Multnomah County, Portland seek community members for homelessness committees
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Multnomah County and the City of Portland are recruiting community members for two new committees that will shape the area’s homelessness response.
The recruitment comes after the county and city entered a three-year agreement in July to “reset” their shared response to homelessness.
The agreement aims to go beyond a single joint agency to address homelessness, the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and created the Homelessness Response System.
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Now, Multnomah County and the City of Portland are looking for community members to sit on the Steering and Oversight Committee and the Community Advisory Committee, which will oversee the Homelessness Response System to help meet goals under the Homelessness Response Action Plan.
Recruitment is open through Aug. 16 for the Oversight Committee and Aug. 21 for the Community Advisory Committee.
Officials are looking for two community members for the Steering and Oversight Committee. These roles include a behavioral health expert — who must not work for an organization currently contracted with the city or county.
Officials are also looking for a payer of the Supportive Housing Tax to serve on the committee. This person must live in Multnomah County but cannot live in Portland.
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Under this committee, the two members will serve in non-voting roles with other local leaders to set strategy to meet the Homelessness Response Action Plan.
The committee will be led by five elected officials who will serve as the committees only voting members — including Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall, District 4 County Commissioner Lori Stegmann, and Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez.
Other non-voting members will include a business sector representative (who will be nominated by a Multnomah County chamber of commerce), and the CEOs of Health Share Oregon and Home Forward. All positions must be approved by Portland City Council and the Board of County Commissioners and community members must commit to one-year terms.
For the Community Advisory Committee, officials are looking to recruit up to 16 people who will identify issues or trends to help meet the Homelessness Response Action Plan.
In a joint press release, the city and county explained these members may include people with lived experience with homelessness, people representing related industries, labor groups, homeless service providers, street outreach, and health care providers.
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