ProPublica reported that Oregon Housing and Community Services director Andrea Bell did not name her husband's employer, the affordable-housing consulting firm JH Brawner, on her state ethics disclosures until Sept. 23, the day ProPublica asked about it. The firm consulted on two Portland-area housing authority projects seeking state money from her agency: Park Place, a 200-unit Clackamas County project with $36 million in state funding, and Aloha 209th in Washington County, awaiting a $17.5 million subsidy. Bell said in a statement that she took the concerns "seriously" and had sought an advisory opinion from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission; three former officials familiar with state ethics law told ProPublica the lack of disclosure "merited review."
Bell filed amended economic-interest disclosures for the last three years on Sept. 23, 2026; OHCS has distributed more than $1.4 billion in state funding for rent-restricted apartments over the past five years.
HomeRise's board agreed Thursday to what a spokesperson called "an orderly resident-centered wind-down" over one to two years, requiring the city to transition operations and supportive services at 17 complexes housing more than 1,500 residents to new providers. The Chronicle reported the nonprofit received $240 million in public funds over a recent four-year period and that the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing announced in late July it would not renew four of nine supportive-services contracts. The Chronicle described the shutdown as without precedent for a provider of its size in the city.
The city placed HomeRise on its most severe level of nonprofit monitoring in March 2026 after a resident's death at Jazzie Collins Apartments.
The Albuquerque City Council unanimously approved a fifth supplemental agreement with Holland & Hart LLP adding $1.6 million for the city's defense in LaDella Williams, et al. v. City of Albuquerque, raising the contract's maximum value to $2.66 million. The city has paid $1.368 million in legal fees and litigation expenses so far and said it has made more than 20 witnesses available for depositions. The class action, filed in December 2022 by unhoused residents over citations, arrests, fines and seizure of belongings during encampment clearings, is funded from the city's Risk Management Fund; the city said it cannot estimate the lawsuit's final cost.
District Judge Joshua Allison certified the case as a class action on Oct. 2, 2025, and the city appealed that decision to the New Mexico Court of Appeals on Oct. 17, 2025.
The Washington Post · on a Washington Post review of homelessness spending in 12 cities
The Post reviewed the budgets of 12 U.S. cities with large homeless populations and found combined spending on homeless services rose more than 75 percent over the past five years. The piece opened at Phoenix's Safe Outdoor Space, a 200-tent site the Post said costs the city about $6.5 million a year, or $27,000 per structure, to operate for about 300 people.
Phoenix's city council approved a $5 million master-leasing pilot on Sept. 23, 2026.
Roll Call · on the National Urban League suit over the $56M housing counseling rescission
The National Urban League and state and local housing nonprofits sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the night of September 29 to block the $56 million HUD housing counseling cut included in the administration’s $810 million pocket rescission, arguing it violated the Impoundment Control Act and the Constitution. In decision B-338788, GAO’s general counsel concluded on September 29 that the September 25 special message, covering 11 appropriation accounts, does not permit withholding the funds past the end of FY2026 because the 45-day review period runs at least to November 9. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a separate suit on September 30, and her office said more than 7,000 New York households were at risk of losing counseling services; Sen. Jeff Merkley’s unanimous-consent request to nullify the rescission was blocked by Budget Chairman Ron Johnson.
The pocket rescission was transmitted September 25; the GAO decision is B-338788 and the New York complaint was announced by the attorney general’s office on September 30.
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.
The Pierce County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to award about $11.4 million from the county’s 0.1% housing sales tax to five projects, including $4.9 million for the 113-unit Fairway at DuPont and $3.5 million for the Low Income Housing Institute’s 73-unit Lincoln Family Housing in Tacoma, which sets aside 18 units for homeless households. Eleven applications had sought $35.8 million; unfunded proposals included LIHI’s Aspen Court conversion of a former Comfort Inn into permanent supportive housing. The county said 1,545 affordable homes have been built or preserved since the tax took effect.
The 0.1% sales tax was passed in 2023; the county has projected it needs more than 100,000 new units by 2044, about 77,000 of them for low-income households.
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.
HUD's Office of Inspector General announced two audits projecting more than $2.7 billion in improper payments annually across HUD's two largest rental assistance programs. The OIG attributed $1.291 billion to the Multifamily Project-Based Rental Assistance program, citing incorrect rent calculations, missing eligibility documentation, and inadequate oversight by performance-based contract administrators, and $1.430 billion to the Public and Indian Housing Tenant-Based Rental Assistance program (Housing Choice Vouchers), citing inaccurate income calculations, outdated documentation, improper utility allowance determinations, and insufficient HUD monitoring of public housing agencies.
The OIG said both programs have gone nine consecutive years without HUD producing the improper payment estimates required under the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019.
Metro opened applications for its Housing Production Accelerator Fund, which gives local governments grants and technical assistance for pre-development work such as permit review support, feasibility studies, environmental site assessments and regulatory updates. The fund is backed by a one-time $5 million investment from regional construction excise tax reserves and addresses four of the 16 actions in Metro's Regional Housing Coordination Strategy. Applications are reviewed and awarded on a rolling basis.
Metro Council President Juan Carlos González said creating the fund was the Council's first vote of 2026.
PBS NewsHour / Associated Press · on the pocket rescission, including $56 million in HUD housing counseling grants
The White House announced Friday that it is canceling nearly $1 billion in congressionally approved spending through a "pocket rescission," with the package including HUD housing counseling grants alongside HHS refugee services, a Department of Education migrant-student program and a Commerce minority business program. The White House's itemization put the HUD housing counseling line at $56 million and named UnidosUS, the National Urban League and Housing Action Illinois as grantees. The Government Accountability Office has said the pocket-rescission maneuver is illegal; Sen. Susan Collins called it "a usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers."
