191810

The City of Portland ordains: 

Section 1. The Council finds:

1. The United States, the state of Oregon, the City of Portland, and Multnomah County are all experiencing a homelessness crisis, primarily caused by a severe shortage of affordable housing. Those suffering from homelessness often face numerous barriers to obtaining the services and resources they need to find stability. 
2. Multnomah County and the City of Portland have determined that continuing their coordinated development and delivery of services supporting and otherwise geared to individuals struggling with homelessness and housing insecurity, as well as substance use and behavioral health issues, will improve the delivery of services and enhance outcomes for those receiving such services and for the region as a whole. 
3. Per the JOHS IGA Seventeenth Amendment, passed by City Council June 28, 2023, Council directed the City’s negotiation team to do the following: 
   1. Negotiate a new intergovernmental agreement for the Joint Office of Homeless Services. 
   2. Explore measurable, community-wide indicators to assess the rate of homelessness within the geographic area covered by the City and County and to evaluate the Parties’ progress toward agreed upon goals.
   3. Improve coordination between the Joint Office, the City, and Community Solutions, and identify effective and efficient intervention strategies targeting specific segments of the City and County’s homeless population. 
4. In July 2023, the Mayor’s office and the City’s Chief Administrative Officer, at the direction of the council, began working with a facilitation team and Multnomah County to negotiate a new Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) to replace the existing JOHS IGA (Contract # 30005335).
5. In December 2023, Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Mayor Ted Wheeler announced a shared framework for extending Portland and Multnomah County's partnership in JOHS that laid out a series of strategic recommendations - including a new governance structure called the "Homelessness Response System'' (HRS) for the full City Council and County Board of Commissioners to consider as part of formally approving a new IGA to replace the one expiring on June 30, 2024. 
6. The HRS recommendations include metrics, detailed goals, data sharing, financial reporting, and clear strategies with accountable parties to implement the action plan in response to the system. 
7. The HRS also consists of three committees: a Steering and Oversight Committee, an Implementation Subcommittee and a Community Advisory Subcommittee.
8. In March of 2024, the Chair and Mayor unveiled the Homelessness Response Action Plan (HRAP), to provide a path forward for implementing the Homelessness Response System. 
9. The HRAP lays out strategies, identifies accountable parties, action items and timeframes to implement the strategy for the HRS. It addresses homelessness through an expanded range of partnerships that includes not only homeless services providers but also first responders, healthcare and criminal justice organizations. 
10. The HRAP identifies and sets measurable, community-wide indicators to assess the rate of homelessness within the geographic area covered by the City and County to evaluate the Parties’ progress toward agreed upon goals through the Homelessness Response System and Homelessness Response Action Plan. These outcomes include the following: 
    1. Informed by the latest data from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database, adopt clear, achievable goals with measurable outcomes, including goals and outcome measures addressing a coordinated shelter strategy.
    2. Identify a baseline number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness as of January 2024. (Completed as of January 2024 there were 5,398 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Multnomah County.).
    3. Shelter or place in housing 2,699 unsheltered people (the number of people equivalent to 50% of the unsheltered people on the by-name list) by December 31, 2025.
    4. Reduce unsheltered homelessness for priority populations listed below at a rate equal to or greater than that population's proportion of the overall population in the baseline number:
       1. Black, African American or African
       2. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
       3. American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Indigenous
       4. Latina/Latino/Latinx/Latine
       5. Asian, Asian American
       6. Adults over the age of 55
       7. LGBTQIA2S+
    5. Increase exits from adult shelter to permanent housing by 15% by December 31, 2025. 
    6. Ensure 75% of people housed in permanent supportive housing retain their housing 24 months after placement.
11. The finalized HRAP was released on June 2, 2024, and incorporates added goals and action items based on the community feedback collected in Spring 2024. 
12. The Implementation Subcommittee is working on implementing the HRAP and has met twice since May 2024. This committee will improve coordination between Parties and brings together all County and City department directors whose work affects behavioral health, housing, poverty, homelessness and criminal justice and join them with other regional and state peers. 
13. The HRAP is a central element of the proposed HRS IGA guiding the City and County's work addressing homelessness.
14. The HRS IGA states that by December 31, 2024, the County must put forward for approval by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners (BCC) an ordinance to change the JOHS name in a manner that removes the word “Joint” from the name to more accurately reflect management for the office. If the BCC approves the name change, the County must change the name within one year after BCC approval. 
15. The HRS IGA provides clarity related to termination and associated responsibilities, which did not exist in the existing IGA. 
16. The HRS IGA will be effective for a duration of three years and will terminate on June 30, 2027, unless extended. In the event of termination, the County will return an identified list of shelters for the City to operate and fund. 
17. The HRS IGA identifies the current shelters (Safe Rest Villages and Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites) that the city operates and establishes a process to transfer both the operational and funding responsibility to JOHS by July 1, 2025. 
18. The HRS IGA includes the City’s Funding commitment (i.e., the Funding to be paid to the County) during the Term is $25,186,923 for FY 2024-25 and, beginning in FY 2025-26, is $31,186,923 each Fiscal Year thereafter (during the Term) plus an annual Inflation Factor cost increase.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:

1. City Council will meet by October 15, 2024 to receive a progress report from the City Administrator on the Homelessness Response Action Plan. If the plan has not met the following contract milestones, City Council will decide whether or not to terminate the Homelessness Response System Intergovernmental Agreement.
2. Milestones that City Council will review progress upon: 
   1. The Homelessness Response System (HRS) Steering and Oversight Committee (SOC) will approve a publicly accessible performance dashboard that shows quarterly updates and progress toward HRAP outcomes. 
   2. The Joint Office of Homeless Services will have launched a shelter availability application pilot to report available access and appropriate placement spots available, to be tracked in real time. 
   3. The HRS SOC will approve a publicly accessible budget dashboard available detailing respective Program investments by Fiscal Year. 
   4. The Joint Office of Homeless Services will provide a detailed plan – including costs and locations - on the 555 beds of additional adult shelter that is planned to open by December 2024. 
   5. The Joint Office of Homeless Services will launch a pilot to secure up to 200 block/primarily leased units to support rapid rehousing placement. 
   6. Multnomah County will have completed an analysis of current supportive housing providers and develop a six-month plan to bill for Medicaid eligible services.
   7. The HRS SOC will expand the SOC to include (1) business sector representative (1) behavioral health expert who is not a current service provider and (1) individual taxpayer who currently pays Supportive Housing Services tax.
   8. The HRS SOC will approve a policy that governs distribution of tents and tarps by Multnomah County and its service providers within the City of Portland. 
   9. The HRS SOC will approve a policy that governs distribution of syringes, drug kits and other harm reduction tools by Multnomah County and its service providers within the City of Portland. 
   10. The Joint Office of Homeless Services will finalize an outreach and engagement strategy workgroup and steering committee, that includes City of Portland participation, similar to the Community Sheltering Strategy. 
   11. The HRS SOC will provide clear delineation of roles and responsibilities of the City and the County that are related, either directly or indirectly, to homelessness services.
   12. The HRS SOC will determine an agreed upon number of housing vouchers to be set aside for residents who are housed at a TASS or SRV site.
3. The Mayor, or his designee, is hereby authorized to execute the newly developed Homelessness Response System Intergovernmental Agreement with Multnomah County, substantially in accordance with Exhibit A.