When the draft plan was published in March, HereTogether gathered and shared feedback from its coalition partners to ensure the plan is focused on proven solutions. We are pleased to see that the final version of the Action Plan has incorporated many of our recommendations, reflecting the community’s input and commitment to solving homelessness in the Portland region.
Here’s a detailed look at how our suggestions have been addressed:
#1: Bringing Everyone Together
Our Priority: Real change happens when we work together. The plan should unite behavioral health, housing, shelter providers, and more.
Final Plan Response: The final HRAP enhances collaboration by establishing a comprehensive governance structure, ensuring coordinated efforts across various sectors. The specific roles and responsibilities of committees are clearly defined, promoting a unified approach to addressing homelessness.
#2: Prevention is Key
Our Priority: Preventing homelessness is as crucial as rehousing. Goals should include supporting youth exiting foster care and patients leaving hospitals.
Final Plan Response: The final HRAP emphasizes prevention with clear, actionable SMART goals that demonstrate a commitment to proactive measures, such as:
Ending all behavioral health, health system, or hospital discharges to the street by December 31, 2025.
Ending discharges from corrections to the streets by 2026.
Ending homelessness for youth aging out of foster care in Multnomah County by 2027.
#3: Ability to Flex and Evolve
Our Priority: The plan should recognize the need to streamline and integrate our systems to improve service delivery.
Final Plan Response: The final HRAP commits to adopting a continuous quality improvement (CQI) framework to drive enhanced performance and system transformation. However, to be effective, CQI must become an overarching strategy, not a side project. We strongly urge our elected officials and agency leaders to prioritize operationalizing CQI, making it an integral part of their playbook. Doing so will ensure the plan stays dynamic and responsive, enabling our region to make meaningful progress in reducing homelessness.
#4. Define Wages and True Cost of Services
Our Priority: Service workers must be fairly compensated to attract and retain the best staff.
Final Plan Response: While the final HRAP acknowledges the importance of fair compensation, we must stress that now is the time for concrete action. Studies on wage needs have been completed, but the implementation of competitive wages and benefits has been postponed again. The current system has several glaring flaws:
Unequal pay. Nonprofits are compensated differently for identical work. A blatant injustice that demands swift correction.
Delayed reimbursement. Nonprofits often must underwrite the cost of delivering services, as reimbursement can take months.
A robust, well-resourced, and trained workforce is central to the success of this plan. We must prioritize fair compensation if we hope to make meaningful progress.
#5. Strengthen Access to Care
Our Priority: Develop a digital healthcare platform to better coordinate healthcare treatment, insurance, and appointments.
Final Plan Response: The final HRAP enhances access to care by planning the development of a robust data platform that includes healthcare coordination. This platform will help case managers and healthcare providers better support individuals experiencing homelessness, ensuring they receive the care they need to stay housed or transition off the street.
A community-wide plan that delivers programs, services, and housing is the only path to solving homelessness. The success of any plan rests on our ability to show support, work together, and course correct along the way.
On June 3, Multnomah County and the City of Portland unveiled their final Homelessness Response Action Plan (HRAP) – a path to halving unsheltered homelessness by 2026 with expanded shelter beds plus more on-ramps to housing, health, and services. Earlier today, after a marathon session, Multnomah County Commissioners voted 4 to 1 to adopt HRAP as part of renewing the Joint Office of Homeless Services agreement with the City of Portland.
What’s Next?
Multnomah County Commissioners approved the plan today. Here’s the testimony we submitted. The decision now moves to the Portland City Council.
The final HRAP reflects a significant step forward in addressing homelessness in our community. The near-term goals outlined in the plan, such as ending homelessness for youth aging out of foster care by 2027 and stopping all discharges from hospitals and corrections to the streets by 2025 and 2026, respectively, are ambitious but achievable. We appreciate the incorporation of our feedback and look forward to continued collaboration to ensure the success of this plan.
As a community coalition-based watchdog, we will actively monitor the progress of these goals. We will provide regular news and updates to keep our readers informed and involved. This is not the time for sitting on the sidelines. Each of us has a role to play in achieving these goals and working toward a future where homelessness is rare and brief.
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