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Portland, Multnomah County present refreshed homelessness action plan with five goal areas
Summary
Portland and Multnomah County officials presented an updated Homelessness Response Action Plan that reorganizes prior goals into five focus areas and adds new action items including a PSH retention pilot and "case conferencing lite." Staff said the document is a guide for FY27 budget decisions; numeric KPI goals will be set after budgets are finalized.
Council and county leaders on Nov. 13 reviewed an updated Homelessness Response Action Plan (HRAP) that condenses the prior nine goal areas into five: inflow (eviction prevention), safety on and off the streets (shelter and outreach), outflow (permanent housing placement), care coordination and cross‑sector collaboration, and data and evaluation.
"Together, we are housing and sheltering more of our neighbors than ever before," Multnomah County Chair Vega Peterson said in opening remarks, noting that "on average, a thousand people are exiting homelessness each month," while inflow still outpaces outflow. The updated action plan, staff said, is intended to guide policy and budget votes rather than serve as an investment strategy on its own.
Jillian Schoene, director of the Homelessness Response System, said the refresh reorganizes and clarifies action items and adds new work, including a case‑conferencing pilot to link street outreach and health partners and a pilot to improve permanent supportive housing (PSH) retention for a high‑acuity behavioral‑health cohort. "The updated plan is a mix of existing items being carried forward, some refinements, and new action items that represent the additional work we need to tackle," Schoene said.
Commissioner Jessica Moyer pressed staff on behavioral‑health elements in the plan, arguing that increasing secure residential beds is primarily a state responsibility and urging local emphasis on programs the city and county can deliver, such as intensive outpatient treatment combined with housing. Schoene said the "Moyer pilot" had been integrated into the plan and that items tied to state grant cycles or OHA allocations remain as carryovers for documentation and advocacy.
A recurring concern from elected officials was accountability and sequencing. Councilor Dan Dunphy warned that listing multiple "responsible parties" for single action items risks diffusing responsibility. "If everybody is responsible, then nobody is responsible for it," Dunphy said, asking for clearer lead entities and standardized reporting requirements from contractors.
Staff said many items list primary conveners or funders rather than exhaustive participant lists and repeated that the plan will be used in the FY27 budget process to set concrete, resourced goals. The plan also flags a pending shelter performance and cost analysis that officials said will inform budget tradeoffs.
What happens next: staff will offer additional briefings through November, with County and City votes on related resolutions scheduled in December. Schoene said numeric KPI targets will be set by the steering and oversight committee after the FY27 budget process, with goal setting planned for July 2026.
