By Angela Martin, HereTogether Executive Director

In response to a request from four coalitions: Coalition of Communities of Color, HereTogether, Portland Metro Chamber, and Welcome Home, Metro Council agreed to extend its timeline for referring the Supportive Housing Services reform package to the ballot. This is a critical opportunity to solidify a shared path forward. We all share the same commitment to creating a community where everyone has a safe place to call home and homelessness is one-time, rare, and brief. 

Achieving this goal requires service providers, local businesses, and elected leaders to work in lock-step with one another. This network of stakeholders has made significant progress in forming a united front and is close to agreeing on specific reforms that will ensure a reform measure not only passes but also delivers real, lasting results. These conversations have been extensive and are moving us toward a clear reform and extension package.

We all agree, the need for affordable housing and homelessness services will not disappear in five years when the SHS measure is set to expire. Revising and extending the measure will protect and transform the impacts of SHS-funded programs on the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors. 

We’ve heard from our partners in direct-service how high the stakes are. Without action now to extend the SHS measure, service providers face difficult decisions that could force them to wind down effective programs – not in 2030, but in the near future in order to maintain stability and shift staffing and resources toward programs with other revenue streams. 

The stakes couldn’t be higher for everyone in our community who desires visible, lasting change.

Our work is not on pause – we are now working to meet a Metro requested timeline of mid-April to finalize a package for the fall ballot. That means the time to act is now. In the coming weeks, we look forward to partnering with you to build support within your communities for this important investment in the future. Together, we can sustain the work that has been started and secure a path toward our shared mission.

Thank you for being part of this vital work. Your work and your support will move us to our goal of making homelessness rare, brief, and one-time in our region.