Washington County presenters say SHS helped house more than 1,200 people and built shelter capacity; county outlines costs and next priorities

Nicole Sting, strategic initiatives and relations manager in Washington County’s homeless services division, and Jessie (Jesse) Adams, strategic projects coordinator, briefed the Sherwood City Council on the county’s Supportive Housing Services (SHS) program and results from the prior fiscal year.

Sting described client stories to illustrate program design and said SHS is a voter‑approved measure (2020) funded primarily by a tax on higher income earners and on businesses with high gross receipts. “Every shelter we open is thanks to SHS dollars,” she said, and she cited regional targets tied to the program: a regional objective of bringing 5,000 people inside and stabilizing about 10,000 households across the metro area, with Washington County’s portion targeted at roughly 1,667 households.

Jesse Adams summarized system‑level outcomes and spending. “We went from that system of only $5,000,000 a year…to an over a $100,000,000 a year system,” Adams said, and staff reported that in the most recent year the county’s SHS programs served more than 10,000 people and moved about 1,200 people into housing. Adams said eviction prevention…