County Announces Retirement of Homeless Services Director Weeks After Disclosing Deficit

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson announced today that Dan Field, director of the Homeless Services Department, will retire in June, leaving the struggling agency in the hands of an interim director as it faces a $104 million budget shortfall.

In an email to staff, Vega Pederson said Field, 62, had always planned to leave after a two-year stint when he took the job in April 2023.

“I am writing today with the news that Dan Field, the current director of our Homeless Services Department (formerly the Joint Office of Homeless Services), has informed me of his retirement, on a timeline that was discussed and agreed upon during his initial recruitment and onboarding with Multnomah County,” Vega Pederson wrote.

Even so, the announcement surprised people at Multnomah County headquarters, according to people in the building. The announcement comes one month after Vega Pederson and Field held a press conference to announce the budget gap at Homeless Services, surprising Gov. Tina Kotek and Lynn Peterson, president of the Metro regional government, which provides most of Homeless Services’ budget.

Vega Pederson and Field asked Kotek and Peterson for a total of $70 million to make up the shortfall. Instead, the governor and Metro president demanded the county open its books, and the resulting data dump confirmed what WW had reported: Homeless Services used one-time funding to bankroll ongoing services like shelter beds, in essence erecting those shelters at the edge of a fiscal cliff. As recently as last week, Field was on a media blitz to defend his budgets.

Field, who spent 22 years as an executive at Kaiser Permanente before heading up Homeless Services, will remain on the job until June 16, when deputy director Anna Plumb will take over as interim director, Vega Pederson said.

In an interview, Field confirmed he had signed up for a two-year engagement when he took over the agency. He says he talked with Vega Pederson in February about retiring, before the press conference that drew so much ire from other elected officials.

Vega Pederson asked him to stay until the county’s budget was finished in June, Field said, so they agreed to postpone announcing his departure until now.

“I’m sorry to let the air out of the balloon, but this is a real retirement,” Field says. “Everyone is going to think I left because of this, but I’m not being pushed out.”

As for any surprise in the building, Field says few people knew about his two-year plan. “You can’t come in and chop your knees off by saying you’re a short timer.”

Field took heat after he and Vega Pederson announced the budget shortfall, especially from Peterson, the Metro president. In a February letter to the Multhomah County Board of Commissioners, Peterson called the deficit “alarming” and questioned if “misinformation” about the deficit (the county had blamed a forecast of tax revenue from Metro) was “intentional on the chair’s behalf” or “borne from mismanagement.”

Commissioner Shannon Singleton, who has been critical of the Homeless Service Department’s use of one-time funding to fill budget holes in recent years, said “it was a good time for a transition” at the department.

Plumb, Field’s interim successor, holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies and African studies from Macalester College and a master’s in public policy from the University of Minnesota. She started work at Multhomah County 12 years ago as a senior analyst. Field chose her as his deputy in September 2023 from a pool of “34 strong candidates,” Vega Pederson wrote to county staff.

Vega Pederson lauded Field’s performance, saying he transitioned the department out of stagnant period and spurred spending on direct services to the unhoused.

“Dan took on a role of critical importance to our community at a pivotal time and has led with determination, accountability, honesty and compassion,‘’ Vega Pederson said in a statement. “I am grateful for his leadership in delivering on his goals and moving the work so far forward.”

Field says he’ll miss working on such a critical issue but admitted it was hard.

“My friends would always say, ‘Have you solved homelessness yet?‘” Field says.