Multnomah County Commissioner D2 candidates share their approach to funding gaps and housing

We asked candidates:

1. The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented attack on the country’s social safety net, cutting billions in funding for food aid, housing and health care. Those cuts, alongside falling tax revenues, have left the county scrambling to do more with less. How specifically will you lead the county to fill the voids created by the loss of those tens of millions of dollars?
2. Revenue from Metro’s Supportive Housing Services taxes accounts for more than 60% of the county’s homelessness budget. Yet at a time of huge federal cuts and shrinking tax revenues, voters seem unlikely to approve an extension, leaving the county without hundreds of millions of needed dollars to address a growing crisis. What is your plan to address the problem?
3. What is the most crucial issue facing the county, and what concrete actions will you take to address it?

Multnomah County Commission District 2 encompasses North and most of Northeast Portland, including all of St. Johns and stretching as far east as Northeast 148th Avenue and as far south as Interstate 84. Shannon Singleton currently represents District 2, and is running for county chair instead of reelection in District 2. 

1. We cannot replace tens of millions in lost federal funding simply by moving money around. We need to make difficult decisions, but those decisions must protect the services that prevent families from falling into deeper crises.
   
   My first priority would be protecting frontline services, including housing stability, eviction prevention, food security, behavioral health, and addiction treatment. I would review administrative costs, overlapping programs, contracts, and services that are not producing measurable outcomes before reducing effective direct services.
   
   Second, I would strengthen partnerships with the state, cities, community organizations, healthcare providers, and private-sector partners to leverage available resources and pursue additional funding.
   
   Third, we must invest in prevention. Helping a family remain housed is generally less disruptive and can be less expensive than trying to rehouse them after they become homeless. The same principle applies to untreated behavioral health conditions and repeated involvement with the justice system.
   
   Finally, I would introduce a County Public Report Card so residents can see what we spend, what we accomplish, and where improvements are needed.
   
   We cannot control federal decisions, but we can control how responsibly and effectively we respond.
   
2. Losing Supportive Housing Services revenue would have serious consequences for people experiencing homelessness and those who have already achieved housing stability. We cannot wait until the funding expires to develop a plan.
   
   I would begin with a comprehensive review of SHS spending, existing commitments, housing retention, administrative costs, and program outcomes. We need to identify which investments are keeping people housed and which programs require changes.
   
   My priority would be protecting existing housing placements, essential supportive services, and effective eviction prevention. Allowing people who have already achieved stability to return to homelessness would create additional human and financial costs. I would work with Metro, cities, housing providers, and community partners to develop a sustainable funding strategy, including evaluating alternative revenue sources, reducing duplication, and leveraging existing housing resources.
   
   I am open to considering a future funding measure, but the public deserves a clear financial plan, transparent performance data, measurable outcomes, and an explanation of how the money would be used.
   
   The long-term goal must be reducing the number of people entering homelessness while helping those already experiencing it achieve lasting stability.
   
3. The most crucial issue facing Multnomah County is a system that too often responds to people after they fall into crisis rather than preventing the fall in the first place. 
   
   We have created an expensive revolving door where people repeatedly cycle through homelessness, emergency services, behavioral health crises, and the justice system without achieving lasting stability.  I want to change that. 
   
   First, strengthen homelessness prevention by helping families remain housed before eviction occurs. 
   
   Second, expand access to sustained behavioral health and addiction treatment, combining recovery services with housing, employment assistance, and ongoing case management when needed. 
   
   Third, invest in economic mobility by connecting families with workforce training, apprenticeships, education, and employment opportunities that reduce long-term dependence on emergency assistance. 
   
   Finally, introduce the Multnomah County Accountability and Results Resolution, creating a public report card that measures outcomes, not simply spending or program activity.  After 32 years working inside county government, I believe we must stop managing the same crises year after year. 
   
   Our goal should be to prevent the fall, break the cycle, and help people build a path toward lasting stability.

1. These federal cuts are already driving up hunger, and thousands may soon lose health coverage. The County can’t fill the whole gap, but its role as our safety net becomes even more vital to defend. 
   
   As the County faces its own fiscal cliff, the values leaders protect in the budget matter more than ever. I co-developed Priority-Based Budgeting during my first term on the Board. It ranks programs by results and by priorities. In tough choices, I will put those most at risk first. My career since has focused on housing, health care and effective governance, and those remain my priorities. 
   
   I will fight to keep eligible people enrolled. New work requirements and paperwork will push people off SNAP and the Oregon Health Plan even when they qualify. I support the County’s work to streamline enrollment, and its One County approach, so every person who connects with the County for services gets enrollment support. 
   
   I will press Salem to cover the state’s rising share of SNAP administrative costs and to protect Medicaid behavioral health rates. 
   
   I support County alignment with Health Share of Oregon, the Oregon Food Bank and community providers so we coordinate, not compete, for shrinking dollars.
   
2. The Supportive Housing Services tax is showing progress. It has placed more than 5,500 Multnomah County households in housing and kept thousands more from losing theirs. If it expires in 2030 with nothing in its place, thousands of people will return to the street.
   
