Five Principles
A Human‑First Approach to Addressing Homelessness
A clear, coordinated, and compassionate framework for helping people move from the street into stability, recovery, and
productive lives in Multnomah County.
The Five Principles outline a human‑first, outcomes‑driven approach to addressing homelessness in Multnomah County. They call for unified leadership, coordinated outreach, whole‑person care, evidence‑based prevention, and the protection of our shared public spaces. This framework represents a fundamental shift in how budgets, policies, and programs are structured replacing fragmented efforts with a single, accountable system that leads with compassion and measurable results.
Homelessness: from Street to Stability
Theory Of Change
We advocate a human-first approach recognizing that people experiencing homelessness suffer trauma, but most can recover, rebuild their lives, and, in many cases, become self-supporting. To make that possible, our community must change how it funds, organizes, and delivers homeless services based on results, including the number of people helped, quality of care, success rate, cost per person, and long-term recovery.
1. Unified leadership
There must be one professionally led organization responsible for managing all homeless services with one overall budget, centralized public data and holding the entire system accountable.
2. Effective Outreach
Outreach teams must follow the same policies, use the same data system, and connect each person quickly with a Service Coordinator who will assess their needs and guide them toward recovery.
3. Treat the Whole Person
Housing alone is not enough. People also need help with addiction, mental health, shelter, employment, and other barriers. Each person must have an Individual Recovery Plan, with services coordinated from first contact through permanent housing.
4. Prevent Homelessness
Use proven programs that measure and verify successful outcomes to help people avoid homelessness before it happens
5. Protect the Commons
Public spaces must remain safe, clean, and usable for everyone. Laws against unsanctioned camping, public drug and alcohol use, and other harmful behavior must be enforced with an emphasis on diversion, treatment, and referral to services. For those who cannot care for themselves, the system must provide stronger intervention, including court-mandated treatment and changes to civil commitment laws.
Endorse The Five Principles
The Five Principles offer a clear, coordinated, and compassionate path forward for Multnomah County. Endorsing this
framework signals your support for a system that treats people with dignity, aligns resources under unified leadership,
and ensures accountability for real outcomes.
Join community members, organizations, and leaders who believe Multnomah County can and must do better.
ORGANIZATIONS ENDORSING THE FIVE PRINCIPLES
Unified Leadership, Lasting Impact
The Five Principles creates a coordinated, trauma-informed system where every person has the capacity to recover when supported. By aligning leaders and partners around shared accountability, we transform fragmented services into seamless pathways to recovery. Our approach bridges compassion with measurable outcomes, ensuring Portland’s communities receive consistent, dignified support.
Why We Need the Five Principles
Multnomah County homeless policies summary:
- Homeless are helpless victim needing charity
- Record spending, more homelessness
- Plan to continue failed policies with less money
- “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting differentresults”
Five Principles
- Homeless are citizen deserving respect, have rights as well asresponsibilities
- “Success” is return to productive life
- Not policy specific, but results oriented
- Takes whole person, and whole community, into account
Constant Increase in Homelessness
- Homelessness increasing by1.9% per month in MultnomahCounty despite record spending
- Government and serviceproviders see this as proof weneed more money
- We see this as evidence ofPOLICY FAILURE
Order of Magnitude More Homelessness in Multnomah County
- Why does Multnomah County have
9x to 13x the homeless rate of
Metro neighbors? - Clackamas, Washington Counties
treat the homeless as citizens
who need help: Compassionate
Respect - Multnomah County treats
homeless as helpless victim who
need charity: Compassionate
Neglect - No responsibility to help themselves
Example: “Compassionate Neglect” versus “Compassionate Respect”
Multnomah County Deflection Center Compassionate Neglect | Washington County Deflection Center Compassionate Respect |
Person can walk out, no consequences | If person walks out, they go to jail |
If they stay, given list of providers | If they stay, choose from list of providers |
If they call on provider, it is listed as “success” | Escorted to provider, enrolled by case manager |
No follow up, no record of use or completion of services | Case manager follows up monthly, attends graduation |
Multnomah County Policies Fail by Its Own Standards
- Multnomah County practices “Housing First”
- Actually is “Housing Only”, providing housing with minimal support
- “Success” is measure by placement into permanent housing
- HSD Shelter Report: 15% of exits from shelter are to permanenthousing, i.e. “successful”
- HSD Dashboard: Of “chronically homeless”:
- 2,112 “ exited homelessness to permanent housing in 2025
- But 1,328 (63%) “returned to homelessness from permanent housing”
- By their own standards MultCo homeless policies are failing
(1) Unified leadership, one coordinated system, one accountable budget
- Currently Metro, Multnomah County and the City of Portland each have
their own bureaucracies, priorities, budgets, and programs to address
homelessness. The result is program duplication, gaps in treatment,
waste, and little progress. Without unified leadership the best intentions
and policies will not be effective.
(2) Coordinated outreach that connects people with healthcare, counselling, housing, benefits, and a clear path forward.
- Currently street outreach to the homeless is split among over 20 different
organizations, each with its own policies. A few work to get the homeless
into the right services, some only do “harm reduction” by giving out tents
and straws and needles, some do a mix. There is little coordination or
accountability for results.
(3) Housing and treatment together, tailored to the individual’s needs, guided by data, outcomes, and individual recovery plans (IRPs).
- Each individual has unique needs, which need to be assessed,
documented, and their treatments need to be tracked. The current system
mandates that everyone be put into an apartment with minimal supervision
or support, whether they (or their neighbors, or the landlords) are ready or
not. This results in very high return to homelessness rates and damaged
properties.
(4) Use evidence-based methods to prevent people from falling into homelessness and evaluate such programs with outcome-based criteria.
- Much funding goes into homeless prevention programs such as rent-
support, eviction-prevention programs, prisoners returning to society, and
aging out of foster care. While all are worthy efforts, funding is limited and
there is little data to show which are most cost-effective in preventing
actual homelessness.
(5) Safe, clean public spaces for everyone, supported by consistent laws and supporting interventions.
- Without safe streets, individuals and businesses leave the city. Without
those taxpayers we cannot fund homeless services, or other services for
our neediest citizens.