To our colleagues, partners and community members,
Welcome to the Joint Office of Homeless Services monthly newsletter!
The purpose of this newsletter is to help you learn more about our collective work and shared commitment to addressing homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County.
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If you are experiencing homelessness and need assistance, please call 211 or go to 211info.org.
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Question of the month:
What does Housing First mean, and how effective is it?
(scroll to the bottom of the newsletter to see the answer)
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Motel Shelters: Helping People from Streets to Safety
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The Stark St. Motel Shelter, run by Do Good Multnomah, is one of 17 new shelters opened with the support of the Joint Office of Homeless Services in the past two years.
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Podcast #2: The Shelter System
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 The second episode of the Joint Office podcast focuses on the Shelter System. Listen to this podcast to hear about how our expanding and innovative shelter system works, how people can access shelter, and what it means to expand shelter alongside a Housing First, but not Housing Only practice that centers the people’s needs in the re-housing process.
In this episode, we speak with Gwyn, who along with her partner, Dan, made it off the streets and into permanent housing after staying for eight months at shelters run by Do Good Multnomah. The podcast also features Cara Kangas with 211 Info, and Joy Jones, the head of Transition Projects, Inc.
This podcast is focused on sharing the stories of people who are currently or formerly homeless in our community, and helping navigate the systems and services that the Joint Office of Homeless Services and its partners either have in place, or continue to develop, to help people move out of homelessness and back into stable, supportive housing.
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 Every day and night from January 25th to 31st, Point-in-Time outreach workers and surveyors conducted the first-ever Tri-County Point-in-Time Count to reach as many neighbors experiencing homelessness as possible across Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, asking them where they slept the night of Jan. 24th. More info about this year's Point-in-Time Count.
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Measure 110 Funds Expand ROSE program
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ROSE (Recovery Oriented Supports and Engagement) has been offering low barrier harm reduction supports to youth in the Homeless Youth Continuum for many years—both through alcohol and drug counseling and peer mentorship—but the team has always been fairly small and lacked funding.
 Now, pairing money with Measure 110 and the Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services. We’ve been able to expand our team dramatically, which includes being able to offer peer support in the shelter, drop ins, and on outreach nearly daily, as well as a variety of welcoming and easily accessible recovery based groups! We are excited to be able to offer community rec groups, as well as onsite recovery groups, including Harm Reduction, art, and more. One of our peers, Storm, started a writing group that’s been very well attended, and they’re working towards putting together some published ‘zines. The new crew of peers and alcohol and drug specialists bring a wide range of experiences, identities, skills, senses of humor, and bold ideas about how to best support the folks in our programs that are seeking connection with staff that can talk honestly about how their own lives have changed. These programs allow folks that don’t normally access recovery supports to finally get a chance to be seen and to connect with people that they can relate to. More info about the ROSE Program from our provider partner Outside In.
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Formation of New Data Task Force
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New Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson on Jan. 31 announced a new data task force that will help ensure the Joint Office of Homeless Services is collecting and sharing outcomes that track how well its programming addresses homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County.
More info about the announcement and task force.
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New Program for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
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 A new program has been launched through a partnership between the Joint Office of Homeless Services and the Department of County Human Services to link people experiencing homelessness to Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Services.
The Multnomah County IDD Service Division has hired a full-time Program Housing Specialist, Takiah McCullough, to outreach to people that may be eligible for IDD services or those that have somehow lost contact with their IDD case manager. This program will help people experiencing homelessness to complete the IDD eligibility screening, as well as expedite permanent housing placement.
Program Contacts: Tammorra Barnes, Takiah McCullough, Cristal Otero
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Advisory Committee Meetings
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Continuum of Care (CoC) Advisory Committee: The February Meeting will take place Thursday, February 16th, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. This meeting will focus on important updates and a presentation by the a CoC provider. The latter half of the meeting will be used as a working session for CoC planning. The public is welcome to attend the meeting via this Zoom webinar link.
More info about the Continuum of Care Advisory committee.
Community Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC) for the Joint Office of Homeless Services: February meeting was held on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 from 11:00am to 1:00pm. This committee reviews and makes recommendations on county departmental budgets and operations. Future CBAC meetings are posted on the Office of Community Involvement Website. For more information about CBACs please visit the Office of Community Involvement.
Supportive Housing Services (SHS) Advisory Committee: The February meeting was on Thursday, February 9, 2023 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. This Committee advises Multnomah County on adherence to the Metro Supportive Housing Services (SHS) Measure and the County’s Local Implementation Plan (LIP) and future regional plans.
More info about the SHS Advisory Committee and its work (including past meeting minutes).
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By the numbers (July 2021 - Sep 2022)
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February is Black History Month
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 The Joint Office acknowledges the historic and ongoing racial disparities in housing, homeless services and housing placement. According to The Center for American Progress (CAP), “For centuries, structural racism in the U.S. housing system has contributed to stark and persistent racial disparities in wealth and financial well-being, especially between Black and white households. ”In our work, we prioritize Communities of Color that are over-represented in the homeless service system. To that end, we are in the process of forming an Equity Advisory Committee to help guide our work.
This month, we acknowledge and appreciate our culturally-specific providers serving the Black community and their contributions to housing and homeless services. These include Self Enhancement, Inc., and the Urban League of Portland.
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 Winter's not over yet, and the Joint Office is continuing to work with providers to distribute supplies, open up emergency overflow shelter beds, and activate severe weather shelters when thresholds are met. If you are interested in getting involved, our provider partner Transition Projects offers trainings for severe weather shelter volunteers. And many of our providers have posted 'wish lists' of items they are hoping people will donate, so they can distribute them to people in need. New or gently used coats, hats, gloves, sleeping bags and blankets are among the most needed items.
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Provider Selected for Safe Park Village
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 The Salvation Army has been selected as the operator for the soon-to-be-opened Sunderland RV Safe Park (9827 NE Sunderland Ave). The Salvation Army comes with experience managing similar outdoor shelters, including one in Longview, Washington. They can apply that experience to the new Sunderland RV Safe Park.
While the site construction is complete, the Salvation Army is now working to finalize budgetary and other details with the Joint Office. We will share the opening date for this site when the operating agreement has been finalized.
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News reports about the work of the Joint Office of Homeless Services and our providers:
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Resources for People Experiencing Homelessness:
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Racial Justice/Equity Resources
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Employment Opportunities
Current openings in the Joint Office of Homeless Services:
Department Director - Open Until Filled
JOHS Partner Organization job listings:
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