Washington County commissioners back cautious approach to Metro's SHS reforms

At a public session, Washington County staff presented a set of recommendations responding to Metro's proposed reforms to the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) measure, and the county's board of commissioners signaled support for a cautious, county-led approach. Staff urged keeping county reserves within county accounting and policy, limiting any new housing investments to activities that serve SHS populations A and B, and requiring clearer regional governance and data rules before shifting authority to Metro.

County staff framed the recommendations as a negotiating position rather than a final counterproposal. "We're not supportive of any buckets," said Unidentified Speaker 1 (staff), describing opposition to a proposal that would give cities a separate, earmarked allocation. Staff also advised that under current Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) terms counties must avoid supplanting prior general fund expenditures and would need to renegotiate roles for any co-funded projects.

On allowable uses, staff outlined an approach that would permit counties to "acquire, convert, preserve, construct, or expand affordable housing" only when such uses further the measure's intent and serve populations A and B. Staff said counties should be allowed to accumulate (carry forward) funds across years to capitalize one-time housing investments, while preserving service funding and avoiding metric-driven requirements that would force unit production beyond available revenue.

Commissioners pressed for more specificity from Metro about how city-directed allocations and revenue thresholds would operate. Several attendees pointed to slide figures and thresholds discussed in staff materials and said the county needs clearer caps and triggers before agreeing to shift funds toward housing. Commissioner Fry said she "appreciate[s] the recommendation that you put forward around protecting the original measure's formula," and asked staff to seek Metro's county-level revenue data for transparency.

Governance drew sustained attention. Metro's proposal would consolidate existing oversight bodies into a single regional housing and homelessness policy advisory committee (referred to in materials as HH PAC). Staff proposed an alternative composition for a single oversight committee that preserves regional and city voice: a 13-member body with specific subject-matter seats (providers, lived experience, public finance, business) and elected representatives from Metro, each county and a city within each county. Staff recommended that regional strategies and key performance metrics be jointly developed by implementing partners and then presented for vote by each county board and the Metro Council to ensure public accountability.

Staff also described changes to proposed data-sharing language: instead of granting regional bodies system access or accepting raw data dumps, the oversight committee would specify the data types it needs and counties would determine how to provide that information in a manner that protects confidentiality and complies with HUD and other federal/state rules.

On the question of whether Metro could unilaterally place a revised measure on the ballot, staff said Metro can refer any ballot measure it chooses but that a Metro referral would not bind county boards or staff to specific actions. Commissioners asked staff to monitor any referral process closely and report back. The board agreed to take a 30-minute lunch recess and reconvene at 1:00 p.m., after which the meeting will move into an executive session on real property and related items.

Next steps: staff will ask Metro for detailed county-level revenue figures and continue to negotiate guardrails around reserves, allowable uses, governance composition and data access before supporting substantive changes to the SHS framework.