Congress has 45 days to review a rescission request, but the fiscal year ends September 30 and the House is out of session through the November election.
Councilors Mitch Green and Angelita Morillo announced a "Fair Share Tax" ordinance that would raise the city's CEO pay-ratio surtax on about 405 publicly traded corporations from the current 10%–25% of business-tax liability to a sliding scale of 25% to 500%, while raising the business license tax exemption from $75,000 to $500,000 in gross receipts. Their offices said the Revenue Division estimated $88 million in new surtax revenue less $16 million from the small-business cut, a net $72 million a year, with about 18,000 businesses paying nothing and saving an average of about $900. Portland Metro Chamber president Andrew Hoan said "Local taxes work like tariffs"; Councilor Steve Novick, who introduced the 2016 surtax, told the Mercury he "rather like[s] this method of taxation" but wants "a broad coalition with agreement on what exactly the money would be spent on."
The existing surtax has generated about $5 million a year since 2017; the proposal is scheduled for the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole on October 8.
Sunrise PDX organized a rally and bike relay at the Moda Center on September 26, with Portland DSA also helping organize; about 30 people rode laps around the arena, and Councilors Morillo, Green and Koyama Lane, who all voted against the August term sheet, addressed the crowd. Morillo said the city was "making a multi-million deal with your taxpayer dollars for a billionaire who can very easily afford to do this on his own," and Portland Association of Teachers president Alisha Chavez said Portland Public Schools faces 20 school closures. The Oregonian reported the state has committed $365 million in bonds, Multnomah County up to $101.6 million, and the council approved a nonbinding $120 million term sheet plus $275 million in maintenance over 20 years on an 8–4 vote.
The state's $365 million commitment carries a December deadline and is contingent on the sides reaching a new lease agreement.
Rochester City Council postponed its expected Tuesday vote on a plan to spend $1.15 million from the city's opioid compensation fund to reopen Peace Village, the city's only sanctioned homeless encampment, until a special meeting October 6. The legislation would authorize an agreement with City Roots Community Land Trust to operate 19 shelters on Industrial Street for adults 18 and older, with an on-site case management team, funded through the 2026-2027 fiscal year. Council members Mary Lupien, Stanley Martin and Kim Smith have proposed a "no barrier" model with no armed security and no personal information shared with police.
Rochester's homeless population has increased by 345 people over the last six years, a nearly 34% rise, according to this year's report from the city council president.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson proposed a roughly $9.1 billion 2027-2028 budget with no new tax increases, relying on more than $90 million in General Fund spending reductions. The proposal allocates more than $500 million annually for affordable housing, renters and homelessness services, including $37 million for new shelter capacity toward 960 shelter beds by the end of 2027, and for the first time funds homelessness services directly from the JumpStart payroll tax. The city estimates the new beds could serve about 1,750 people a year.
The City Council's budget process includes department presentations beginning September 24 and a public hearing October 6.
The Oregonian/OregonLive · on Measure 26-267, the participatory budgeting ballot measure
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on Measure 26-267, the sole city measure on Portland's November 3 ballot, which would create a participatory budgeting program letting residents propose and vote on projects. The measure would set aside an amount equal to at least 2 percent of the city's general fund budget each year — about $16 million — for the program.
The initiative was referred to the county elections division on August 28, 2026, and numbered Measure 26-267.
City records reviewed by KSTP showed the August 5 clearing of the Pig's Eye Park encampment cost approximately $439,746, with more than $333,000 of that tied to contracted cleanup. City Council President Rebecca Noecker said the council was not informed of the total cost beforehand and said, "I don't think it was a success." The city confirmed seven people accepted shelter beds associated with the effort, out of roughly 200 people organizers estimated remained at the site before closure.
The city and Ramsey County had previously committed $2.25 million toward shelter expansion, stabilization beds and case management ahead of the closure.
The Vancouver City Council on September 14 approved spending $9.5 million from the city's Affordable Housing Fund on seven projects totaling about 400 units for seniors, families, people with disabilities and people exiting homelessness, according to a staff report. Awards include $3 million to preserve Smith Tower, $3 million to a 51-unit Vancouver Housing Authority senior project, and $1.5 million to Community Roots for a 24-unit permanent supportive housing development on East Mill Plain Boulevard. City officials also moved $2 million from rental assistance into production and preservation, saying rental assistance funds had been spent more slowly than anticipated.
Only one Vancouver project has received money from the state Housing Trust Fund in the past two years, which The Columbian reports has stalled about 560 planned affordable units.
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.
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.
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 Portland Housing Bureau announced conditional awards for two projects on land-banked sites expected to produce 106 affordable homes in total. Mt. Tabor Annex Townhomes at 511 SE 60th Ave. would build 24 townhomes for purchase with $4.3 million in Metro Affordable Housing Bond funds, and Cornerstone at Gateway at 10226 E Burnside St. would build 82 one- and two-bedroom rental homes with $8 million in Gateway TIF funding. The bureau said the Mt. Tabor award brings Metro Bond-funded units in Portland to 2,177, exceeding the city's initial goal by 48%.
The Mt. Tabor award is conditional pending Metro concept endorsement; Cornerstone at Gateway proceeds through a development agreement.
The Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development projected its annual capacity dropping from roughly $330 million supporting 20 projects this fiscal year to about $130 million supporting seven projects in 2027–28, with the next housing bond not scheduled until 2034. Proposition C on the November ballot would raise the Affordable Housing Trust Fund's $50 million annual cap to about $125 million, and Proposition I would dedicate $125 million in taxes on high-end property sales to non-market housing. 48 Hills reported more than 12,000 affordable homes are in the pipeline awaiting funding.
