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Top officials at Multnomah County and the city of Portland have for over a year negotiated a contract that determines how the two governments will operate the Joint Office of Homeless Services, the embattled agency that oversees hundreds of millions in tax dollars intended to aid people sleeping rough.
While the office is jointly funded, the county chair largely controls its spending. That’s one tension between the two governments. Another is that lately the office has struggled to spend the money on pace.
The parameters of the power sharing are set by an intergovernmental agreement. The last such contract expired in 2022, but on two occasions both governments have voted to extend the agreement by an additional year in order to negotiate a new contract. The two governing bodies must vote to approve it before July 1.
It’s not all gone smoothly. In fact, in late March, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office told County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s office that if it didn’t remove Serena Cruz, the county’s chief operating officer, from further contract negotiations, the city would pull out of negotiations altogether. City officials said they could no longer work with Cruz after an outburst in March.
The county declined to comment.
Here are four important provisions in the drafted contract as it now stands, and which party fought for them.
1. The city wants more oversight and input under the new contract.
Under the new contract, a steering and oversight committee that includes five voting members—the county chair, the mayor, one county commissioner, one City Council member, and one east county elected official—would oversee and analyze the Joint Office’s performance. Two subcommittees would advise the oversight committee.
Furthermore, the office’s spending reports and finances would always be available to both governments “for the purpose of examination, copying and audit, unless otherwise limited by law.”
2. The city wants an escape clause.
City officials want to be able to get out of the new Joint Office contract more easily than they could the existing contract. In prior JOHS contracts, either party had to pay a $250,000 fine if it wanted to cancel the contract before its five-year expiration date (and had to enter mediation first).
In the current draft, the city can leave the contract before its expiration date without financial penalty. Plus, the term of the drafted contract is just three years, not five.
City officials also sought a name change, arguing for years that the term “joint” shrouded how the office really operated: The county controlled the office. They said they’d consent to whatever name the county decides on, so long as it drops the word “joint.”
3. Both sides want clear shelter responsibilities if the office breaks up.
Much of the drafted contract focuses on what happens if one of the parties cancels the IGA before it expires.
Right now, the city and county each operate various types of shelter. The city runs a mass encampment sheltering 200 people, called a “temporary alternative shelter site,” or TASS. (The city hopes to open more such sites soon.) The city also operates six safe rest villages of pods, some in conjunction with the county. The county runs congregate shelters.
Under the current draft, those responsibilities wouldn’t change. The city gets TASS and the safe rest villages; the county would maintain responsibility for all other adult shelters.
“Neither Party is required to continue any operations at the shelters beyond the end of the Fiscal Year in which Agreement termination occurs,” the latest draft reads.
4. The county wants all shelters—including TASS—under its purview.
While the current draft says the city would keep operating the temporary alternative shelters in the event of a divorce, Multnomah County is pushing for the city to transfer all operation of TASS and safe rest villages to the county.
The city hired California-based nonprofit Urban Alchemy to run TASS, a departure from the social service nonprofits the county normally pays to operate its shelters. County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson was initially skeptical of the model.
But now, the county is asking the city to transfer management of TASS to the county. City officials close to the negotiations say they are likely to agree to that clause—after all, the city used mostly one-time federal COVID relief dollars to establish TASS and the safe rest villages. Those dollars are almost all gone. The county, by contrast, is overflowing with homelessness dollars.
Estimated annual cost of running the villages and TASS? $36.7 million.