Multnomah County, Portland discuss new KPIs for homelessness response; goal-setting set for Oct. 15

Jillian Shoney of Multnomah County briefed the Homelessness and Housing Committee on Sept. 23 about the Steering and Oversight Committee’s (SOC) work to revise the regional homelessness response key performance indicators (KPIs) and an update to the action plan.

Shoney said the county and city intend to update the KPIs annually under the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) and that the current KPI set expires at the end of the calendar year. “Not only do the current set of KPIs expire at the end of this calendar year, the action plan was never intended to be something that was set in stone,” she said.

The nut of the update was twofold: finish selecting what to measure and then define goals or targets tied to those measures. Shoney described the work in two phases — selecting measures (the “what”) and then goal-setting (the “how much/when”), and said the SOC will pivot to the harder second phase at an Oct. 15 meeting. She said the county presented the most recent slide deck used at the SOC meeting to the committee and will circulate a revised action plan in the coming weeks.

Deputy director Ryan Divert, who works for the homelessness response system, explained a technical limitation discussed by the SOC: some data sources that would be relevant for policy makers lag significantly. “Those data actually lag by about a year and a half to 2 years,” Divert said, describing Multnomah County Health Department reports that combine medical examiner and death certificate data. He said that lag makes those datasets useful for understanding causes of death over time but less useful as real-time KPIs. Divert said staff therefore recommends continuing to monitor domicile-unknown/death datasets for policymaking and investigation while identifying timelier proxies for KPIs.

Councilors pressed staff on several related points. Councilor Zimmerman and others emphasized the value of numeric goals to guide policy and budget decisions; Zimmerman said numbers “help establish goals” and make it easier to determine whether annual production matches long-term objectives. Councilor Dunphy raised concerns about mismatch between housing produced and what is needed today, noting the city has units targeted to 60–80% of area median income that are vacant and arguing the city has “been building the wrong housing for decades.” Councilor Ryan sought clarity that KPIs (and associated data sets) will include attempts to segment inflow — for example distinguishing homelessness driven by behavioral health needs from poverty-based homelessness — and was told that new HMIS-Medicaid linked analytics enable more targeted cohorting and pilot design.

Committee members also heard that the SOC has directed staff to add at least one measure tied to “overall length of homelessness” and that staff are considering four different approaches to setting targets for proposed KPIs (ranging from directional indicators to specific numeric ratios). Shoney said some KPIs will remain as indicators (a “finger in the wind”) while at least five KPIs will receive specific goal recommendations at the Oct. 15 SOC meeting.

The committee discussed potential next steps and clarifications. Staff confirmed changes at other government levels (county, state, federal) can affect KPI selection and that the revised action plan (version 2) will be circulated to the committee and to council and the board of commissioners later in the year for formal votes. Members also discussed follow-up work: exploring faster provisional data sources, working with the medical examiner and health department to improve timeliness, and designing pilots for a “high-acuity behavioral health cohort.” Divert noted existing adjustments to permanent supportive housing (PSH) subsidies for high-need clients and said a targeted pilot is under development.

The committee did not take a formal vote on KPIs at the Sept. 23 meeting. Staff will return with the revised action plan and KPI proposals for SOC goal-setting on Oct. 15 and to this committee as the process advances.