More than $1 billion in affordable-housing bond money approved over the past ten years built almost 5,000 units and funded roughly 2,000 more now coming online.
Rep. Pam Marsh, chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness, and Sen. Khanh Pham, chair of the Senate Committee on Housing and Development, said they plan to introduce legislation in the 2027 session to eliminate a 1997 public records exemption that lets Oregon Housing and Community Services withhold financial details of subsidized housing projects. The agency cited the law in redacting sections of developers' cost reports that ProPublica requested in May. ProPublica's August investigation reported that Oregon has given developers $1.4 billion since 2021, that per-unit development costs have nearly doubled to $540,000, and that $850 million in future state funding is lined up.
Oregon's Sunshine Committee, the state body that reviews records exemptions, is separately examining the 1997 exemption.
Federal prosecutors charged three people Wednesday with stealing $12 million in federal and state homelessness aid, alleging the money went to real estate, luxury trips and vintage vehicles. Lakiya Malone, 48, and Michael Young, 46, were arrested in Los Angeles; a third defendant, Donye Mitchell, 55, is considered a fugitive. Young founded Home At Last, a nonprofit that took in more than $118 million in public funds since 2019.
The charges were announced the day after the House DOGE subcommittee's September 15 hearing on homelessness-services spending.
Multnomah County commissioners reviewed four options for covering the county's $101.6 million commitment to the Moda Center renovation, ranging from using $35 million in one-time county resources with $53 million financed to raising the motor vehicle rental tax by 1% or 1.25% or the transient lodging tax by 1%. The county estimated the options would cost between $138.6 million and $163.6 million over an assumed 20-year period, including as much as $62 million in interest. Several commissioners pushed to take a lodging tax increase off the table, with Commissioners Brim-Edwards and Singleton favoring a rental-car tax increase.
The Oregon Legislature approved $365 million in state bonding for the renovation earlier this year, and Portland city councilors approved a term sheet in August outlining the city's proposed investment.
Austin's Homeless Strategies and Operations department reported spending $719,361 on its Homeless Encampment Management initiative between May 11 and June 5, with 62% — nearly $450,000 — going to staff salaries. Teams made 456 visits to 127 distinct encampment locations and connected 35 people to shelters and nine to supportive services, and 28% of cleared sites saw encampments again within 30 days, according to the department's data.
The article's headline figure is $716,000; the spending total reported in the body, attributed to the department, is $719,361.
Houston's Housing and Community Development Department recommended approving up to an additional $485,000 in community development block grant funds for Beacon of Downtown Houston for case management, diversion, and rapid resolution services. A separate contract worth more than $1.28 million would support the Texas Homeless Housing and Services Program, covering activities including construction, development, or acquisition of housing.
The Chronicle reported that San Francisco's new effort to fund homelessness service providers based on measurable results has drawn public support from the Cicero Institute, the policy organization founded by Joe Lonsdale that has drafted model anti-camping and treatment-first legislation adopted in several states. A critic quoted in the story called Cicero a "very problematic political operation" and said its praise is "in service of a billionaire agenda to undermine the safety net."
Mayor Lurie's administration announced August 31 that providers must reapply for roughly $500 million in homelessness services contracts under an outcomes-based model.
The council voted 8–4 to adopt recommendations advancing a Broadway-capable performing arts venue at Portland State University while initiating planning for the Keller Auditorium's future. KPTV reported the new venue's cost is estimated at around $450 million. The left bloc split: Green and Avalos voted aye; Koyama Lane, Morillo, and Kanal voted nay, joined by Dan Ryan.
The official roll call: Aye (8) Novick, Clark, Green, Zimmerman, Avalos, Smith, Pirtle-Guiney, Dunphy; Nay (4) Koyama Lane, Morillo, Kanal, Ryan.
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.
Pallet, the Washington-based shelter manufacturer chosen for Dallas's planned South Dallas transitional housing community, announced it is closing its business after nine years. Dallas's plan calls for a 75-unit non-congregate community on 3.6 acres, at a price of $2.7 million paid from 2024 bond funds and with estimated annual operating costs of $1.5 million to $2 million; the city's published timeline places the Pallet unit order in December 2026 and installation by September 2027. Neither Pallet nor Dallas's Office of Housing and Community Empowerment had responded to requests for comment at publication.
Pallet said it created more than 6,000 beds and sheltered an estimated 30,000 people across the US and Canada since 2017.
Street Roots · on proposals to divert Portland Clean Energy Fund money, including $75 million toward the Moda Center
Street Roots reported on proposals to redirect Portland Clean Energy Fund revenue: a Safer Portland initiative to divert 25% of PCEF's annual revenue to hire 400 more police officers failed to gather enough signatures for the November ballot, and Mayor Keith Wilson has advocated reallocating $75 million from PCEF toward Moda Center renovations after the City Council approved a term sheet August 13 committing the city to $120 million up front. Community groups including Kijani Collective and EnerCity Collaborative objected that diversions contradict the fund's stated purpose of investing in frontline communities.
PCEF is funded by a 1% surcharge on large retailers with $1 billion in national revenue and $500,000 in local revenue, approved by Portland voters in 2018.
Willamette Week · on Portland City Council DSA incumbents' small-donor fundraising totals
Willamette Week reported that council incumbents Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green — all Democratic Socialists of America members — have each logged more than 1,600 campaign contributions through Portland's Small Donor Elections program, which the paper said is nearly 750 more than their centrist colleagues seeking reelection. Per the program's website, Koyama Lane has received $200,000 in matching funds, Morillo $160,000 and Green $162,000.
