The Oregonian/OregonLive

Republican Rep. Knute Buehler is challenging Democratic Gov. Kate Brown.

By Hillary Borrud and Molly Harbarger

The Oregonian/OregonLive

The Republican candidate for governor, Knute Buehler, released a seven-point plan to combat homelessness during a Monday news conference in front of Portland’s Skidmore Fountain.

“I’ll lead with compassion and a little tough love, along with a specific plan to solve homelessness for every Oregonian, for every Oregonian experiencing it, for every Oregonian impacted by it,” said Buehler, a state representative and orthopedic surgeon from Bend.

“I’ll balance Oregon’s incredible generosity and compassion with their clear expectations that we have safe, clean neighborhoods, parks and communities,” Buehler said.

Buehler’s plan is intent on ending “unsheltered homelessness” by 2023, which would mean no one living outside, in vehicles or any other locations not intended for human habitation. His proposal would:

Give the governor's office a central role in the issue by hiring a chief homeless solutions officer to coordinate efforts and holding a summit in December to identify solutions to end "unsheltered homelessness" in five years

Seek changes in state and federal rules to allow Oregon to spend Medicaid funds to provide more physical and mental health services, as well as addiction treatment, to people living in shelters and supportive housing

Get the Legislature to approve $10 million in the state's next two-year budget cycle for a grant program that would also rely on federal, local government, nonprofit and private funding to build 4,000 additional temporary shelter beds and 4,000 supportive housing beds

Introduce legislation that would allow cities and counties to pass so-called "sit-lie" ordinances, which allow local law enforcement to remove people who are sitting or lying on public sidewalks

Get the Legislature to approve $10 million a year in new rental assistance funds for working individuals and families

Offer up some state lands and coax local governments into using their zoning, land use regulations and other tools, with the goal of adding 20,000 new units of housing targeted at low- to middle-income renters and buyers

Direct existing state programs to focus on providing job and life skills training for people transitioning out of homelessness.

Don't Edit

Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Gabi, who lacks a permanent home, travels the multi-use path along I-205.

Buehler was joined at the news conference by Robert Johnson, a lawyer from southern Oregon who experienced homelessness growing up in Portland. Johnson, who recalled when he stayed with his parents and brother at a shelter not far from Skidmore Fountain, became friends with Buehler after Johnson received a scholarship from The Ford Family Foundation where Buehler was a board member until December.

“All that mattered to him was my character and he always stayed interested in figuring out how to solve problems like the ones I’ve faced in my life,” said Johnson, who endorsed Buehler’s plan.

Some of Buehler’s ideas would face steep obstacles. Sit-lie ordinances have been struck down in Portland, and in 2015, the federal government warned that they were unconstitutional. Salem recently showed the ambivalence voters and city officials have when the city’s elected officials chose not to pass one this year after much debate.

Advocates for homeless people say that sit-lie laws make the very act of being homeless a crime. Already in Portland, more than half of all arrests last year were of homeless people – the vast majority of which were for low-level crimes.

Don't Edit

Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive

People gather south of the Springwater Corridor on the multi-use path parallel to I-205.

Although Buehler’s plan did not identify funding sources, his campaign spokeswoman Monica Wroblewski said he could find the money in the state’s $22 billion general fund budget. She pointed out that state revenues have continued to grow. But, so have state expenses, such as Medicaid and employee compensation costs.

Democratic Gov. Kate Brown has advocated specific policies during her three years as governor, such as asking lawmakers to approve an additional $5 million for shelters in their session earlier this year. However, Brown has not released a plan detailing how she would tackle homelessness over the next four years if re-elected.

Christian Gaston, a spokesman for Brown’s campaign, wrote in an email that, “Knute Buehler’s plan doesn’t add up.” Specifically, Gaston questioned whether Buehler’s proposed $10 million grant program would be enough to build 8,000 shelter and supportive housing beds, even with investments by local governments and nonprofit and private entities.

Operating the shelters would be an additional cost. Multnomah County pays about $8,000 per shelter bed per year.

Don't Edit

Molly Harbarger | The Oregonian/Oregonianlive

Bethlehem Inn in Bend is the largest homeless shelter in Central Oregon, but has strict rules for people who stay there, including gender-separated rooms even for married couples.

Gaston wrote that Brown plans to get the Legislature to approve an additional $20 million for permanent supportive housing with mental health and addiction care for people who are chronically homeless. Brown wants to pay for it by selling bonds the state would repay with lottery revenue.

Gaston wrote that Brown also wants the Legislature to earmark $35 million to help people in rural Oregon, although he did not specify what the program would be. Brown would get the money from an existing state housing account funded with real estate recording fees and from the state’s general fund budget, according to Gaston.

Past rural housing funds have been unable to stymie increasing homelessness in central Oregon. In Redmond, for example, those funds helped build a 15-unit affordable housing complex. At the same time, the population of people living outside in Deschutes County grew nearly 40 percent.

Don't Edit

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive

People living outside at Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland were sent on their way in August 2016.

Finally, Gaston wrote that the governor wants the Legislature to approve $300 million in new spending on rental assistance, housing for domestic violence survivors and their children, and building or preserving more than 4,000 units of affordable housing.

The governor wants to pay for that spending with an unidentified amount of general fund revenue, which is largely income taxes; bonds to be repaid with lottery revenue; and another type of state housing bonds which the state would also have to repay. Getting even one-third of that, or $100 million, from the general fund next year without raising taxes would be a challenge, given legislative leaders expect a budget gap of more than $1 billion in 2019. Gaston did not respond to a question about whether Brown would seek new tax revenue to pay for the investments.

-- Hillary Borrud

hborrud@oregonian.com

503-294-4034; @hborrud

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger

Don't Edit