused.
Office of the New York Attorney General · 2026-09-21 · on federal court ruling vacating PRWORA immigration-status verification rules for social service programs
A federal court granted summary judgment on September 21 to a coalition of 21 attorneys general, vacating the administration's July 2025 policy that redefined broad categories of federally funded programs as restricted "federal public benefits" under PRWORA, which would have required providers to verify immigration status and turn away people unable to establish eligibility. Programs covered by the vacated rules included Head Start, Title X clinics, food banks, domestic violence shelters, adult education, and community health centers.
The same coalition secured a preliminary injunction against the policy in September 2025.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a September 16 hearing on the NAHASDA Modernization Act of 2026, with testimony from Cherokee Nation Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner, the Government Accountability Office's Alicia Puente Cackley, and HUD's Hilary Atkin. Warner's written testimony said Indian Country needs at least 68,000 additional homes to eliminate overcrowding and replace physically deficient housing, and Atkin said NAHASDA has helped build, acquire and rehabilitate more than 160,000 homes over three decades.
NAHASDA, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, was enacted in 1996.
2026-09-22 — Ninth Circuit panel hears HUD's appeal of the order directing execution of FY2025 CoC grant agreements, 10:00 a.m. PT, San Francisco (source)
2026-09-30 — FY2026 CoC Program Competition applications due to HUD, 5:00 p.m. PT (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)
2026-10-13 — Comments due on the OCC/FDIC Community Reinvestment Act examination proposal (source)
2026-12-11 — FY2027 continuing resolution expires; the CR signed September 1 funds the government through December 11 (source)