County leaders urge Metro clarity, financial analysis and delay on SHS reform referral

Erin Doyers, government relations manager for Washington County, told the Board of County Commissioners on Jan. 16 that Metro Council has circulated two draft ordinances proposing reforms to the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) measure and that county staff prepared a draft comment letter for the board to consider.

Doyers summarized the draft referral and the county staff review, saying the draft ordinances would: expand allowable uses to include a broad definition of affordable housing (potentially including development, preservation, acquisition and anti‑displacement activities); extend the tax authorization through tax year 2050 while prescribing a lower maximum rate ceiling than the current 1 percent; create a regional oversight body (described in the drafts as H2PAC or similar) to recommend allocations and policies; require a regional housing and homelessness action plan (RHHAP) to set performance metrics and priorities; and impose annual local implementation work‑plan approvals and increased regional reporting, monitoring and auditing requirements.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the drafts contain major operational and fiscal changes but lack public financial estimates and implementation details that local governments and service providers need to plan contracts and maintain what county staff described as an "essential system" of shelter, outreach and prevention services. Board members expressed concern that a new allocation or rate structure without clear fiscal modeling could destabilize long‑term contracts and service delivery.

Key concerns raised by the board included: the potential retroactive use of Metro carry‑forward funds for affordable housing, ambiguity about whether Metro will be able to reallocate revenue among counties, the absence of a shared, published definition for terms such as "housing crisis" or the benchmarks for moving the region "out of crisis," and the administrative burden of the draft reporting and audit requirements. Commissioners also pressed Metro to rely on already‑required federal and state reporting where possible and to avoid duplicative data requests.

Several commissioners questioned Section 4 of the draft referral, which extends collection through 2050 and allows Metro to reduce the maximum tax rate in future years. Commissioner Fye said in the meeting: "It sounds like the right word would be to repeal the original measure and then do a new measure" — a legal interpretation he said could better align the drafting with the scale of changes being proposed. Commissioners also discussed the idea of requiring a multi‑year lead time (one suggested five years) before any Metro action on tax rate reductions could take effect, to protect the long‑term stability of contracts and programs.

Staff and commissioners flagged section 7 language requiring annual local implementation plan (LIP) work‑plan approvals, new annual deadlines for reporting budgeted and actuals across federal, state, regional and local funding sources (a Sept. 30 deadline was discussed as impracticable for county schedules), and new monitoring and audit authorities that could expose counties and service providers to additional, intensive reviews. Commissioner comments repeatedly called for Metro to publish fiscal impact estimates for the proposed rate changes and allocation revisions before a voter referral.

On the draft letter, board members generally supported sending county feedback to Metro, including requests that Metro: delay further voter referral or the accompanying campaign until the system has had more time to operate and to allow additional collaborative work; publish fiscal estimates and modeling showing impacts of proposed rate reductions and allocation changes; clarify allocation authority versus allowable uses; scope data‑sharing and monitoring to avoid duplicative federal/state reporting; and specify transition timelines for the new H2PAC governance structure. Commissioners asked staff to return next week with a more detailed set of technical comments to append to the letter; staff said a finalized signed copy of the letter would be sent to Metro with commissioners' signatures.

Council President Lynn Peterson was reported to have indicated Metro would consider additional time for refinement; staff relayed that the referral might not be ready for the May ballot and could be delayed while further changes are considered, though Metro’s schedule was in flux.

Next steps: County staff will finalize the letter for commissioners’ signatures and prepare a more detailed technical appendix for further comment next week. Commissioners directed staff to request transparent fiscal estimates from Metro and to press for clearer definitions, reasonable reporting deadlines, and limits on new audit and monitoring obligations that would increase administrative workload for counties and service providers.