KOIN 6 · on homelessness, camping and the deflection center at the county chair debate
Julia Brim-Edwards, Sharon Meieran and Shannon Singleton debated Monday night at Portland State University in a KOIN 6 and City Club of Portland forum, with homelessness, addiction and the county's deflection center as the main subjects. All three said they do not support camping on the streets; Singleton and Brim-Edwards said drug testing or treatment should not be required to receive services such as shelter, and Singleton and Meieran said the deflection center is not working while Brim-Edwards said it had improved. Asked about the county's Moda Center commitment of over $100 million, Meieran and Brim-Edwards said they supported the investment, Singleton said any deal should benefit the communities displaced from Lower Albina, and Brim-Edwards and Singleton named a motor vehicle rental tax as a plausible funding source.
The three are running to replace Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, who opted not to run for a second four-year term.
The elected members of the Homelessness Response System's governing committee voted Friday to reduce the number of people homeless in Multnomah County by 10% by June 2028, which the Oregonian reported is the first numerical target of its kind in at least a decade. The package also set goals to cut unsheltered homelessness 8% and move 12,350 people into housing over two years, which deputy director Ryan Deibert said would require housing 27% more people than in the prior two years and maintaining about $35 million in one-time city and county funding. Mayor Keith Wilson cast the lone no vote, calling the goals "a good starting point" that he said did not reflect the urgency of the crisis.
The goals passed 4–1, with Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Commissioner Shannon Singleton, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall and Councilor Eric Zimmerman in favor and Wilson opposed; the target and the current estimated total of about 14,500 people are countywide, not city-only.
The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to approve a resolution reserving a block of rooms at the Studio 6 motel at 4911 NE 82nd Ave., which will operate as the Northeast Family Shelter for adults caring for minor children and for residents in their third trimester of pregnancy. The county's homeless services leader said plans to open a family shelter in Gresham failed "due to a financial situation specific to hotel ownership."
The county's shelter page for the site lists "Rooms for 50+ families" — approximately 50 large-sized guest rooms with private baths.
East Portland News · on Sharon Meieran's homeless-spending critique at a Lents neighborhood meeting
Multnomah County chair candidate Sharon Meieran told the Lents Neighborhood Livability Association's August meeting that the county's homeless services budget grew from $50 million to $400 million annually over ten years while homelessness worsened threefold, and that the county's $25 million deflection center has not, by her account, transitioned a single person into treatment in two years of operation. 4D Recovery executive director Tony Vezina told the same meeting that Housing First policies amount to what he called "toxic empathy" and advocated a "Recovery First" approach.
Meieran represented District 1 on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners from January 2017 to January 2025; the race for chair also includes Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton.
Multnomah County deleted three questions related to race, sexual orientation and preferred language from the survey it uses to determine who qualifies for subsidized housing, after federal officials opened investigations into the county's screening practices and a disabled applicant filed a discrimination lawsuit. The survey, administered by trained providers to anyone seeking housing support, generally requires a score of at least 16 points to qualify for the county's priority housing pool. A county spokesperson disputed the characterization that the tool scored applicants by race, writing that it "has never included any scored questions about race."
A Justice Department official announced an investigation into the county's housing-support practices in May 2026, and HUD announced its own Fair Housing Act investigation of the screening tool the same month.
Multnomah County Auditor's Office · on the county auditor's $1.18 million real estate overpayment finding
The Multnomah County Auditor's Office released a performance audit finding potential overpayments of $1,180,000 on two of four county real estate purchases it had retrospectively appraised, including $840,000 above appraised value for the Days Inn Motel site bought for the Homeless Services Department and $340,000 above appraised value for the Oak Street Village site. The audit reported the county relied on commission-based broker price opinions and obtained an independent appraisal for none of the 15 purchases reviewed from 2019 to 2025, a period in which the Facilities and Property Management Division spent $50.4 million on real estate.
The audit recommends the chief operating officer adopt five acquisition policies, including mandatory independent appraisals and board approval for purchases over $1 million, by March 1, 2027.
The Oregonian reported that Portland and Multnomah County will decommission more than 1,000 adult shelter beds between them by the end of the year — about a third of the beds that existed in January — after a five-year expansion that created more than 2,300 new beds. The article attributes the closures to county budget cuts and to Mayor Keith Wilson's shift toward the 1,500 overnight-only beds he campaigned on in 2024.
The Oregonian reported in June that more than 1,100 beds at 12 Portland-area shelters were slated to close by the end of 2026.
Multnomah County's Homeless Services Department will close the St. Johns drop-in center, a day center in North Portland for people experiencing homelessness, on August 31, after the Board of County Commissioners voted to cut its funding as part of addressing a $67 million shortfall in the department. According to the program, the center has served more than 330 people since opening in July 2025, with over 75 daily visitors; the county said its FY 2026 budgeted operating cost was about $530,000.
HSD said it will work to identify possible new facilities; a replacement center would open no sooner than July 2027.
Do Good Multnomah Workers United (AFSCME Local 1790) said a letter-writing campaign — 2,662 letters as of August 17 — preceded the nonprofit's reduction of the layoffs it announced in July from 14 to 8. The workers won union recognition in August 2024 and remain without a first contract; the bargaining unit has shrunk from about 250 workers to fewer than 200 during negotiations, following city and county budget cuts.
Northwest Labor Press reported in August that the July round was Do Good Multnomah's fourth staffing cut in a year.
Campaign filings showed Fixing Multnomah County, a PAC former Commissioner Sharon Meieran founded in October 2025, raised $70,116 — including $10,000 apiece from developer Homer Williams and former City Commissioner Amanda Fritz — to produce a 23-page county restructuring plan that uses homeless services as its case study and is central to her campaign for county chair against Commissioners Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton. Seth Woolley said the plan meets the definition of an in-kind contribution subject to the county's $603-per-donor limit; Meieran said the plan is publicly available to any candidate and does not need to be reported. A county spokesperson said no formal complaint has been filed.
Multnomah County's $603-per-donor contribution limit for county candidates comes from a charter amendment voters approved in 2016.
Street Roots · on Homeless Services Department director Nathaniel VerGow's funding outlook
In an hour-long Street Roots interview, new Homeless Services Department director Nathaniel VerGow said $15 million to $20 million in county HUD funding could be at risk, with roughly 40% of HUD-funded programs forced into national competition and Tier 1 renewals capped at 60% versus roughly 90% or higher in prior years. He said Metro's supportive housing services tax now supplies 60% of HSD's budget and has housed more than 10,000 people, and that the county is converting rapid-rehousing programs to transitional housing in response to HUD restrictions.
VerGow told OPB the prior week that the agency must do as much if not more with less against a $67 million budget gap.