Is Housing the First Step Towards Economic Stability for Houseless Portlanders?

Oregon’s Multnomah County is willing to bet $14M that it is

In February of 2023, Multnomah County unveiled a bold new pilot plan: they will allocate $14 Million of the State’s budget towards establishing government-subsidized housing for the homeless. Called “Multnomah Now,” the program will directly connect people experiencing homelessness with apartments paid for by the State. The project is also being carried with the assistance of local landlords, whose properties will be used for the program. By the end of the year, Multnomah County hopes to provide long-term housing for at least 300 people who are currently experiencing homelessness. 

Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB

The fact that this program specifically targets housing scarcity is no accident–of all the resources that people experiencing homelessness have difficulty accessing, housing is one of the greatest barriers to economic stability. Without a permanent address or a secure location to sleep at night, Portland’s houseless residents find themselves at a disadvantage in applying for jobs, or even meeting their safety needs. Having the guarantee of stable housing to fall back on is the first step towards building a secure platform from which to develop social and economic security. 

Multnomah Now is part of a larger, State-wide push from Oregon’s State Government. Earlier in 2023, Governor Tina Kotek proposed to allocate $130 million towards creating programs to address the houseless crisis in Oregon. In addition, the State Government has created a program that is designed to track the efficacy of Oregon’s efforts to reduce the problem of housing access. The program will be headed by a dedicated task force that will use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor the progress of programs such as Multnomah Now. 

If this pilot program is successful, the documentation of its impact will hopefully lead to the creation of other, State-sponsored programs. In lieu of an economic system that is willing to allocate resources to each person according to their needs, government intervention may be able to fill in the gaps–and perhaps, create a stepping stone for people to pursue economic stability.