{"id":363,"date":"2025-08-29T20:55:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fixmultnomah.com\/?page_id=363"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:02:43","slug":"the-big-issues","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/p3.alidigitalmedia.com\/?page_id=363","title":{"rendered":"The Big Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Big Issues<\/h2>
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While at the County, I methodically engaged county professionals, other subject matter experts and people with lived experience to map the county\u2019s systems and services and create blueprints for transformation.\u00a0<\/span>

Fortified by that knowledge - and my recognition of how County politics sandbagged reform - I am now convening stakeholders in order to plot action steps for changes that have only grown more urgent. I will share these detailed plans on this site.<\/b>
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In the meantime, the following are solution summaries that I have recently articulated in other channels. I have also included key reports I commissioned while at the County.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n <\/section>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Homelessness<\/h2>
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What we have: A scattered array of shelters with wide variation in (and no rationale for) cost per bed, no correlation between the types of shelters being funded and the needs of people being served, and no clear tracking of who is going where and whether they are progressing to stable, long-term housing.<\/span>
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What we need: <\/b>A shelter ecosystem designed to function as part of a comprehensive homelessness to housing continuum. Start with a real count of people, structure services to meet people\u2019s actual needs, budget effectively based on the resources available, measure results and course correct as needed.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n <\/section>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Shelters in Multnomah County \u2013 2025 Overview<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This report provides a comprehensive overview of shelters and alternative housing models across Multnomah County as of September 2025, <\/strong>categorizes more than a dozen types of shelter programs, including micro-villages, tiny home villages, Safe Rest Villages (SRVs), managed pod villages, Temporary Alternative Shelters (TAS), congregate shelters, family shelters, and transitional housing sites. This highlights the diversity of approaches, ranging from small <\/strong>to large-scale county-run programs.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Approach to Homelessness in Multnomah County <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Homelessness is the biggest crisis facing Multnomah County. Billions of dollars, and immeasurable amounts of time and energy spent on plans to \u201cend homelessness\u201d<\/strong>, meaningful goals and ways to achieve them have never been established. Until problems with the County\u2019s approach to ending homelessness are clearly identified and directly addressed, the system will not succeed in ending homelessness.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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MENTAL HEALTH<\/h2>
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What we have: A disjointed, disconnected array of services for prevention, crisis response, and treatment of mental illness or addiction. As a result, many people end up in crisis in jails and emergency rooms before they can get mental health care, leading to costly stays at the Oregon State Hospital that drain state coffers before spitting people back out into bad situations without support - too often the streets.<\/span>
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What we need: <\/b>An \u201cair traffic control\u201d team that sees the big picture, connects the dots and directs the fragmented pieces of our disconnected behavioral health and homeless services systems. This requires:<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n <\/section>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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