Joint Homeless Office Spends $70,201,498 WITHOUT Elected Approval

The Intergovernmental agreement, IGA, which created the Joint Office of Homeless Services between the city of Portland and Multnomah county gives the JOHS director, Marc Jolin, extraordinary, singular authority to spend whatever amount suits him, to locate in the neighborhoods of his choosing, to assign as many homeless as he chooses, to his projects on public or private land without written approval of any elected official in Portland or Multnomah county.

The only votes by either the Portland city council or the Multnomah county commission related to the JOHS were general, overall city and county budget votes which included JOHS funding of $70,201,498.

All members of the Portland city council and the Multnomah county commission (see below) were asked:

A. Did your vote intend to approve the leasing of private property, rather than government owned land, at 8005 N. Richmond, building utility infrastructure improvements and services for a hard walled homeless camp for 28 individual households at a cost of $290,384? [This budget does not appear to cover the costs of 28 hard walled structures, which, unless they are donated by nongovernment sources could cost at least an additional $5,000 a piece for a total of $140,000.]

OR

B. Did your vote intend to give the Joint Office of Homeless Services director, Marc Jolin, singular authority to determine budgets and locations on public and private property for homeless housing projects, such as that at 8005 N. Richmond, without your specific approval?

Every elected official from the Portland city council and the Multnomah county commission (see below) indicated, B. YES, it was our intention to give the Joint Office of Homeless Services director, Marc Jolin, singular authority to determine budgets and locations on public and private property for homeless housing projects without our specific approval.

This is an outrageous and indefensible outsourcing of their public responsibility to avoid individual accountability. Marc Jolin’s current hard-walled homeless project requiring lease payments on private not publicly available land in the St. Johns neighborhood is a perfect example.

All fifteen positions on the board of the St. John’s neighborhood association were recently open and filled by fifteen elected citizens who oppose Marc Jolin’s ill-advised, arbitrary, officially unsanctioned in writing decision to site a hard-walled homeless camp at 8005 N. Richmond. The overwhelming neighborhood support and votes which established unanimous board opposition to Jolin’s fiat indicate very strong community backing.

The St. Johns neighborhood has done its share. 15% of the SJN is Public Housing, which includes the homeless. Only 10% of Multnomah county is Public Housing. 35 neighborhoods in Multnomah county have zero Public Housing households, including mayor Wheeler’s neighborhood, Southwest Hills. (See Note below) Equity and Parity must be the paramount Public Housing Policy goal.

Multnomah county taxpayers/voters/citizens MUST DEMAND that no spending decisions involving the location of homeless sites by the JOHS shall go forward without the express approval of a majority of the Portland city council AND the Multnomah county commission.

Contact as many of these elected officials as you can. Tell them to stop avoiding their public responsibility.

Multnomah county commission

Deborah Kafoury - deborah.kafoury@multco.us - 503-988-3308

Susheela Jayapal - susheela.jayapal@multco.us - 503-988-5253

Sharon Meieran - sharon.meieran@multco.us - 503-988-5220

Lori Stegmann - lori.stegmann@multco.us - 503-988-5213

Jessica Vega Pederson - jessica.vegapederson@multco.us - 503-988-5217

Portland city council

Ted Wheeler - MayorWheeler@portlandoregon.gov - 503-823-4120

Chloe Eudaly - chloe@portlandoregon.gov - 503-823-4682

Nick Fish - nick@portlandoregon.gov - 503-823-3589

Amanda Fritz - Amanda@portlandoregon.gov - 503-823-3008

Jo Ann Hardesty - joann@portlandoregon.gov - 503-823-4151

We did NOT elect these folks to give $70,201,498 in homeless location and spending policy decisions to a single bureaucrat to do as he pleases without specific written authorization from responsible elected officials who we, the citizens, voters and taxpayers of Multnomah county can hold accountable.

Richard Ellmyer

North Portland

Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last eighteen years than all other journalists and elected officials combined.

Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Occasionally distributed to more than a quarter of million readers in Oregon and beyond. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus . Opinion contributor to Patch.com news.

Notes:

*1 Public Housing Statistical Data can be found online here Clackamas, here Washington and here Multnomah .

http://macsolve.org/PublicHousingData/ClackamasPH.html

http://macsolve.org/PublicHousingData/WashingtonPH.html

http://macsolve.org/PublicHousingData/MultnomahPH.html

*2

35 neighborhoods in Multnomah county have zero Public Housing households, including mayor Wheeler’s neighborhood, Southwest Hills

http://macsolve.org/PublicHousingData/MultnomahPH.html

*3

The first iteration of a fully developed, interactive, online Metro Area Public Housing Household Location Map should be available in the Fall. Discussions for online publishing include the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies. Public jurisdictions throughout Oregon will be offered these maps to share with their citizens. An early, but still useful, PREdraft can be found here: http://macsolve.org/PublicHousingData/MetroMap.jpg Graduated color scale. White areas equal 0 Public Housing Households. Red areas equal 100% Public Housing Households. See note*1 above for details