The Board of Commissioners on May 14 hosted its first public hearing on the County’s Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget.
The standing-room-only event included nearly 70 people who signed up to testify in person, joining 120 others who submitted written testimony.
Next year’s budget includes substantial constraints driven by the County’s largest funding gap in more than a decade. The reasons for the gap include lower-than-anticipated revenue from both Metro’s Supportive Housing Services Measure and property taxes — compounded by unpredictable federal funding cuts.
Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s $4 billion proposed budget makes difficult tradeoffs to prioritize direct services to those who rely on the County most. This includes a focus on services for children, families and people who need shelter, rent assistance, substance abuse and mental health services.
“This is one way we collect community feedback on the budget before it will be adopted on Thursday, June 12 at the regular meeting of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners,” said Vega Pederson, who opened Wednesday’s hearing.
“Hearing from you about this year’s proposed budget priorities and how they represent Multnomah County’s values is an essential part of our budgeting process," said Vega Pederson. “Your feedback informs our decision-making as we continue to work toward an adopted budget in June that is truly representative of the communities and partners we serve.”
Community members gave public testimony in support of a wide range of investments, including legal services (such as expungement, eviction defense, and the resolution of outstanding fines and fees), job training and employment services for people experiencing homelessness, and the restoration of positions in the Health Department’s Public Health Division.
They also testified in support of repairing past harm done by the County to the Chinese community. In the 1920s, the County ordered members of the Chinese community to remove buried loved ones from Block 14 of Lone Fir Cemetery, then-owned by the County, to make room for a maintenance building. At the budget hearing, community members called upon the County to provide further funding for a memorial at the site honoring the community members affected by that decision.
Legal Services
More than a dozen community members and public defense representatives urged the County to fund legal services, including case management, peer support, eviction defense and other services provided by public defense firms in Multnomah County. Those services either help prevent more people from falling into homelessness or help people experiencing homelessness return to housing.
Sonja Good Stefani, director of the Community Law Department with Metropolitan Public Defender, warned the proposed cuts to four programs in the department, “constitutes a huge reduction in our County funding, which will be devastating for low-income community members.”
Good Stefani said that in the current proposed budget, their homeless services program would see major cuts. The program, which accepts referrals from more than 55 community-based organizations, helps people who run into legal barriers when trying to find housing.
Good Stefani said the program benefits people across many systems of care, including those serving families, youth, and domestic and sexual violence survivors.
“My team swoops in to break down the housing barrier,” said Good Stefani. “We have been repeatedly told by our clients and case managers that our legal support gets people housed.”
Speakers advocated for another program, Project Reset, that waives Multnomah County Circuit Court debt for participants with past traffic or criminal cases.
“This debt interferes with their ability to expunge records, reinstate driver’s licenses, retain housing and employment,” said Adrian Del Monte, an attorney with Metropolitan Public Defender.
Del Monte said County funding now proposed for cuts has made Project Reset more accessible to people who need it. “We have been able to create rolling admissions and largely virtual clinics, which makes programs more accessible for people of color, parents and people with disabilities,” Del Monte said.
Job training, employment for those experiencing homelessness
Community members, many donning yellow work vests, testified in support of workforce programs for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, including formerly incarcerated people and people with substance use disorders.
Deanna D’Souza, community programs manager at Worksystems, advocated for an economic opportunity program currently funded by the Homeless Services Department.
The program, D’Souza said, “supports the economic and housing stability of our most vulnerable neighbors. We focus on addressing barriers to employment for residents with low incomes, individuals experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, those with prior justice involvement, and people in recovery.”
The program serves 560 participants experiencing housing insecurity with career coaching and training, D’Souza said. She noted three-quarters identify as BIPOC and said half rely on federal food assistance.
“It isn’t just placing people in jobs — we’re connecting them to careers, confidence and long-term self-sufficiency,” she said, noting that 83% of participants leaving the program directly improved their housing stability, achieving an average hourly wage of over $21.
Others testified in support of Outside the Frame (OTF), an organization dedicated to empowering homeless youth through film and providing a pathway to employment in creative fields. Currently, the organization receives funding from the Homeless Services Department.
“People need dignified work,” said Nili Yosha, the organization’s executive director. “Outside the Frame provides training and placement and living wage jobs in the creative economy that Portland is known for and wants to continue to cultivate.”
Yosha stressed that collaboration with the County has had an outsized impact on the number of youth the organization is able to serve.
Participants have been hired by the Oregon Symphony and even Portland-based rock band The Decemberists, Yosha said.
“As a formerly homeless incarcerated youth and a youth on the streets addicted to drugs, I struggled with identity and feeling like I didn’t have someone to connect with me and guide me in the right direction,” said Tatlilo Marfil, an Outside the Frame alumnus.
