City Leaders Lambast Joint Office of Homeless Services, Call For Heightened Budget Scrutiny

” Mapps called the contract between the city and the county “crazy and unsustainable.“It’s important to me that there’s a process where the city and the county work together to figure out the best ways to invest this money,” Vega Pederson wrote in a statement.We know that the public wants to see the city and the county working together.The city also included a clause that won’t let the county spend any of its JOHS funds without first getting approval from the city on the county’s annual budget.

Jessica Vega Pederson, chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, called the unspent money in JOHS coffers “unacceptable.” Vega Pederson said she “shares the city’s desire for more accountability, transparency, and frankly better outcomes from the Joint Office.