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans and Council President Miguel Meléndez submitted legislation September 1 seeking up to $1.15 million from the city's Opioid Compensation Fund for City Roots Community Land Trust to operate Peace Village, the city's sanctioned encampment, through June 2027. The site is expected to include 15 Pallet shelters with showers, electricity, and heat, accommodating roughly 15 to 30 people at a time. City Council is scheduled to vote September 22.
Peace Village opened at 97 Industrial Street in 2018 and operated for about five years before the site was cleared for construction; Pallet, the shelter manufacturer, announced its closure September 4.
LAist · on the removal of LAHSA audit committee chair Justin Szlasa
The LAHSA Commission approved new committee assignments last week that removed Commissioner Justin Szlasa as chair of the three-member audit committee; commission chair Stephanie Graves, a Bass appointee, recommended the change and told LAist it was her "prerogative" without explaining her reasoning. Szlasa, an appointee of county Supervisor Kathryn Barger, had pressed LAHSA to finish a years-long audit of its failure to spend $7 million in federal grants; his replacement as audit chair is Charles Stringer, a Bass appointee.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter earlier called the camping-site capacity payments Szlasa identified "obvious fraud."
Willamette Week reported that Portland water rates rose 8.1% and sewer and stormwater rates 5.15% beginning July 1, increases the Water Bureau attributed in part to Gresham and the Rockwood Water People's Utility District leaving the Bull Run customer base. The Bull Run Filtration Project is now expected to conclude by 2029 at a cost of $2.58 billion. A correction to the article states the council vote authorizing additional debt for the project was opposed by Councilors Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green and Council President Jamie Dunphy; Green posted September 3 that he voted no because household water rates "will go up about 10% for several years."
The Tualatin Valley Water District, Portland's largest wholesale customer with 166,000 residents, is next scheduled to leave the city's water system.
The Banner reported that Baltimore's Division of Homeownership and Housing Preservation — the office that placed Teonna Brown and her six children in an East Baltimore rowhouse later condemned — had been under a fraud investigation since the spring, and that three employees were terminated in mid-July. Emails obtained by the Banner show police found one person believed to be involved in criminal activity, with the case referred to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office and policy violations referred to the inspector general; Mayor Brandon Scott acknowledged city staff failed to follow up with the family after placement.
The housing department said the rowhouse's condemnation was solely for a gas line improperly split between the furnace and dryer.
FOX45 News · on Baltimore's shelter-hotel maintenance contracts
Spotlight on Maryland reported Baltimore paid contractor Old Town Hotel Group about $4 million on a first maintenance contract and nearly $2 million on a second for two downtown hotels used as homeless shelters, while an August inspector general report described mold, poor ventilation and mushrooms growing through carpeting found in a September 2025 inspection of the Sleep Inn at 301 Fallsway. The Mayor's Office of Homeless Services said the contractor resolved the reported issues and a new vendor took over in July; Continuum of Care chair Nico Sanders said testing covered six rooms, three of which showed elevated mold spore levels, all at the Sleep Inn.
The city bought the two hotels in 2024 for $15.2 million in federal COVID funds and plans to convert both to permanent supportive housing, with construction tentatively beginning in mid-2027.
Pallet Shelter, the Everett-based manufacturer of micro-modular shelter units, announced it will cease operations Friday. The closure comes months after the nonprofit Everyone Deserves Housing opened a 75-unit Pallet shelter in Interbay under a Seattle Human Services Department contract amended in April from $1.3 million to almost $4 million. Mayor Katie Wilson said the city would continue opening wooden tiny houses; PubliCola reported the city has opened or announced a net 175 new Pallet and tiny house units against Wilson's goal of 1,000 new shelter beds in her first year.
In 2024, a fire at a Pallet shelter on Elliott Ave. W operated by Catholic Community Services destroyed or damaged 25 units and displaced 28 people.
King County Regional Homelessness Authority · on the transfer of about $150 million in contracts back to Seattle and King County
KCRHA said the transition announced in July by King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has moved from planning into implementation, with administration of approximately $150 million in locally funded annual homelessness service contracts moving back to Seattle and King County. The authority said it has begun reducing and restructuring staffing, is concluding interlocal agreements with seven cities including Bellevue and Redmond, and will retain federal Continuum of Care responsibilities including HMIS, Coordinated Entry, and the Point-in-Time count.
The authority said it has reached the 90-day milestone in the Corrective Action Plan adopted after this year's financial reviews; its layoffs began in late August.
The Standard reported, citing emails obtained by public records request, that 60 tiny cabins San Francisco bought for about $7 million have sat unused in a Bayview parking lot at Jerrold Commons for nearly a year, after the mayor's office scrapped a planned SoMa shelter site at 428 11th St. on September 30, 2025. The Housing Accelerator Fund's records show $219,000 was spent on the abandoned SoMa project, and the outlet reported the city has no timeline, budget, or plan to reactivate the cabins.
A January report from the city homelessness department found Bayview-Hunters Point has 21% of the city's unsheltered population and 11% of its shelter beds, while SoMa holds 28% of beds and 11% of the unsheltered population.
A spending breakdown KSTP obtained from Ramsey County showed how St. Paul and the county allocated $2.25 million for shelter expansion before clearing the Pig's Eye Park encampment in early August: $969,500 to Catholic Charities' Higher Ground for 49 beds, $103,125 to Model Cities for 6 stabilization beds, $300,000 for housing-focused case management, and $880,000 in city funds still in contract negotiations. The city previously confirmed only seven people from the camp accepted the beds, and outreach worker John Tolo estimated over 200 people are now at the Randolph Avenue camp.
