An admirable and exemplary Mayor, Charlie Hales has stood out for solving problems on housing and homelessness.

 

PORTLAND, OR-July 05, 2017. Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury provided a $30 million commitment by the city and county to A Home For Everyone, a community partnership which followed Mayor Hales’ announcement that he would ask the City Council to consider declaring a state of emergency on housing and homelessness. The $30 million investment in housing and homelessness comes from two sources: $20 million from the city, $10 million from the county. The city’s $20 million will come from new and existing sources, identified through budget processes, according to the mayor.

 

A Home for Everyone will use the $30 million to fund shelter beds for women and families, and for new affordable housing units, including mental health housing and protections for tenants who are facing housing instability because of a dramatic rise in rents.

With $30 million, A Home For Everyone plans to:

• Create 250 more units for homeless people with $10 million.
• Use $5 million for shelter operations;
• Use $2.5 million for eviction prevention;
• Use $12.5 million for housing placement, rent assistance and support services.

“Even being able to house more people than we have ever housed in this community, we know from the data that if we don’t take dramatic action we will not be able to reduce the number of people suffering,” said Marc Jolin , director of A Home For Everyone.

 

On Wednesday, July 5, the City Council will consider the mayor’s proposal to declare a state of emergency. A state of emergency would allow the city to expedite permitting and citing for shelters and for building more housing units, allowing for a less costly and time-consuming process, reducing the time of six months and $30,000 to open a shelter.

 

“This creates an even greater sense of urgency around A Home For Everyone’s strategic plan. We’ve tried slow-and-steady. We’ve tried by-the-book. It’s time to add the tools we currently lack. For too long we have stayed rooted in some realization that these problems can’t be solved overnight. I want to move us to asking ourselves daily what problems can be solved tonight,” Charlie Hales said.

 

The mayor’s Homelessness Initiative is ongoing, which includes:

• House Homeless Veterans: The City and Multnomah County are working to house all of Portland’s homeless veterans by Christmas. There were over 600 veterans living outside; now there are around 200 who still need homes.
• High-Intensity Street Engagement Program: The City has contracted with Cascadia Behavioral Health to house people who face the greatest barriers to housing.
• One-Point Contact System: Beginning in October, there will be one point of contact to report all behavior-based issues, across city, county, state and other jurisdictions.
• Day Storage Pilot Program: Two storage sites — one on the east side, one on the west side — at which houseless people may leave their belongings for the day will open in October.

Other information about the city’s efforts toward housing and homelessness:

• There is $100 million in Mayor Hales’ 2015-16 budget;
• There is $150,000 for veterans’ housing assistance in the City’s Spring 2015 supplemental budget;

About A Home for Everyone

A Home for Everyone is a community-wide effort to house homeless Multnomah County citizens by making smart investments in the areas of housing, income, survival, emergency services, health, access to services and systems coordination. Key partners in the effort include Multnomah County, the City of Portland, the City of Gresham, Home Forward, local nonprofits and members of the public.

 

 

 

Your contact information:

Chenwei Zhang

Communications Assistant

Phone: 503-555-4120

Email: media@ahomeforeveryone.net