There was more money for Portland's homeless crisis, after all.
When Portland City Council formally adopts Mayor Ted Wheeler's first budget this afternoon, it will contain a big boost in funding for the city/county Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS): $1.4 million more than was included when council approved a draft of the budget last month.
That's a big chunk of the money county officials had pushed for after tensions flared over Wheeler's initial proposal to pour $25 million in city money into the office in the next year.
Following public disagreement between Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury over the allocation, county officials announced they'd reached a deal to secure $1.7 million more in city funds. The mayor's office was less specific about its commitment.
But the city's budget now gets much of the way there. According to Wheeler spokesperson Michael Cox, the $1,417,054 in additional allocation for the homelessness office comes from a combination of unspent homelessness funds from last year, reshuffled funds that were intended for the city's 911 service (and will be replaced later this year), and savings from not filling city positions.
"The last few weeks of coordination were collaborative and cordial," Cox said this afternoon.
It's unclear exactly what services the $1.4 million extra will go toward. A spokesperson at JOHS couldn't immediately answer that question, and Cox says "conversations are ongoing."
In an April memo, JOHS Director Marc Jolin wrote that $2.6 million more in city funding was necessary to continue "ongoing and temporary shelter capacity" and "programs that provide housing placement from the streets and shelter."
It's possible there's more money coming to the homelessness office in coming months. Sources suggest the city could find cash via its next "budget monitoring process" this fall.
"I appreciate the partnership with the City of Portland in the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and I am committed to continuing to work closely with the city to expand our efforts and ensure that everyone in our community has a safe place to sleep," Kafoury said in a statement.
The push and pull over homelessness spending—what Wheeler referred to in May as "city-county budget poker"—comes as the city awaits the results of its latest "point-in-time" homeless count, which should be released next week. The report is expected to reveal that Portland's homeless population has grown since the last count in 2015.
At the heart of the funding dispute are varying views on how the city and county should pay in to the new joint office (the governments managed their own discrete homeless services offices before JOHS was created last year). Wheeler has argued that the city and county should pay equally into the office each year. Kafoury believes that they should match any increases in funding, but that the city's role should be larger since it provided a larger initial stake.
Despite his eventual capitulation, Cox says Wheeler still thinks the city and county match each other's disbursements evenly.
"We continue to view this as a 50/50 partnership," he says. "It’s a principled position, but I think we’ve also demonstrated our willingness to compromise."