Mayor’s $28M homeless plan amidst budget crisis

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

As Portland faces multiple crises simultaneously, including a declining population, declining property values, increasing office building vacancies, and a $100 million budget crisis, Mayor Keith Wilson vows to keep a promise of ending the homeless camping crisis.

In a report by OPB, Mayor Wilson plans to solve the problem of the unsheltered homeless by creating 3,000 new night-only shelters across the city and opening more daytime shelters to support the night-time shelters. The mayor also wishes to open four new one-day shelters and storage.

Mayor Wilson breaks down the cost of operations in his plan. He estimates the cost to the city of Portland for operating these shelters will be $35 per person for the nighttime shelters and daytime-only shelters to be $52 per person. The four new storage facilities are estimated to cost $18,000 per month for just one facility, which makes it out to be $72,000 per month for the city of Portland to operate. The budget for this plan for fiscal year 2025-2026 is estimated to be $28,147,920. (The image below shows the breakdown of the numbers from the mayor’s presentation.)

Multnomah County officials raised some concerns about Mayor Wilson’s plan, such as the cost estimate per person for the nighttime shelter: “$55 per person per night—not the $35 nightly cost.”

Multnomah Chair Jessica Vega Pederson expanded on concerns about the estimates of the cost of operations “We need to be agreeing on what something is going to cost, my concern is that, if we go by numbers that are lower than what the reality is, we’re going to end up at a place where we’re going to need more resources.”

Marisa Zapata, the director of Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, expressed concerns about the mayor’s plan, stating it doesn’t fix the homeless crisis: “This is not a plan for ending unsheltered homelessness. This is a plan to attempt to have fewer people outside overnight. But they will still be homeless. This will be an ongoing cost if the city does not invest in housing.” The Impact of Homelessness on Portland is $1.7 billion in spending from 2015 to 2023 for the creation of affordable housing.

While there are criticisms of the mayor’s plan, other city council members support the plan to tackle the ongoing crises, with City Councilor Eric Zimmerman stating it “challenges the status quo… I think, with the mayor’s election, Portland has introduced a desire for a new operating scheme.”

To prevent the Portland Budget crisis from increasing, Mayor Wilson has called for help and plans to add partners to his plan by asking for County, State, and Federal support.

Portland’s homeless crisis has lasted for over a decade and has had a substantial impact on the city’s finances. It’s also a driving factor in the great exodus out of Portland. But is this spending plan just a band-aid on the issue, or will it provide a net result? The City Council will have to decide whether the mayor’s plan is worth the risk.