New Multnomah County Chair Announces $14 Million Plan to Move Unsheltered Residents into Existing Private Housing

New Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson announced plans last Friday to rapidly move 300 people living in tents downtown into apartments. The county will pay private landlords who rent to program participants a year’s worth of rent and promise to provide services like mediation if tenant-landlord issues arise. 

Through the Housing Multnomah Now plan, landlords are guaranteed a supportive worker who can help mitigate any issues between a renter and their landlord. The initiative will also include funds to incentivize landlords to rent to individuals who they may not typically rent to, like those with a criminal record or previous evictions.

Vega Pederson said she plans to ask the county board to allocate the $14 million left unspent from its 2022 allocation from the Metro homelessness services tax for the project, and several commissioners have expressed support for the proposal. 

“We are pivoting so we no longer move people three blocks, but instead focus on moving people into housing and providing support from there,” Vega Pederson said during a press conference.

The new county chair has also recently announced the formation of a data task force to track key indicators to "ensure the Joint Office of Homeless Services is collecting and sharing outcomes that track how well its programming addresses homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County."

The Oregonian reports that across Multnomah County, more than 5,000 people are experiencing homelessness and of those, more than 3,000 were unsheltered living in tents and sleeping bags or in vehicles, according to a count of homeless individuals in January 2022. 

Read more: NEWS RELEASE: Chair Jessica Vega Pederson directs new funds and strategy to address unsheltered homelessness | Multnomah County (multco.us)