Keith Wilson, shown here on election night, is leading the race for mayor. He weighed in Wednesday, according to one commissioner, and urged current city leaders to keep Portland in the Joint Office of Homeless Services for now.
Brandon Swanson / OPB
A day after Portland-area voters largely backed candidates who lean toward more shelter options rather than tougher law enforcement response to homelessness, three city commissioners decided to delay a move to pull out of the city and county’s joint effort to find more housing options.
Commissioners Dan Ryan, Mingus Mapps and Rene Gonzalez announced Wednesday that they were pulling an ordinance to end the city’s participation in the Joint Office of Homeless Services from the city council agenda. They will let the new slate of city leaders who are being elected this week and will take office in January decide whether to stay in the arrangement.
Mapps and Gonzalez both have pushed for a tougher law enforcement response to people sleeping outdoors in Portland. Both appear to have lost campaigns for mayor on Tuesday. Ryan is winning a seat on the next city council in early, unofficial returns.
The Joint Office coordinates efforts to end homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County; it is run by the county but supported with city money. (The city covers about nine percent of the joint office’s annual budget.) Mapps, Gonzalez and Ryan have all questioned the effectiveness of the county’s approach to homelessness and the Joint Office, and they had planned to have the council consider ending the city’s participation Thursday.
Mapps’ office said he made the decision to pull the ordinance after a long talk Wednesday morning with Keith Wilson, the trucking company owner and political newcomer currently leading the race for mayor. Wilson urged Mapps to keep Portland in the partnership, according to Mapps’ office.
Wilson has promised to end unsheltered homelessness in Portland — to essentially provide shelter space for everyone currently sleeping outdoors — in his first year on the job.
County voters also appeared to elect two new board members this week who promised a more shelter-focused approach to homelessness than the men they defeated. Among them was Shannon Singleton, who defeated former Portland mayor Sam Adams in a district that covers North and Northeast Portland. Singleton is a former director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services.