The county's Shelter Entry and Diversion team handled 608 calls in the most recent reporting week, including 380 for shelter reservations, with several adult shelters at or near capacity.
San Diego opened a $15 million eighth round of its Bridge to Home affordable-housing fund, composed of $10 million in former redevelopment dollars restricted to site work and construction and $5 million from the state Permanent Local Housing Allocation program. Since 2021 the program has committed more than $120 million toward 2,969 units across 30 projects; eight of those projects have finished construction, delivering 676 completed homes. Developer applications are due October 19.
Of the 676 completed homes, 156 units are paired with supportive services for residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Advantage Services, a nonprofit that employs about 120 people who have experienced homelessness or other disadvantages for cleanup, shuttle and storage work, said it must raise $750,000 in September or faces possible closure at the end of October. CEO Rob Ferris said its largest contract, with Salt Lake City's Urban Services Division, was cut from roughly $2 million to less than $1 million after the city shifted the work to its in-house Clean City team, and that insurance costs rose from $177,000 to more than $400,000 this year. The city's Public Services Department said the contract reduction was a decision to save taxpayer money.
Advantage Services operates Salt Lake City's Transitional Storage Program, which has more than 500 bins where people experiencing homelessness can store their belongings.
Sacramento broke ground on the Gardendale Road micro-community near Meadowview, the first of four planned tiny-home sites for unhoused people 55 and older, with 40 units planned there and 28 at a 25th Street site. City officials confirmed the Arena Boulevard site in North Natomas is paused; an internal city manager's office memo obtained by KCRA estimated that site's development and construction at a minimum of $7.1 million, up from a $3.5 million estimate in September 2025 presentations, which officials attributed to its flood-zone location. Mayor Kevin McCarty said "pause does not mean it's done."
Councilmember Lisa Kaplan said on August 26 that the Arena Boulevard project was "officially not moving forward."
Portland Ballot Measure 26-267, which would let Portlanders decide how 2% of the city's general fund is spent every year, drew organized opposition from Mayor Keith Wilson and the Northwest Oregon Labor Council through a new PAC called Protect Our City Services. Wilson said the measure would pull "at least $16 million a year from the fund that pays for shelter beds, park maintenance, and investigators." Backers qualified the measure for the November ballot after submitting 78,000 signatures.
The PAC, Protect Our City Services, had not yet appeared on the Oregon secretary of state's campaign finance database as of publication.
Sacramento County reported that selected county-funded homelessness programs served 6,662 people in fiscal year 2025-26, a 44% increase over three years, and that 43% of participants who left programs transitioned into permanent housing. The Department of Homeless Services and Housing's FY2026-27 budget includes about $65.6 million for contracts and services.
The county's programs served 4,614 people in fiscal year 2023-24.
Long Beach is building a metal fence around the 1927 Jergins Tunnel beneath Ocean Boulevard, which people have used as shelter since the pandemic; firefighters have doused fires inside at least four times since 2022. A city spokesperson said $156,200 has been spent so far on materials and labor and the project won't be finished until mid-to-late September. The city cited site security, vandalism and fire reduction, and the tunnel's structural integrity as reasons for the fence.
The city spent $811,449 on a fence around the Billie Jean King Main Library's outdoor terrace.
The House returned Monday from a five-week recess without voting on the Senate-passed continuing resolution funding the government through December 11; the AP reported the vote will most likely take place Tuesday. GOP leaders plan to bring the bill up under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority, after a provision delaying a federal ban on intoxicating hemp THC products drew criticism from Republican lawmakers. The Senate passed the bill 90-6.
The House's own continuing resolution, passed July 21 by a 220-205 vote, ran only through December 4; the suspension vote would adopt the Senate's December 11 date instead.
San Francisco will seek new contracts for all of its homelessness services over the next several years, the Chronicle reported. The mayor's office described the rebid as a bid to boost accountability and results for the hundreds of millions of dollars the city spends on homelessness annually.
Mayor Daniel Lurie rejected several recommendations of a June civil grand jury report on the city's oversight of homelessness contracts on August 24.
Multnomah County commissioners voted unanimously on August 27 to delay the scheduled 0.8 percentage-point increase in the Preschool for All income tax from January 1, 2027 to January 1, 2028. The program's Technical Advisory Group had recommended a two-year delay; Commissioners Shannon Singleton and Megan Moyer amended Chair Jessica Vega Pederson's resolution to a one-year delay. Economic models presented to commissioners August 20 showed the program can operate during the delay but will eventually require the increase to run at its planned level.
In 2024, commissioners unanimously voted to postpone the same increase from 2026 to 2027.
Kansas City reached a relocation agreement August 27 with the North Lawn Tenant Union covering 10 households forcibly displaced August 21 when the North Lawn apartment complex was condemned, plus two units vacated since May over deteriorating conditions. The city will pay for storage units, moving costs, groceries, a security deposit and three months' rent, drawing on $500,000 from its Housing Trust Fund approved August 13. KC Tenants and the mayor's office negotiated the deal at city hall.
Mississippi Clarion Ledger · on the Homeward JXN rental assistance program in Jackson, Mississippi
The Jackson City Council voted 5-1 on August 25 to approve a two-year, $220,000 agreement naming the Mississippi Housing Partnership as third-party administrator of a tenant-based rental assistance program, the final administrative step before the city's Homeward JXN initiative launches in September. Council documents show about $2.04 million of Jackson's $2.2 million HOME-ARP allocation will cover rent and utility deposits for an estimated 200 people for up to 12 months, with monthly rent projected to average $850. Planning and Development Director Angela Brown said the program is about closing encampments and moving people into stable housing.
The city will hold a community event September 1 to provide an update on Homeward JXN.
