Who Will Foot the Bill?

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The Portland Metropolitan area is experiencing more pressing manners as the pandemic rages on. Before the pandemic, the houseless crisis was already on the brink of imploding, and the rapid expansion of the spread of the virus has only brought on the inevitable sooner rather than later. This has caused the Joint Office of Homeless Services to come up with a plan to rent and buy various hotels and motels around the areas where the crisis is more prominent. Although this may seem like a good idea to start getting off the streets the worry of costs and future upkeep of these programs concerns many citizens and both current and former government officials within Portland.

It is estimated that Multnomah county has now reached $4.2 million in payments to the motels and hotels that are being rented and bought for the houseless crisis during this tumultuous time. Majority of the funding is coming from federal aid in the CARES Act passed 2021 to combat the financial troubles many states and US and non-US citizens have been experiencing since the beginning of the pandemic. The plan for reimbursement for the money being spent buy Multnomah county is to rely on FEMA, but the Joint Office of Homeless Services does not know when these funds will be reimbursed, and the FEMA reimbursement program is set to expire in this September.

The question now is how will the state government be able to keep up with the payments of $1.2 million a month of hotel and motel rentals for the people affected by homelessness and pandemic? The Taxpayer Association of Oregon stresses the state government from taking too much aid and purchasing too many properties with federal aid as they fear taxpayers will be the people footing the bill once the federal aid is gone. In the end the discussion of how to appropriately house the homeless is still up for debate, and currently is seems state officials are solely relying on band aid solutions instead of focusing on the larger issues that are the root of the homeless epidemic in Oregon such as: inadequate minimum wage, expensive rent, and the rampant drug crisis plaguing those who suffer from chronic homelessness.


For more information check out this article: 

Portland, Multnomah County spending millions to house homeless during pandemic


Published by Octavia Wade

Portland State University for  Multimedia Capstone

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