Putting recovery
housing into Portland’s
homelessness response.
Multnomah county is home to roughly 44% of Oregon’s homeless population and despite billions in investments, homelessness keeps growing. Portland’s crisis is a housing affordability crisis and a behavioral health capacity crisis which created cycles of homelessness and substance abuse. By the time the County Commission was ready to engage in solutions which seek to address both affordability and improved access to recovery services, budget cuts were being implemented countywide.
How do you address both issues to support people in recovery so they don’t end up back on the street during a tight budget cycle?
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What We Did
Strategies 360 set out to change the frame first and the budget second. Starting in 2023, we organized recovery providers into Sober PDX. The coalition had a dozen organizations by 2024 and 25 by 2025, spanning culturally specific, peer-run, treatment, and recovery housing providers.
We gave decision-makers a concrete principle: every person who reaches treatment needs a next step on the housing continuum. Our proposal was to redirect a share of existing housing vouchers to certified recovery housing, a lower-cost bridge to permanent, self-sustained housing.
One Commissioner took up the proposal. Our job was to make sure she never lacked evidence, testimony, or community voices. Over three years we:
- Met with every commissioner several times a year
- Brought panels of people in recovery to testify more than a dozen times
- Organized media events and annual county and state advocacy days
- Testified in legislative committees
- Carried the case to City Councilors, the Governor’s behavioral health and housing advisors, and Ways and Means leadership
- In total, we engaged with over 100 decision makers in this process
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The Results
In 2026, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted 5–0 to adopt the Recovery Housing Voucher amendment. This passed in a budget year that closed a spending gap across the County. The amendment includes:
- Up to $2.1 million dedicated to recovery housing placements.
- Funds rental vouchers for 240 recovery housing units for 120 families with children and 120 individuals.
- Two PATH positions in the Behavioral Health Division dedicated to recovery housing, serving at least 150 people in the next fiscal year.
In addition to the outcome for Sober PDX, the approach S360 took to help create a funding opportunity through existing funds by creating a bridge between housing and behavioral health is being applied in other policy decisions at the City of Portland. Our team established a provable model for success to address the concurrent crises of houselessness and mental health.