Northwest Bank filed a lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court on August 25 alleging that developer Vanessa Sturgeon, Sturgeon Development Partners and North Pearl LLC defaulted on a $6 million loan on the Pearl District building that houses the 200-bed NW Northrup Shelter and now owe $7.2 million in payments and interest. The city leases the building for $18,000 a month; the shelter is set to close permanently on September 18, one year after opening. Mayoral spokesman Cody Bowman said the city does not anticipate the lawsuit will affect the planned closure.
In March, the owners of the neighboring ORO Apartments sued the city of Portland and shelter operator the Salvation Army for $6 million in Multnomah County Circuit Court; that suit remains ongoing.
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.
Federal and county prosecutors charged Alex Soofer, leader of the now-defunct nonprofit Abundant Blessings, with fraud, alleging he pocketed at least $10 million in homelessness funds that flowed through LAHSA to his nonprofit and his for-profit company. LAist reported that LAHSA's top two compliance officials declared Abundant Blessings "High-Risk" in a May 2024 delinquency notice while the agency continued awarding it new contracts, paying $5 million to the nonprofit through direct contracts starting in 2023. Soofer and the nonprofit agreed last November to pay LAHSA $1.25 million in a settlement; he has pleaded not guilty.
A preliminary review by an Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigator found former Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews did not obtain authorization for travel spending between 2023 and 2025, including $784.95 for three nights at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront during a conference Home Forward was hosting and $8,135 charged to the agency for a Hawaii trip. The investigator found a "substantial objective basis" to believe Mathews violated conflict-of-interest and misuse-of-office provisions; Home Forward's general counsel said the agency's travel policy did not apply at the CEO level.
The commission voted unanimously the prior week to open a full investigation; Mathews resigned in May 2025.
The Oregonian · on the pace of Moda Center lease negotiations since the Dundon sale
The Oregonian reported that the pace of Moda Center renovation and lease negotiations has slowed since Tom Dundon's purchase of the team closed in late March, with a December deadline to reach an agreement. Carl Hirsh, a consultant retained by the city for the project, said "The Trail Blazers have not acted like a team focused on a long-term lease"; the team did not directly answer the paper's questions, including how much the proposed terms would cost the franchise over 20 years.
Portland City Council approved a term sheet for Moda Center renovations on August 12; the Blazers' lease at the arena runs through 2030.
Miami Herald · on Miami-Dade Homeless Trust payments to a sanctioned assisted-living operator
A Miami Herald investigation reported that Jackson Health System paid Roxana Solano's company, Unlimited Senior Solutions, nearly $35.2 million over roughly a decade to place patients in assisted living facilities, including $12 million — 34 percent — involving patients discharged to a home Solano owned. The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, which hired Solano during the pandemic to run a shelter and find assisted-living beds for incapacitated homeless elders, has paid her $5.7 million since 2023, while Florida's health care regulator cited, fined, and in two cases closed her facilities.
The state halted new admissions to one of Solano's homes in 2019 and closed two others after documented violations.
The San Antonio Housing Trust approved a 28-month Homeless Response Action Plan for Cattleman Square, a historic district west of downtown where more than 160 people experiencing homelessness are sleeping near abandoned buildings. Nearly 40 nonprofits and other organizations are participating; the first six months focus on outreach and needs identification, and the plan's first two years could cost more than $12 million.
A draft master plan is expected in October, with the final version potentially available by January.
Councilmember Dan Strauss's RV legislation package allocates $5 million — $1.5 million one-time and $3.5 million ongoing — and funds eight new positions, pairing a one-time permit program for people living in RVs with a ban on RV street parking from midnight to 6 a.m. and a two-hour daytime limit. Permit holders could decline up to six shelter or housing offers before losing the permit; the city's Unified Care Team has tallied 145 vehicles meeting the program's definition, a figure Strauss said he believes is an undercount. The package sets an April 30 deadline to stand up the permit program and parking restrictions, with enforcement beginning by July 31.
Strauss said he expects the public safety committee to discuss the package again on or before September 22; one safe-parking lot, Glassyard Commons in West Seattle, opens in November.
Mayor Daniel Lurie's office issued its formal response Monday to the June civil grand jury report on oversight of the nearly $500 million San Francisco spends annually on nonprofit homelessness contracts, disagreeing fully or partially with all but one of the jury's findings. The mayor rejected recommendations to publish critical-incident data on a public dashboard and to route contract renewals through the Homelessness Oversight Commission, with his office writing that renewals are administrative matters under the city charter; it said it will implement some recommendations, including evaluating nonprofit housing operators on resident safety outcomes.
The grand jury report cited 2024 data showing 26% of San Francisco overdose deaths occurred at permanent supportive housing sites, an increase from prior years.
Public records obtained by the Mercury showed Portland Solutions staff spent months coordinating with Riff City Strategies, Urban Alchemy's public relations firm — sharing draft responses to reporters' questions, alerting the firm to publication dates, and connecting it with Mayor Keith Wilson's top staff. Complaints against the nonprofit, which holds a $90.4 million five-year city contract through 2028, have reached at least 156 since it came to Portland in 2023; a June email from the mayor's deputy chief of staff named Councilors Green, Kanal, and Avalos as the contract's "most outspoken skeptics."
Councilors Avalos and Kanal issued a memo on May 8 requesting more city oversight of Urban Alchemy's contract.
Shelterforce reported that the Portland City Council's April 2026 approval of an initial $17.5 million investment in social housing — part of a $56 million package drawn from previously unbudgeted housing funds — is letting the city pilot a revolving loan fund to acquire property for permanently affordable housing. The piece reports that the discovery of the unbudgeted funds raised questions about administration of the Portland Housing Bureau's roughly $244 million 2025–2026 budget.