   We must: 
   • Earn back trust. Voters doubt we spend money well. We must show where the dollars go, how many people are housed and staying housed and where work falls short and how we’re fixing it. 
   • Solve problems, not point fingers. Governments must align around shared outcomes and show visible progress on the street. Outreach, shelter and treatment must work as one system.
   • Build a measure voters will pass. I will work with Metro, Washington and Clackamas Counties, providers, labor and business on a 2028 measure. It must protect long-term rent assistance, and include clear targets and independent audits. 
   • Diversify funding. One tax should not carry 61% of our homelessness budget. Portland’s success drives Oregon’s economy, so the state has a stake here. I will be a consistent voice in Salem, using my relationships to win stable housing revenue. A single vote should not decide whether thousands of people keep their homes.
     
3. The most crucial issue is homelessness among our highest-need neighbors, and it calls for a public health response.
   
   Homelessness is mainly an affordability crisis, and we are making progress. Combined funding has housed 11,000 people in 4 years, and 83% stayed housed at least 2 years. But about 9% of our Medicaid population is homeless with untreated mental illness and/or addiction. They cycle through hospitals, jails and shelters, and drive 40% of system costs. That is a policy failure we can fix. 
   I will: 
   • Align local governments around shared outcomes for this population, replacing the finger-pointing with coordination. 
   • Build a behavioral health continuum, from crisis stabilization to recovery housing to a home of their own. 
   • Coordinate the resources we already have, even with tight budgets. 
     
     I’ve done this before. As County Commissioner, I led Bridges to Housing, aligning our region’s counties around shared outcomes for homeless families. Over five years, domestic violence reports fell from 36% to under 10%, and kids meeting grade-level benchmarks rose from 55% to 73%. 
     
     I also bring health care and housing experience, from the executive team of Oregon’s second-largest federally qualified health center to co-founding companies that built affordable land trust homes.

1. As a Democratic Socialist, I know that we can organize ourselves out of austerity. We must raise new revenue at the city, county, and state levels. From the Fair Share Tax Ordinance currently being considered by Portland City Council to the Financial Assets Tax on Multimillionaires wealth tax ballot measure, Democratic Socialists in office, and our allies in the labor movement are working hard to tax the rich and wealthy corporations in Oregon, so that we do not have to cut funding to public schools, housing, and health care.
   
   At the County, I am interested in exploring a local tax on data center construction and operations and a charge on fuel storage by CEI Hub companies as a source of revenue that also helps us mitigate the environmental risk and impacts. I would work with the Oregon Revenue Coalition, Tax Fairness Oregon, and Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP) to propose and implement these reasonable and progressive taxes.
   
   We can also cut costs from the top, starting with Deputy Chief Operating Officers. A wholesale evaluation of our current spending on upper management is warranted. Lastly, reduce funding to the sheriff’s department and jails — and instead invest those funds in community care and core services.
   
2. Unlike Washington and Clackamas counties, in 2025, Multnomah County spent half of its Supportive Housing Services (SHS) funds on shelter and outreach. This approach has not worked. 
   
   Instead, I would invest more in eviction prevention, housing stabilization, and long-term rehousing programs over short-term shelter beds. I have endorsed the recommendations put forward by the Welcome Home Coalition to prioritize rent assistance; acquisition, and management of permanent supportive housing; on-site case management and support services, and peer support. These are programs that have proved most effective at keeping people housed and helping them exit unsheltered homelessness. Implementing these recommendations in Multnomah County will improve the chances we can renew or extend this important funding. 
   
   In 2018, voters also passed the Metro Affordable Housing Bond, but the traditional Affordable Housing approach is not working. It doesn’t build the types of units we need, primarily family-sized units, and is not actually affordable. Instead, I am interested in working with partners in Portland City Council, across the tri-counties, and at Metro to look at a Social Housing Bond measure. The city of Portland has just released its Social Housing Study. I believe Multnomah County has a role to play in acquiring, developing, funding and servicing Social Housing in our region.
   
3. Times are hard, with record heat, rising authoritarianism, and the resurgence of Regan’s politics dressed up as “sensible democrats,” wildfire smoke regularly suffocating us, and good jobs are harder to come by. 
   
   A lot of the difficult situations we’re in right now are because 50 years ago, people in power said, ‘it’ll be fine’ or ‘we’ll deal with it later’ and then we never really got to it. Unfortunately, some of those people are still in positions of power today. I am the youngest person running in this race and I intend to live here for a long time — which is why I am focused on addressing climate change, building resilient communities, and actually addressing long-term affordability.
   
   Instead of providing public dollars to billionaires and corporations, I will invest in the projects that support the people of Multnomah County including: 
   • Preschool for All 
   • Social Housing
   • Holding polluters accountable for their harmful actions.
   •  Addressing the risks and hazards of aging, vulnerable infrastructure — like the CEI Hub.
   • Building the green economic future by investing in union jobs in industries that sustain people and the planet.
   • Ensuring our utilities are affordable
   • Increasing community solar projects