Skip to main content
Two days before she took office as the newest Multnomah County chair, we sat down with Jessica Vega Pederson in her new office on the sixth floor of the county building in Southeast Portland. The topic: homelessness.
We asked Pederson about Mayor Ted Wheeler’s plan to set up six mega-tent encampments across the city with the end goal of banning sidewalk camping, about her pledge to support those camps, about the embattled Joint Office of Homeless Services, and how the dollars raised by a new homeless services tax were spent last year.
Pederson was guarded. She did not offer specific changes she would champion that would diverge from the policy of her predecessor, Deborah Kafoury. She equivocated whether she would really support the city’s tent encampments, and how she’d like to see spending on homelessness change under her leadership.
The following are excerpts from the interview, which have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
WW: Are you going to put money toward Wheeler’s camps?
Jessica Vega Pederson: One of the things I’ve made really clear with the city is that we need some really important questions answered about what they’re proposing. What is the end goal of the proposal? Who are the population they’re really trying to serve? And what’s the feasibility of getting it done?
What do you mean by feasibility?
Take the safe rest villages, for example. The goal was to get these six villages up in a certain amount of time, and we haven’t seen that happen yet. So it’s the feasibility of getting locations identified, making sure they’ll be able to stay at those locations, and making sure we do have a provider.
We just came out of severe weather, and we had such high demand for warming shelters. As it’s proposed, just having people in tents doesn’t seem like it’s going to be something that’s going to be solving some of the issues.
Have you promised any money yet?
No, not yet.
So when you testified to the Portland City Council prior to the election about supporting the camps, what did you mean?
We have to do something to address the urgency. We have people living outside in unsafe conditions, and we have to be looking at medium- and long-term solutions. I do think there’s going to be some space for some of the city’s proposals to have a short-term solution in that, and that’s what I wanted to testify to. I don’t ever want to criminalize homelessness.
Does a camping ban criminalize homelessness?
I don’t think it’s right to just move people from place to place without a permanent solution.
So are you supportive of the city’s vision to ban camping and move people into encampments?
The conversations that I’ve had with the city, they are committed to working together to find a solution, and that’s what I’m focused on right now.
Some say you’re a continuation of Kafoury. Can you name one specific policy area on homelessness where you’ll diverge from her?
I think we can do a better job of trying to be targeted and really impactful in terms of trying things to see if they would work.
Can you give a specific example?
There’s information we can share soon. We’re doing the work right now to really put something together that we can move forward.
Last year, the county used about 65% of supportive housing services funds [the homeless tax passed by Metro voters in 2020] on rent assistance and 35% on ending chronic homelessness. That’s the opposite ratio of what was promised. Is that an acceptable ratio going forward?
One of the priorities I’m going to have coming in as chair is looking at the long-term goals of the SHS measure. I fully expect there to be the need for us to switch gears on some things.
Is there a ratio you have in mind for next year?
It is about getting people into housing and off these streets, into treatment. And addressing the continuing need for rental assistance dollars. I don’t know what that ratio looks like. Those rental assistance dollars have done a lot of good for people. But ultimately, we need to use those dollars to help people experiencing chronic homelessness.
Does there need to be greater accountability for contractors who are getting SHS dollars?
There needs to be better transparency, there needs to be better communication in terms of what we’re expecting their work to look like, and making sure that information is going to be shared with the county and with the public.
One thing I know is that we’ve had for a long time this bootstrap mentality of providing services for people experiencing homelessness. We’re not in that situation anymore. We have the resources. So we need to be changing the expectations of what we want to see from our partners, and what we need to be reporting on.
What do contractors report now?
It’s unclear. Coming into the role of chair, you have access to ask for things and receive things at a level that you don’t as a commissioner.
On the campaign trail, you laid into your opponent Sharon Meieran for saying the same thing about not having access. Now you’re expressing this same frustration.
I’ve never asked for something as a commissioner that I haven’t been able to get access to. But as chair, people respond very quickly to you. You have a more direct line to leadership.