Transparency Trashed By Joint Homeless Office.

If government is secretive about process then meaningful public participation in policy making is perfunctory or purposeless.

The Joint Office of Homeless Services has a budget of about $71,000,000. Its employees, Marc Jolin and Denis Theriault, are directly responsible to Portland’s mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Executive Deborah Kafoury. On four occasions between April 26 and May 23 I asked the Joint Office of Homeless Services to answer some basic process questions regarding the proposed homeless project with the St. Johns Christian church and its property at 8005 N. Richmond Ave. (*1) To date they have refused to respond.

I asked Wheeler and Kafoury to exercise their authority over Marc Jolin and Denis Theriault and direct them to provide the public with clear and transparent policy and taxpayer spending information. Wheeler and Kafoury are both relinquishing their duties of public oversight by allowing Marc Jolin and Denis Theriault to conduct public business in the darkness of secrecy.

At the public meeting on May 13, 2019 to discuss the the proposed St Johns homeless campsite, Marc Jolin appeared before 400 citizens (*2) without any maps to show all the sites within Metro’s boundaries available for hard walled homeless camps. In June 2018 Metro declared Public Housing to be a regional issue under its jurisdictional control. On November 6, 2018 Metro voters agreed to give Metro the responsibility and the authority for regional oversight of Public Housing by voting for Metro’s Public Housing bond. As a consequence, ALL Public Housing policy and spending solutions in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties must be considered, justified and defensible within a regional context.

To add insult to injury, Marc Jolin did not allow questions from an audience hungry for answers.

A public organization with a budget of tens of millions of dollars that cloaks itself in secrecy has no credibility and cannot, will not and should not be trusted by the public.

Despite Willamette Week’s reporting that “the congregation of St. Johns Christian Church in North Portland voted to donate an empty lot on church property to host a pod village for homeless people” (*3), pastor David Libby has indicated that the St. Johns Christian Church was approached by the Joint Office of Homeless Services to lease their property at 8005 N. Richmond Ave. as a site for the homeless for $52,000 per year. There is a considerable difference between donating and leasing a property for profit.

When some homeless persons found out that the St. Johns Christian Church sanctioned homeless people living on their property they showed up at the 8005 N. Richmond Ave. site. They were promptly given 24 hours to vacate (*3) by pastor David Libby which gives added weight to the observation that the St. Johns Christian Church is clearly more interested in adding to the church coffers than christian charity.

The recent Metro ($652 million) and Portland ($258 million) Public Housing bonds plus other government sources will provide, inequitably distributed without regard for Public Housing Household Parity, funds of far more than a billion taxpayer dollars to be spent in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties on Public Housing. Citizens in these counties can expect similar secrecy to that practiced by Portland’s mayor Ted Wheeler, Multnomah County Executive Deborah Kafoury and the Joint Office of Homeless Services from other elected officials and public housing agencies in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.

Without defensible Metro area public housing location maps there can be no fact based, credible, meaningful discussion and defensible decision making among the parties involved regarding Public Housing policy, which includes the homeless.(*4)

Richard Ellmyer

North Portland

Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last seventeen 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.

*1

A. Did the St. Johns Christian church initiate a conversation with the Joint Office of Homeless Services or any other government agency to use the property at 8005 N. Richmond Ave as a site for the homeless? If so who was involved and when?

OR

Did the Joint Office of Homeless Services or any other government agency initiate a conversation with any official at the St. Johns Christian church to use the property at 8005 N. Richmond Ave. as a site for the homeless? If so who was involved and when?

B. Is it the intention of the the Joint Office of Homeless Services to lease the land at 8005 N. Richmond Ave. as a homeless site for a nominal one dollar a year or for $52,000 per year as reported at the St. Johns neighborhood association meeting on May 13th or any other negotiated sum?

C. Which person(s) approve the final contract with St. Johns Christian Church and Do Good Multnomah?

D. Which person(s) will sign the final contract with St. Johns Christian Church and Do Good Multnomah?

E. Will the contract(s) be made available to the public before they are signed?

F. If the project is approved then on or about what date do you anticipate the contract(s) will be ready for signing?

*2

https://patch.com/oregon/portland/st-johns-homeless-meeting-failure-public-participation

*3

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2019/05/22/a-north-portland-church-offered-to-host-a-pod-village-for-homeless-people-then-campers-arrived-unannounced/

*4

The prevailing Public Housing policy primarily promulgated by Portland’s mayor and most powerful Public Housing policy maker in the state of Oregon, Ted Wheeler, is Targeted, UNLIMITED Neighborhood Concentration of Public Housing which allows government to load the neighborhoods of its choosing with up to 100% Public Housing households. This stealth policy can only continue as long as there are no maps to expose this discredited and abhorrent policy and no map centered public participation to challenge self-inflicted ignorance, political convenience and extortion which are the current criteria for Public Housing decision making.