Following news that Multnomah County must rebalance its budget due to significant state and federal funding cuts, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on Thursday, Oct. 16, formally approved a series of difficult budget modifications to rebalance the County’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
The vote follows weeks of public work sessions that began Tuesday, Sept. 23, where department leaders presented proposals to address the funding gaps. The reductions will have a wide-ranging impact on the County’s safety net and public safety services.
The adjustments approved Thursday will translate to hundreds fewer households receiving emergency rent assistance, the loss of transitional and other kinds of housing for people in the legal system, and reduced food assistance, among other changes.
Additional budget adjustments affecting the County’s health and homelessness services, because of state and federal cuts, will be considered in the coming weeks.
Board comments
Chair Jessica Vega Pederson: “Right now our job is making tough budget cuts decisions as we make do with fewer resources. This impacts everyone we serve as well as our staff, who have worked diligently on how to best prioritize limited resources. We continue to streamline our work to focus on core service delivery – providing safety net services that offer hope, opportunity and results, while knowing that fewer resources ultimately means fewer people served.”
Commissioner Meghan Moyer: “These budget cuts give me a lot of anxiety. I think we’re now cutting pretty deeply into core County functions. I’m trying to wrap my head around some of the impacts and what this really means for the individuals we serve.”
Commissioner Shannon Singleton: "When I look at the communities (people and providers) impacted by these reductions, there are disproportionate impacts to culturally specific services for Black and Brown people. We’re talking about a lot of the same families that are going to be impacted by cuts from different departments. I have very significant worries about our community’s ability to feed themselves and that can quickly spiral into lack of ability to pay rent and we've also had significant cuts to rent assistance. We need to figure out how to come together across departments and really find ways to support these families will be really important.”
Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards (prior statement): “The federal funding cuts, coupled with State funding constraints and an uncertain economic outlook, will impact the County’s ability to provide essential services. Given these budget realities, we must strategically and effectively make reductions that preserve staff and that have the least impact on core services, and I will be looking for programs that prioritize community safety, public health, behavioral health, and homelessness services.”
Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon: “Facing significant reductions in state and federal aid, the Board made the necessary modifications to ensure Multnomah County's long-term financial stability. These strategic adjustments set a firm foundation that allows us to move forward, focusing on the future and upholding our commitment to delivering core services efficiently. I remain optimistic about our county’s resilience and our ability to innovate through this challenge.”
Department of Community Justice
The Department of Community Justice faced a net reduction of nearly $2 million this fiscal year. The largest hit comes from a $2.6 million reduction in community corrections funding tied to Senate Bill 1145, which supports supervision for individuals on probation, parole and post-prison supervision.
This resulted in reductions to contracts and services including:
- The closure of the Diane Wade Program, a 12-bed culturally specific housing facility for African American women
- A reduction of 69 housing beds across the system, including 10 shelter beds, 28 transitional housing beds and 31 long-term beds
- Fewer people served through community-based H.E.A.T. (Habilitation, Empowerment, Accountability, Therapy) groups, a culturally responsive cognitive-behavioral program designed for African American men involved in the legal system
- Reduced capacity to support adults on supervision accessing court-required domestic violence treatment subsidies
- Reduced funding for housing navigation and case management for participants in the Flip the Script program, which focuses on breaking the cycles that send people of color back to prison more often than other justice-involved individuals
While grappling with these reductions, the department also confirmed funding for the Family Sentencing Alternative Program that supports specialized supervision services, and an increase in its Family Resolution Services program, which will support the purchase of needed safety equipment for juvenile services staff. A revenue increase in the gun buy-back program will also supplement the purchase of new firearms for parole and probation officers.
Health Department
The Health Department’s budget modifications reflect changes in funding from federal, state and other local governments. The changes impact three divisions within the Health Department:
- Public Health, with a net loss of $513,671
- Behavioral Health, with a net gain of $977,342
- Integrated Clinical Services, with a net loss of $353,109
Public Health faced the largest reductions, after the federal government canceled a pair of grants. One was the Bureau of Justice Assistance STOP Grant, which served economically disadvantaged youth across seven school districts who are at higher risk of becoming victims of gun violence. The other was a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant that trained trusted community messengers to serve as vaccine ambassadors.
