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Last week, Multnomah County launched a program that offers a year’s worth of guaranteed rent and damage security to landlords willing to rent vacant apartments and homes to houseless Portlanders.
The application portal launched last Thursday. As of Monday afternoon, 43 people had filled out applications, and from those, 35 units were selected as potentially workable for the county.
Denis Theriault, spokesman for the Joint Office of Homeless Services, tells WW the county is still combing through submissions and reaching out to landlords.
“Opportunities range from studio apartments to one-, two- and three-bedroom units, even a handful of full-on houses,” says Theriault.
The county could not immediately provide the cost range of the units offered and where they are located.
The county set aside $4 million in funding for the program from the 2020 Metro homeless services measure.
The county could not say last week what it is willing to pay for any given unit, or whether there was a price level it was unwilling to exceed, but it did say it expects to pay market rate for the units.
The county says anyone who applies before June 30 will be eligible for the yearlong rent, damage repair guarantee and quick access to service providers via a 24/7 phone line through 211.
County officials did not immediately say whether there was a cap to the number of units it could fund.
Two months ago, a group of housing providers launched a campaign, the #3000Challenge, that urged city and county leaders to house 3,000 homeless Portlanders in vacant units, such as motels and apartment complexes, using master leases, rent assistance and other tools. When asked last week if this program was inspired by the advocates’ challenge, Kafoury said, “We see them working nicely together.”
