Kaiser Permanente announced Monday that it plans to donate $5.1 million to finance an initiative to find permanent housing for 300 people who are homeless by the end of 2020.

The Metro 300 project will work with people 50 years old and older who have disabilities. The money will go toward helping them find affordable housing, pay move-in and rental assistance costs and provide other supports to ensure they remain in permanent housing, said Debbie Karman, a Kaiser Permanente Northwest spokesperson.

The project aims to assist 140 people in Multnomah County and 80 each in Clackamas and Washington counties, Karman said. The funds from Kaiser will not be used to build new housing.

The counties will work with hospitals, warming shelters, nursing facilities, recuperative care programs and other providers to help identify people who are eligible for the assistance and also track who is being helped, Karman said. The project is based on a similar initiative in 2019 in Oakland that sought to help 515 homeless people move into permanent housing.

The money will be deposited into the Regional Supportive Housing Impact Fund, a fund overseen by coordinated care organization Health Share of Oregon, Karman said.

Kaiser is among one of a dozen partner organizations associated with the fund, which also includes OHSU, Legacy Health, Providence Health & Services, Central City Concern and Meyer Memorial Trust. Karman said organizers hope the housing fund will grow over time to help more people.

An April 2019 report said the fund would need $17 million to meet a goal of transitioning 600 to 800 people into supportive housing within three years.

Marc Jolin, director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, told the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners at a Jan. 14 meeting that the county would receive $2.3 million of the Kaiser donation.

Older people with disabilities are among the fastest growing populations of people experiencing homelessness, Jolin told commissioners.

-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.