Joint Office of Homeless Services: Portland and Multnomah County

The Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) is an intergovernmental agency created through a formal intergovernmental agreement between the City of Portland and Multnomah County to consolidate homeless services planning, funding, and coordination under a single administrative structure. This page covers how the Joint Office is structured, what it funds and manages, the scenarios in which it becomes the operational authority, and where its jurisdiction ends. Understanding the JOHS is essential for navigating the layered governance of Portland's homeless services system and the broader regional policy landscape.

Definition and scope

The Joint Office of Homeless Services was established in 2016 when Portland and Multnomah County formalized an agreement to pool resources and eliminate redundant administrative structures across two separate government bodies that had previously funded homelessness response independently. Rather than maintaining parallel grant-making offices, the two governments created a single coordinating entity housed administratively within Multnomah County but governed jointly.

The JOHS operates under the authority of Multnomah County and receives direction from an intergovernmental agreement that specifies cost-sharing arrangements, service priorities, and performance expectations between both parties. The office serves as the Continuum of Care (CoC) lead agency for Multnomah County, a federally designated role that determines eligibility for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. § 11301 et seq.).

Scope of JOHS coverage includes:

  1. Grant administration — Receiving and distributing federal CoC funds, Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), and state homeless assistance dollars to contracted nonprofit providers
  2. System planning — Setting priorities within the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and coordinating the Point-in-Time (PIT) count required annually by HUD
  3. Shelter and services contracting — Maintaining contracts with shelter operators, street outreach providers, and housing placement programs
  4. Housing placement — Coordinating Coordinated Access pathways, which route individuals from outreach and shelter into permanent supportive housing or rapid rehousing programs

The office does not operate shelters or outreach programs directly — those functions are performed by contracted nonprofit organizations such as Transition Projects, JOIN, and Central City Concern, which hold service agreements with JOHS.

How it works

The JOHS functions as a pass-through and coordination body. Multnomah County contributes the largest share of local funding, while the City of Portland contributes a defined annual allocation specified in the intergovernmental agreement. Both parties appoint leadership and participate in oversight, but day-to-day administration falls under the County's operational hierarchy.

Funding flows through three primary channels:

The SHS measure, approved by voters in 2020, represents a structural shift in how the region funds homeless services. Metro Regional Government collects the tax and distributes funds to Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties. JOHS administers Multnomah County's SHS allocation — the largest of the three county shares given Multnomah's population concentration. For a broader picture of how Metro Regional Government fits into the regional structure, see the Metro Regional Government page.

Performance accountability flows upward from contracted providers through HMIS data reporting, with JOHS aggregating outcomes for both HUD compliance and for the joint City-County oversight structure.

Common scenarios

Scenario 1: Individual seeking shelter or services
A person experiencing homelessness in Portland does not interact directly with the JOHS. The office funds the network; individuals access services through outreach workers, 211info referrals, or by presenting at a shelter entry point. Coordinated Access then routes that individual through a prioritization queue toward housing placements.

Scenario 2: Nonprofit organization seeking a service contract
Organizations applying for JOHS contracts submit proposals through competitive procurement processes managed by Multnomah County's procurement office. JOHS sets the service specifications and evaluates proposals against system-level priorities defined in the CoC consolidated plan.

Scenario 3: City Council or County Commission budget deliberations
When either the Portland City Council or the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners sets its annual budget, the JOHS allocation is a line item subject to separate deliberation by each governing body. Disagreements between the two bodies can affect the total resources available for the coming fiscal year without dissolving the joint structure itself.

Scenario 4: SHS fund distribution
Metro Regional Government distributes SHS funds to Multnomah County on a quarterly basis. JOHS administers those dollars through existing contracts and issues new solicitations when SHS funding expands program capacity.

Decision boundaries

Understanding what the JOHS controls versus what falls outside its authority matters for policy, advocacy, and service navigation.

JOHS controls:
- Which service providers receive county and federal contracts
- How HUD CoC funds are allocated across service categories
- System-level prioritization criteria within Coordinated Access
- HMIS data governance standards for Multnomah County

JOHS does not control:
- Portland police and outreach enforcement decisions — those fall under the Portland Police Bureau oversight structure and separate city directives
- Land use decisions affecting shelter siting — those are governed by the Portland Bureau of Development Services and the land use planning framework
- Washington County or Clackamas County's use of their respective SHS allocations — each county administers its own portion independently
- State-level housing finance programs operated by Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), which run parallel to but separate from JOHS contracts

Geographic and jurisdictional limitations:
The JOHS scope is explicitly limited to Multnomah County's geographic boundary. Homeless services coordination in Washington County and Clackamas County operates through those counties' own administrative structures, even though all three receive SHS revenue from Metro. The intergovernmental agreement between Portland and Multnomah County does not extend authority to the City of Gresham, unincorporated Multnomah County service areas, or any jurisdiction outside the county line. A comparison point: Multnomah County, as a home-rule charter county under Oregon law (ORS Chapter 203), carries broader service delivery obligations than Washington or Clackamas Counties in the metro — which shapes why JOHS is structured as a county-anchored entity rather than a purely municipal one. The Multnomah County government overview covers that charter structure in greater detail.

Readers navigating the full Portland governance landscape can find a structured starting point at the site index.

References

Read Next

Portland Government Response to Homelessness: Agencies and Policy This page documents the agencies involved, the structural mechanics of how those agencies coordinate, the policy tradeoffs... Metro Regional Government: Portland's Unique Regional Authority This page covers Metro's legal structure, the scope of its authority, how it differs from city and county government, and the... Portland Police Bureau: Governance, Oversight, and Reform This page covers the Bureau's organizational structure, the oversight mechanisms that constrain its authority, the reform...