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Multnomah County headquarters will turn into a butcher shop in coming weeks, as the Board of Commissioners hashes out which beloved oxen to gore in order to balance the county’s budget as tax revenues dwindle and one-time federal pandemic aid disappears.
There are a slew of bloody cuts in County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s proposed budget, out last week. Vega Pederson asked all agencies to pare their operations, but some are being slaughtered while others suffer only flesh wounds. In coming weeks, we’ll consider some of the programs facing doom (or at least a tighter belt).
The county budgets its money through hundreds of “program offers”: short descriptions of the services being provided, for whom, and for how much money. The offers don’t say which nonprofits provide the service. For that, one must contact the county.
The program in question here is #30600 on page 1,044 of volume 2 of Vega Pederson’s budget.
THE PROGRAM: It’s employment training for homeless people, many of whom live east of 82nd Avenue, an area the county purports to care about a great deal.
“This offer includes funding for community needs employment programs that provide entry-level employment opportunities that allow individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness to earn income, develop work skills, and establish a work history,” the description reads.
The program served 1,388 people in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, and was budgeted to serve 750 in fiscal 2025 (which ends in two months). But estimates show it will likely serve 1,746 people this year, according to the program offer. That figure more than doubled because of “an enrollment increase reported in the first two quarters.”
But that success wasn’t enough to keep the program off the chopping block.
THE CUT: In fiscal 2025, the program got $5.6 million. This year, it’s slated to receive $2.7 million, and that cash is coming from video lottery money allocated to Multnomah County to be used for the purpose of “furthering economic development.”
It could have been worse. In the budget for his department that he proposed to Vega Pederson, Homeless Services head Dan Field proposed zeroing out the jobs money.
“Employment supports are part of a robust homeless services system,” Field wrote in February. “However, our funding situation requires that we focus on our core services, even at the cost of some of the crucial support systems like employment.”
The restoration of some funds came after a 3,000-word profile one of the program’s nonprofit operators in The Oregonian, describing homeless clients getting jobs.
WHO WANTS TO SAVE IT: The nonprofit providing many of the services is Cultivate Initiatives, which is dear to Vince Jones-Dixon, the new commissioner for east county. He was once on Cultivate’s board.
“Employment is vital to breaking the cycle of homelessness, and these programs provide it with compassion and dignity,” Jones-Dixon said. “The fact that these programs are oversubscribed is a testament to the effectiveness and need. Without them, we lose a proven tool to keep people housed and continue to rely on the status quo.”
Andrew McGough, executive director of nonprofit job-training coordinator Worksystems Inc., says he’s puzzled that Program #30600 is getting cut at all. Jobs, he says, help get people into housing.
“The program kicks butt, serving people who actually live on the street,” McGough says.
Worksystems has skin in the game. It supplements the county’s employment program with cash, including more than $800,000 last year. Worksystems also connects the program to its food stamp grant, which generates a 50-cent federal match for every dollar the county spends on eligible people. To be sure, that may not last through the Trump administration, but it’s here now, and McGough says the county should maximize those federal dollars by putting up more of its own.
Before it passed in 2020, McGough worked on Metro’s supportive housing services measure, and he polled people in Washington County to see what they would vote for. “One of the things that pushed it over the top was injecting employment into the plan,” he says.
In a 23-page letter describing her budget priorities, Vega Pederson mentions “jobs” just once. “We will continue to provide services that help people regain confidence, find a job, and provide for themselves,” she writes. She mentions employment not at all.
Vega Pederson didn’t offer a comment by press deadline.
Defunding jobs may be a mistake if county commissioners like the idea of work as much as voters. They have to hash out a budget and pass it by June.