State of Multnomah County 2024: Challenges ahead

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson spoke about “our shared vision” for the county in her annual State of the County address. Make no mistake, there are challenges ahead.

The look for the upcoming year is belt tightening in Multnomah County. With one-time COVID relief ending, the county faces a $4 million deficit this year — the first of five years of projected shortfalls.

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In the budget she released late last week, Vega Pederson plans to spend more for homelessness, a 24% increase for rent assistance, housing placements and homeless services in partnership with the City of Portland. She set the goal for that money to fund 1000 more shelter beds, hoping to place another 2700 people in shelter and housing over two years.

During her speech she said, “We must have people moving quickly from our streets and into housing.” Later she told KOIN 6 News, “It’s really about having that coordination between all of our systems, all of our partners. We’ve got the plan to do that. And that’s why I’m really excited about the things that we’re going to make an impact on in the next year.”

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The 90-day fentanyl emergency for the county ended Monday. But the declaration brought different organizations to coordinate with each other as well as an educational campaign and expanded outreach programs.

But still this year, more people have died from overdoses in three of the first four months when compared to years past.

Vega Pederson acknowledged the OD stats continued to climb, but said it will take time.

“In this short period of time, it’s going to be really hard to move the dial to some of the larger metrics,” she said. “But what we have to do is really be creating the partnership and the ways of working together so that we can we can do some initial impactful things.”

The first chance for the public to weigh in on the county’s budget is Wednesday, May 8.

This Friday, Vega Pederson, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek will hold a press conference and take questions on the fentanyl emergency.

KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.

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