This week's Mercury Blogtown question:

"Portland is in year three of the 10-year plan to end homelessness, and the city council is about to lose that plan's biggest advocate, Erik Sten. Can homelessness actually be ended, and is the 10-year-plan on track to accomplish that goal?"

My response:

To end homelessness, Portland must provide:

1. Housing for the thousands of people currently living on the streets

3. Shelter and services for emergencies

The "10 Year Plan to End Homelessness" is an aspirational goal. The federal government pushed local jurisdictions to develop the plan, and provided additional money. Portland and Multnomah County have a long history of joint planning for homeless services, starting in the early 1980s with the McKinney Act funding cycle. The 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness follows many other plans completed over the years, but differs in the utilization of Housing First as the driving force. "Housing First" is a proven strategy recognizing people respond better to treatment, social services, and job training/placement after they have a stable place to live. Because the 10 Year Plan follows the Housing First principle, I believe real, tangible progress will be made by the end of its first ten years - not just a re-shuffling of the services and where they are located.

Results are already impressive. In the first two years of the program, the number of people living on the streets decreased by 39%. In the Report issued by project staff in October 2007:

* 221 chronically homeless people moved into permanent housing; more than 80% are still in housing
* 311 homeless families with children moved into permanent housing, including 58 high-resource families
* 191 households were prevented from becoming homeless through the provision of rent assistance

Those numbers represent real improvements in the real lives of real people. The report shows the strategy of Housing First is working, at levels higher than the projected targets and goals.

It is important to recognize community partners. For instance, significant progress in ending homelessness has been made by JOIN community action services. They have always focused on Housing First, using market rental units for their clients, and have demonstrated long term retention. It is this local model that provides the real hope that a dent can be made in homelessness in Portland within 10 years. Central City Concern has also done excellent work combining housing with drug/alcohol/mental health treatment, job training and placement assistance, life skills classes, etc. I've been participating in the Affordable Housing Now network for many years. I am continually impressed with many Community Development non-profits doing excellent work in both advocacy and practical projects. Government, community organizations, and caring citizens working together can solve the toughest problems.

Some core issues:

* Portland and Oregon have no permanent dedicated funding source for affordable housing.

I will continue to advocate for the City to prioritize housing funding within our budget, and for the State to adopt ongoing revenue mechanisms for affordable housing.

* "Affordable housing" includes market-rate rentals and home ownership opportunities. This requires consideration of housing costs in area plans, rezoning, and code amendments.

I am the candidate for Position 1 with skills and experience amending the Zoning Code to allow building and retention of affordable family housing.

For example, the Accessory Dwelling Unit provisions adopted during my service on the Planning Commission, resulted in over 4000 small, affordable, neighborhood-friendly homes scattered all over Portland.

* Housing affordability is related to household income.

I will work to retain and increase living wage jobs with benefits including health care insurance.

No city alone can "end homelessness". There is no static, finite list of "The Homeless". Until we find national, state and local solutions to health care coverage, for example, more than 50% of bankruptcies will likely continue to be due to medical bills. With my leadership, working with the County, City bureaus and Commissions, and many other partners on multiple strategies as well as Housing First, we will come closer to the goal of ending homelessness by 2015.