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Multnomah County staff present updated homeless response action plan and KPIs as commissioners press for specific goals and housing production accountability
Summary
Homeless Response System staff reviewed a revised action plan and proposed KPIs; commissioners pressed for SMART goals, up‑to‑date data, clearer ties to budget, and accountability for housing production across jurisdictions. Staff said final goals will be considered after budget decisions and COC NOFO implications are clarified.
The county’s Homeless Response System (HRS) team briefed the Board on an updated action plan and a set of proposed key performance indicators designed to replace an expiring Exhibit 1 in the intergovernmental agreement.
Jillian Shoney, director of the Homelessness Response System, said the action plan is intended to guide quarterly reporting and make it possible to tie budget requests to expected KPI impacts. She noted staff would provide a formal replacement for Exhibit 1 and that commissioners will have a vote to accept or reject the measures.
Commissioners raised repeated concerns about the proposal’s level of specificity. Several argued the yellow‑coded KPI categories in staff materials were too high level to guide budgeting and oversight and asked for SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time‑bound) goals or a clearer phase to define numeric targets once fiscal realities are known.
"We need to agree on what we are measuring so we can have those dialogues throughout the budget process," Shoney said, adding staff were postponing specific numeric targets until the board has more clarity about available resources.
Board members also pressed for more current data sources. One commissioner noted the county’s packet relied in part on 2020–2021 datasets and asked why more recent information (for example, a 2025 state of housing report) had not been used to inform housing production and rent‑burden analysis. Staff said they would reconcile and update data and would bring additional PHB and city metrics to future briefings.
Housing production and accountability were a focal point. Commissioners asked that the action plan identify what the county expects from partners — the City of Portland, Gresham and other cities — and show implementation timelines linked to measurable unit production, not only planning steps. Staff said a work group on social housing has been designing a pilot and that action items and start dates could be added to the plan.
The board also discussed an imminent federal Continuum of Care (COC) Notice of Funding Opportunity. Staff warned that approximately $25 million in related funds could be at risk depending on federal changes, and commissioners requested a briefing on how the county will respond and modify contracts and provider goals to adapt to new federal requirements.
Next steps: staff will provide updated KPI language, clarify which measures are near‑term versus longer‑term, integrate more recent housing and rent‑burden data, and return in December with materials tying KPI adoption to budgeting processes. Commissioners asked for explicit implementation timelines and accountability expectations for jurisdictional partners.