The study ordered by an April 2025 council resolution is expected to release its final report by the end of August 2026.
Shelterforce reported on Portland's social housing pilot, funded by a $17.5 million council allocation in April 2026 as part of a $56 million package drawn from previously unbudgeted housing funds, which will seed a revolving loan fund to buy commercial properties for conversion to permanently affordable housing. Councilor Mitch Green told Shelterforce he is optimistic the money will be a downpayment on further policy change rather than a one-off experiment; Councilor Candace Avalos said the private market produces housing that is "grossly expensive and inaccessible" and that social housing can create "systems that last."
The council-ordered social housing study's final report and recommendations are expected by the end of August 2026.
KGW · on a Straight Talk interview on Metro's housing and homelessness role
In a Straight Talk interview, Metro Council President Juan Carlos Gonzalez said the regional government must move beyond its original growth-management mandate, with housing and workforce development rising to the fore. KGW's promotion of the interview said the Portland area is headed for a housing and homelessness funding cliff that could cause thousands of people to lose their housing.
Metro's supportive housing services tax, which funds homeless services in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties, expires in 2030 unless renewed.
Maricopa County and the City of Phoenix launched an Eviction Prevention Pilot Program that will use $800,000 to pay qualified residents up to $3,200 covering up to two months of rental arrears, with all program funding going toward rent. Eligibility is limited to four ZIP codes with elevated eviction rates — 85008, 85040, 85041 and 85042 — and requires documented financial hardship and the property owner's agreement that payment fully satisfies the arrears.
Maricopa County's program page says the pilot's application window closed August 21 at 4 p.m.
A west Houston pilot placing homeless people in hotel rooms while West Houston Assistance Ministries provides employment coaching and other services received an additional $180,000 from council offices, Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones, and the Energy Corridor Management District as it entered its second year, after serving nearly 100 people on $30,000 in its first year. The city's 222-bed residential services center in East Downtown has operated at capacity since opening this summer, against an estimated 1,200 unsheltered people in Harris County.
Houston's 2026 point-in-time count tallied 3,321 homeless people in the area, per Houston Public Media's June reporting.
An OPB/ProPublica investigation reported that Oregon has given affordable housing developers $1.4 billion while the cost of developing each apartment has nearly doubled to $540,000, and that a state public-records exemption keeps itemized project financial details secret. The reporting said dozens of projects are lined up for an additional $850 million in future state funding, and that California and Washington publish comparable financial records.
Researchers found California was spending $300 million a year in development fees on subsidized housing, enough to have financed another 1,250 apartments annually.
Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman held a general-election mayoral debate Wednesday night in Sherman Oaks, clashing over homelessness and policing. Raman said Bass has spent $400 million on Inside Safe while refusing audits and cited 8,000 beds she said were not being managed; Bass disputed Raman's per-room cost figures, saying county reimbursements offset them, and said homelessness declined in Raman's district because of Inside Safe.
Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello pitched a "Unified Regional Approach" to homelessness in which jurisdictions retain their own budgets and funding while coordinating through a shared data system, and said the model is deliberately unlike the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. Tacoma, which Mello said currently hosts 80% of homelessness services in the county, is weighing whether to join; several other cities have passed resolutions committing to collaborate.
Seattle and King County set a January 2027 timeline in August to take back $159 million in contracts from KCRHA.
Marcus Clark said he and all three of his children were hospitalized with respiratory problems while staying at the former Sleep Inn on Fallsway, a hotel Baltimore converted to a homeless shelter, after tests found more than 1,000 toxic mold spores in the family's room. Advocates including Rev. Christina Flowers called on Maryland's General Assembly to investigate conditions in the city's hotel shelters, which were purchased with more than $15 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The city Inspector General's office previously documented mold, mushrooms growing from carpets and non-functional ventilation across multiple rooms at the hotels.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted unanimously on August 14 to open an investigation into former Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews' travel spending. Mathews resigned in June after Willamette Week reported she had spent more than $100,000 on agency-funded travel over the three preceding years.
The commission's investigator found "a substantial objective basis to believe that Mathews may have violated the use of office and conflict of interest provisions."
SF.gov (Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing) · on the citywide Good Neighbor Policy for city-funded shelter and service sites
San Francisco announced a revised citywide Good Neighbor Policy setting a single standard for how city-contracted shelter, transitional housing, supportive housing, and service sites steward the surrounding public space: three perimeter checks a day, acknowledgment of community concerns within 24 hours, and reasonable efforts to resolve routine concerns within 72 hours. The policy sets a four-tier corrective-action ladder running from notice-and-correction to contract remedies including payment holds and termination, with app testing beginning in August, provider training in September and October, and implementation planned for November and December 2026.
The policy covers all HSH-funded shelter, transitional housing, access-point, drop-in, and supportive-housing property-management contracts and all DPH client-serving program contracts.
Management at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority told the agency's executive leadership team last week which staffers will lose their jobs in late August or early September, the first staff cuts of the agency's wind-down to a coordination role. Staff represented by the PROTEC17 union sent a letter to the governing board urging the agency to cut two top executives first, whose combined compensation tops $600,000 — what the union called "the direct financial cost of five to six full-time operational staff." The agency currently has 73 staff and has overspent its administrative budget by as much as $1 million this year.
Seattle and King County set a January 2027 timeline to take back $159 million in homelessness contracts from the authority, narrowing it to coordination.
