Do Good Multnomah’s last day running Vancouver’s 40-bed Kiggins Village Safe Stay shelter was September 30, with Live Love Outreach, which already runs Hope Village and the city’s Safe Park, taking over October 1 under a June City Council decision. Vancouver homeless response manager Jamie Spinelli said Kiggins Village was more expensive to operate than the city’s other Safe Stay sites, that the switch was not driven by Do Good’s performance, and that the city expects to save about $500,000 a year. Do Good’s impact report said it served 114 people at the site from 2023 to 2026, including 51 veterans, with an average stay of 161 days before moving into housing.
The council voted in June to move Do Good Multnomah off Kiggins Village so it could focus on operating the 120-bed Bridge Shelter opening later this year.
Pittsburgh is closing the East Ohio Street drop-in center of its Reaching Out On The Streets program on Friday after declining to renew the lease, the program’s third office closure in the two years since the city took it over from Allegheny Health Network. The city said ROOTS staff will work through field outreach rather than a brick-and-mortar site; the landlord said he would offer a new lease “tomorrow,” and the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Union of the Homeless delivered a petition to Mayor Corey O’Connor’s office Wednesday. ROOTS was awarded nearly $800,000 by the county Department of Human Services in June to expand outreach, and program manager Benjamin Talik said the city is looking for a new North Side site.
The closure was first posted for the end of September and then pushed to Friday, October 2.
The Community Voice · on Kansas City’s Housing Gateway first-year targets and funding
Kansas City’s Housing Gateway, established by the City Council in February with $1 million, set a first-year goal of 600 housing placements, about 400 rapid resolutions for newly homeless people and 200 intensive interventions for long-term homeless people, and has $10.8 million committed toward a $26 million two-year goal, per the Kansas City Business Journal. The program plans to permanently close eight encampment areas in its first phase around greater downtown, the Country Club Plaza and 18th & Vine, and closed its first encampment this month, moving five people into housing. The city said unsheltered homelessness has risen about 168% since 2018 and estimates about 1,750 single adults enter homelessness regionwide each year.
The Royals’ downtown stadium community-benefits agreement, approved by the council in August, committed $5 million of the program’s funding.
The New York Times · on Dignity Village at 25 years
The Times profiled Dignity Village, the roughly 60-person self-governed tiny-home community next to Portland's composting facility, describing its village council, security department and incident-report process. The piece reported an annual operating budget of $60,000, about $1,000 per resident, and said about 60 percent of residents exit to some form of permanent housing versus 42 percent at city-run sites. Councilor Mitch Green was reported attending a Village Federation meeting of self-governed sites.
Green said Portland's city-run tiny home villages cost taxpayers approximately $40,000 per person annually.
St. Louis Magazine · on outreach along South Grand after the CID letter
Two weeks after the South Grand Community Improvement District issued and then retracted a letter telling businesses not to give water to unhoused people and to call 911, Peter and Paul Community Services and the city's Continuum of Care increased outreach along the corridor, where providers estimate one to two dozen people live unsheltered. Alderwomen Daniela Velazquez and Alisha Sonnier said they would use their ex-officio seats to oversee the CID board, and Sonnier said she is exploring pooling several CIDs' funds for a full-time social worker. Human services director Adam Pearson said shelters have been running near full.
The Bangor City Council voted unanimously Monday night not to fund a local version of Portland, Maine's Project HOPE, which would have hired a coordinator and three housing navigators through three local shelters to move people from encampments into apartments. MaineHousing had offered to cover 70% of the cost, leaving the city to contribute $126,000; councilors said they could not agree on a funding source among opioid settlement funds, the unassigned fund balance, or a community development block grant. Councilor Susan Faloon said the vote meant saying no to $300,000 in state funding.
A motion to postpone failed 3-5, with Deane, Faloon and Leonard in favor.
Transition Projects took over operation of the 42-bed Rockwood Bridge Shelter in Gresham after its previous operator, Portland nonprofit Sunstone Way, dissolved earlier this year. Transition Projects staff introduced themselves at a September 17 Rockwood Neighborhood Association meeting and said all residents are adults already approved for permanent housing who are awaiting placement, and that program rules extend to a five-block radius around the shelter.
The shelter, a former Super 8 motel on Northeast 181st Avenue, opened in 2022.
Portland.gov · on Portland campsite assessments, removals and shelter referrals for the week
The city's Street Services Coordination Center reported receiving 1,524 new campsite reports for the week of September 14-20, including 364 reports of people living in vehicles. Teams assessed approximately 640 reported campsites, visited 356 active campsites and removed 155 campsites the city said posed a risk to health and safety. Of 35 people who expressed interest in a shelter referral, 15 accepted and 6 used a shelter bed for at least one night.
Coconut Grove Spotlight · 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 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.
The Vancouver City Council on Monday accepted a $564,100 grant from the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund to expand the city's Homeless Assistance and Response Team into unincorporated Clark County, funding up to four limited-term outreach positions covering Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek, Orchards and other areas for one year. Homeless response manager Jamie Spinelli said the expansion prepares for the 120-bed congregate Bridge Shelter opening in November; a staff report said county residents outside Vancouver will be able to access the shelter for four years after it opens.
Clark County has approved funding for a dedicated sheriff's deputy to support Vancouver's homeless response team.
The Columbian reported that lost, stolen or discarded identification documents keep homeless Vancouver residents from qualifying for housing, employment and benefits, citing a 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office report that found a majority of homeless people surveyed lack a safe, reliable place to store documents. Outreach workers and encampment residents described workarounds including a mailroom operated by the nonprofit Outsiders Inn out of St. Paul Lutheran Church and a resident-made checklist of documents used ahead of encampment cleanups.
The city of Vancouver cleared the downtown encampment where one of the profiled residents lived in late August.
The Columbian reported that Couve Collective, a recovery nonprofit at 1009 W. 13th St. in downtown Vancouver, has since last winter opened its doors early each day so health care, mental health, recovery and housing workers can meet homeless clients in one place. Partner organizations named in the story include Share, Thrive2Survive, Outsiders Inn and the city's Homeless Assistance and Resources Team. Program director Jackie Peters said some people relocated during a recent encampment cleanup, making them hard for outreach workers to find for a few days.
The Columbian reported August 19 that a Share-led cleanup of a downtown Vancouver encampment left many residents looking for shelter.