“Today, I stand before you as an executive director of my own organization working with youth in East County. I’m also an international musician representing Portland. I credit a lot of this to OTF for giving me the community to express myself, believe in myself and teach me professional skills.”
Public Health Programs
Multiple attendees testified in favor of County health programs. Nia Hawk, a nurse practitioner with the County’s STI (Sexually Transmitted Infections) Clinic, urged the Board to keep the clinic fully staffed.
“At-risk communities remain vulnerable to the continuing syphilis epidemic,” Hawk said. “Congenital syphilis is up 2000% in Oregon, so babies exposed in utero face severe disfigurement and death.” She also noted that the LGBTQIA2S+ community, people living in poverty and people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately affected by the epidemic.
“Patients value our non-judgmental, informed and affordable care for them and their partners for prevention, exposure and infection often the same day they are called to be seen. They can responsibly take preventive medications, which are 99%effective,” Hawk said.
"My fight is personal, having lost my brother, a queer, Brown immigrant, to AIDS," explained Hawk, who shared that her brother did not seek care due to stigma. “I cannot emphasize to you enough that we serve communities that are being demonized by the current administration.”
Former Multnomah County Communicable Disease Manager Lisa Ferguson also spoke out against cutting nursing positions from communicable disease services and other public health programs.
“Right now, we’re seeing the national return of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, one of the most contagious diseases in existence. At the same time we’re seeing other diseases like pertussis, which puts infants and older adults at risk. We’re also seeing a rise in Shigella, which can have an impact on those unhoused,” Ferguson said. “Looming on the horizon is bird flu, which has the potential to be our next pandemic.”
Nurses are on the frontline of keeping the community safe from communicable diseases, Ferguson said. They coordinate with healthcare providers, review medical records, and interview ill community members to understand the source of illness and prevent future spread. They provide vaccines to protect people and work with facilities to contain outbreaks.
“Public health needs permanent funding, not emergency stop-gaps or workers who cost less but don’t have the same experience or expertise,” Ferguson said.
Sarina Lynn, a school counselor at Parklane Elementary School, advocated for the restoration of County-funded school-based mental health services.
Lynn described the impact of school-based mental health, sharing a story about two students whose maternal figure had recently died.
“The students had become withdrawn and quiet. The trauma these students have endured requires more specialized support than any educator can solely provide,” Lynn said.
Lynn said the Centennial School District has partnered with Multnomah County for over 25 years to provide school-based mental health, and that the program has served 80 students at Parklane Elementary School so far this year, including 15 students who are receiving grief therapy.
“The impact is immeasurable. Without this program, the family wouldn't be able to access mental health support for grieving children. School-based mental health allows families to overcome these barriers,” Lynn said.
Lone Fir Cemetery
Helen Ying, Vice President of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Portland Chapter and President of the Lone Fir Cemetery Foundation, expressed gratitude to Multnomah County for its formal apology and acknowledgment of the harm inflicted upon the Chinese community at Lone Fir Cemetery.
“We sincerely thank Chair Jessica Vega Pederson for advancing an apology and allocating a $1 million budget for the Chinese memorial,” said Ying, who is requesting additional funding to complete the memorial.
The historic burial site was the final resting place for many Chinese immigrant workers who arrived in the U.S. near the turn of the 20th century. After Multnomah County purchased the cemetery in the 1920s, it ordered the Chinese community to remove the remains of their family members from Block 14 to make way for a County maintenance building.
Decades later, in 2007, extensive research and advocacy by the Chinese community led to the discovery of additional Chinese descendants at the site.
“Hundreds of graves were desecrated and nearly 3,000 ancestors were erased from public memory by the County’s actions,” Ying said.
“I am not a direct descendant of those who were buried at Lone Fir, but my grandfather is from the same part of China as the ancestors buried there. My grandfather was tragically killed by a stray bullet in New York in 1925, a consequence of the systemic discrimination fueled by the Chinese Exclusion Act,” Ying said. “I can only imagine the contributions they made to this country and the hardship they endured under discriminatory policies and societal injustices.The memorial will restore dignity, preserve heritage and reclaim untold stories of early Chinese immigrants.”
Chair Vega Pederson reminded community members that they can still submit written testimony throughout the budget process at: multco.us/budget/feedback, which is available in multiple languages. Or they can simply email comments to the board clerk at boardclerk@multco.us.
Two budget hearings remain before the board votes on the budget on Thursday, June 12, 2025:
- An in-person hearing on Wednesday, May 21, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Multnomah County East, Sharron Kelley Room (600 NE 8th St., Gresham).
- A virtual hearing on Wednesday, May 28, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Learn more about the budget process at: multco.us/budget-feedback
Watch the full budget hearing here.