Vancouver city staff told the city council Monday the city will rework its scoring and timeline for awarding federal housing and community development funds after none of the 100 new rental units, 50 rehabilitated rental units or 10 homeowner units in its 2024-2028 plan were completed with those funds. Staff said federal HOME funds went unused because Build America, Buy America construction requirements raised costs, pushing developers to the city's more flexible Affordable Housing Fund. The city expects about $1.7 million in community development funds, $1 million in housing funds and roughly $500,000 for homelessness programs in 2027, with applications opening October 1.
The council separately weighed changes to the voter-approved Affordable Housing Fund on August 11 that would roughly double per-unit subsidies.
Public records obtained by the Mercury showed Portland Solutions staff coordinating public messaging with Riff City Strategies, the PR firm for Urban Alchemy, which holds the city's largest homeless services contract at $90.4 million through 2028. Complaints filed against the nonprofit's Portland shelter sites since 2023 have reached at least 156, including allegations of staff drug use and sexual harassment; the records showed city staff sharing draft press responses with the firm, recommending journalists, and connecting the firm to Mayor Keith Wilson's office. A Portland police spokesperson declined a request to collaborate on a story promoting the nonprofit, writing that PPB should not promote "a business that's mentioned in at least one criminal investigation."
Councilors Candace Avalos and Sameer Kanal issued a May 8 memo requesting more oversight of the contract after earlier KATU reporting counted more than 80 complaints against Urban Alchemy sites between 2023 and 2025.
The city's Human Resources Administration rejected about 75% of the nearly 30,000 One-Shot Deal requests related to rent arrears filed between January 1 and March 31, 2026, according to city data. The agency received 54,705 One-Shot Deal requests in total over that quarter and approved about 36% of the nearly 19,000 applications for unpaid utility bills. Advocates said procedural requirements have made approval increasingly difficult despite Mamdani's campaign pledges on eviction prevention.
The rejection rate for rent-arrears One-Shot Deal requests was 62% in April–June 2022, when the city received about 17,200 applications.
The CTA board approved $9 million in pilot programs with four nonprofits, three of which will place crisis intervention teams on the Red, Blue and Green lines to aid riders experiencing homelessness, substance use disorder and mental health issues; the fourth funds 20 community violence intervention specialists on the downtown Red Line. The board also renewed a $4.2 million annual outreach agreement with the Department of Family and Support Services and amended a second DFSS pact to add $412,500 for at least 30 dedicated shelter beds for CTA riders, set to be available before winter.
The terms of all current CTA, Metra and Pace board members expire September 1, when the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority board is seated.
The San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is the group behind Proposition I, a ballot measure that would dedicate the city's transfer taxes on properties worth $10 million or more — nearly $120 million a year, per the City Controller — to a House SF Fund for affordable-housing programs. Mayor Daniel Lurie and the city's police and firefighters unions said the measure would create "an unaccountable slush fund."
The transfer tax had raised $504.6 million by February, about $200 million of which initially went to housing-related programs, according to advocates cited in the article.
Trail Blazers representatives agreed to meet city negotiators on Monday, Aug. 17, to discuss terms of a 20-year lease, with the city agreeing to spend nearly $400 million to renovate the Moda Center. The term sheet setting the negotiation framework passed the council 8-4, with Mitch Green, Candace Avalos, Angelita Morillo, and Tiffany Koyama Lane voting no. Councilors asked negotiators to press for additional private investment from the team, a request the Blazers previously called a "nonstarter."
A deciding council vote on the lease terms is expected Dec. 17; the state's $365 million commitment lapses if no lease is signed by year-end.
Six months into a $30 million contract to run the Aspen, a former DoubleTree hotel shelter, Urban Alchemy told a Denver City Council committee it is exceeding the housing department's performance targets: 93% occupancy against a 90% goal, 99% of clients getting intake housing conversations, and 88% receiving regular housing-focused case management. Average length of stay across the city's shelters rose from 166 days in 2025 to 229 days in 2026, which deputy director Jeff Kositsky attributed to the loss of housing authority vouchers and ARPA funding.
The city's performance metrics for shelter providers do not count housing exits; Kositsky told the council providers do not control housing resources.
Portland City Council voted 8-4 on August 12 to approve a nonbinding term sheet committing $120 million in city funds toward an estimated $600 million Moda Center renovation, in exchange for seeking a 20-year lease with the Trail Blazers. Councilors Mitch Green, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo, and Candace Avalos voted no; progressive-caucus colleague Sameer Kanal and Council President Jamie Dunphy voted yes, with Kanal saying "I believe that if council doesn't pass a term sheet today, negotiations are done." Green told the council the city was entering into the "worst deal in the country," per the Portland Mercury.
On August 6 the council advanced the unamended term sheet on a 7-5 vote after rejecting every proposed amendment.
Portland Mercury · on the amendment roll calls on the Moda Center term sheet
The council passed three amendments to the Moda Center term sheet on August 12; the Mercury reported that, except for Councilor Steve Novick's rent amendment, all were revamped versions of proposals progressive councilors introduced the prior week. Novick's amendment raising the Blazers' proposed annual rent from $2 million to $3.17 million passed 7-5. An amendment from Angelita Morillo and Sameer Kanal requiring the administration to report opportunity costs to the council 15 days before any financial vote failed on a 6-6 tie.
The prior week the council voted against all 11 proposed amendments to the term sheet.
Portland City Council voted 8-4 to approve a non-binding term sheet opening lease negotiations with the Trail Blazers over a nearly $600 million Moda Center renovation, a week after the Multnomah County board approved its $101 million package. The city's term sheet commits $120 million up front and up to $275 million in maintenance over a 20-year lease, alongside $365 million in state bonds; opponents at the hearings cited concurrent cuts to rent assistance and shelter programs.
Negotiations are expected to wrap by early December 2026, when the final lease agreement returns for a binding council vote.