Portland Mayor Keith Wilson is asking Clackamas County for $4 million to fund the city’s homeless shelter system, according to a letter obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
That’s on top of a $6 million request sent by Wilson to Washington County. Both pleas were delivered last week, and Washington County will hear out the mayor’s offer on Tuesday.
Clackamas County Chair Craig Roberts said in a statement that the deal would come before the board of commissioners likely by the end of April, but cautioned that it would not be taken lightly. Clackamas includes a small sliver of Portland at its southeastern edge.
“I commend the mayor’s efforts to keep shelter beds open in the city of Portland. Clackamas County is proud of the housing and homelessness response system we have built,” Roberts said. “We must carefully look at the financial impact of a request like this before taking any action.”
Wilson is turning to other counties for cash to fund the city’s homeless shelter system as its usual partner, Multnomah County, faces a financial cliff in its homeless services budget. Portland will be faced with its own budget woes in the upcoming fiscal year, with an estimated $169 million budget deficit.
Wilson argues that the city’s shelters are “key emergency resources” for the other counties.
“Washington County, Clackamas County, and Portland have crucial mutual interests, including a shelter system that serves our regional communities,” Wilson wrote earlier in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
It comes as the mayor’s ties with Multnomah County appear frayed. Despite promises of a fresh start when Wilson took office, the relationship has again devolved into fingerpointing, with the mayor questioning the county’s homelessness data and county officials defending the services they provide even as the homelessness crisis continues to grow. The mayor has made claims about the county’s data while offering little proof to back them.
Multnomah County is looking at a steep shortfall in its Homeless Services Department budget totaling around $87 million, and may need to consider smaller cuts in its other departments. That effectively means the county has no spare change to put into Wilson’s overnight shelter network.
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