Portland mayor unveils emergency shelter plan, aims for 1,500 surge beds by Dec. 1, 2025

PORTLAND — The mayor on Jan. 22 told the Portland City Council he wants the city to treat unsheltered homelessness as an emergency and to guarantee a bed for anyone in Portland who wants one, presenting a plan that calls for 1,500 surge beds by Dec. 1, 2025 and initial biennial cost estimates of roughly $20 million for fiscal 2025–26 and $24 million for 2026–27.

"We face a crisis that can be overwhelming," the mayor said in opening remarks. "My goal is to make sure everybody in Portland who needs a bed, has a bed to sleep in." The mayor framed the proposal as a rapid, trauma-informed surge effort using existing buildings and a city incident-command structure to accelerate shelter capacity.

The plan centers on three elements: quickly stand up low-barrier nighttime emergency shelters that use existing community facilities, create four day centers (one per council district) modeled in part on Rose Haven, and expand secure day storage for belongings. City staff said 200 emergency shelter beds already have been brought on line; officials described the 1,500-bed target as the full surge capacity the city would flex up to and flex down from as needs change.

Chad Ahmed, director of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, said the response will be organized with emergency incident-management principles and daily operational briefings. "We're going to approach this as an emergency mission like we would with any other emergency incident…