Other impacts include:
- Ending access to healthy food services for about 200 families
- Losing a mental health consultant dedicated to preventing gun violence in East Multnomah County
- Reduced federal funding that supported CDC-required health screening for Afghan refugees and ongoing culturally specific care
As part of the Local Mental Health Authority, the Health Department’s Behavioral Health Division provides mandated health and safety oversight and technical assistance to designated residential mental health programs. The Health Department received $1,133,250 in state funding to pass onto residential providers to cover rising costs. This funding will maintain current service levels and will not lead to an increase in the number of people served.
Public Health is gaining a limited-duration position to roll out a new service through the Family Connects Oregon program, offering home visiting services to all families with newborns up to 12 weeks old.
Department of County Human Services
The Department of County Human Services — which offers a wide range of programs including rent assistance, eviction prevention, food assistance, and other stabilizing services for youth, families, seniors and people with disabilities — faced funding reductions across three of its divisions: Youth and Family Services, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services and Aging, Disability and Veterans Services.
One of the most notable was a $5.2 million reduction to the Oregon Diversion & Prevention Program, which provides financial and other support services to low-income Oregonians who are at risk of eviction or homelessness.
Federal and state funding reductions translated to several reductions in Youth and Family Services programming, including:
- Approximately 880 fewer households who will receive emergency rent assistance
- Fewer youth served through stability, homelessness prevention and advocacy programs due to reductions of funding from the Oregon Department of Education
- The cancellation of a federal grant that would have allowed for energy and indoor air quality retrofits for 50 low-income households
While the department’s total budget increased overall during the rebalance efforts, the Youth and Family Services Division in particular took a large reduction, and other divisions also experienced cuts to programs funded by the state and federal governments.
A $373,870 reduction in a state mental health grant combined with centralization efforts by the State’s Office of Developmental Disability have meant a loss of licensing capacity for department programs that oversee care homes for adults and for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Five full-time positions, including three vacant licensor positions in Adult Services’ Adult Care Home Program and two certifiers in the Children’s Program, were reduced. The reductions impact 166 licensed Adult Foster Homes and 60 Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Child Foster Homes in Multnomah County.
More than $4.1 million in state funding for administration and case management services allocated to the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services Division has offered some reprieve. But the need for these services continues to grow, with a net increase of 483 new eligible clients each year. The level of available future state funding remains uncertain.
Multnomah County Sheriff's Office
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office addressed one of two main funding reductions Thursday.
Because of state funding cuts, the Sheriff’s Office’s River Patrol Unit will receive less funding from the Oregon State Marine Board than anticipated. The Sheriff's Office will cover the funding for two affected deputy sheriff positions by reallocating funds from the office’s budget for supplies.
The Board, however, chose to wait until Oct. 23 to take up a $1.4 million reduction in annual funding from the state under Senate Bill 1145. The Sheriff’s Office uses those funds to operate jail beds.
To preserve all currently budgeted beds in Fiscal Year 2025-26, the Sheriff’s Office is requesting a one-time-only backfill of $1,355,207 from the County’s General Fund contingency. Funding for jail beds after this fiscal year will need to be addressed in the next budget cycle.
Future budget impacts
The rebalance is the latest in a string of difficult fiscal decisions for the Board this year. That work started in the winter, when Supportive Housing Services revenue from Metro came in lower than projected.
The challenging fiscal environment is now compounded by federal cuts and policy changes, which have also influenced the state's reductions. Forecasts show local governments and the State of Oregon will both continue to struggle with difficult budget reductions next year and beyond.
The County is committed to preserving its values and serving the community effectively, even with fewer resources, as difficult budget conditions continue for the foreseeable future.
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