PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – As Multnomah County faces speculation of “gross negligence” for its sudden announcement that homeless services could be axed due to a budget shortfall, the county board and Portland City Council met Wednesday to discuss a path forward.

Chair Jessica Vega Pederson defended the letters she sent to various government offices that claimed her county is facing a “catastrophic” budget shortfall if it does not receive financial assistance when a new fiscal year begins in July.

“We are in a situation where the city had used our dollars to really respond to the crisis during the pandemic, and we’ve seen the really positive impact that those investments have had,” Vega Pederson said during a city council session. “Now we are faced with a really serious situation where these really needed services, these critical services, don’t have those ongoing dollars.”

The funding at stake impacts 25% of the county’s overall budget, but specifically jeopardizes money for shelter beds, rental assistance, and other housing programs.

To avoid these cuts, Vega Pederson sent letters to the State of Oregon and other local leaders in a request for more money — including $55 million from the state and $30 million from Metro. She also set the groundwork for budget conversations with Washington and Clackamas counties.

But the offices who received those letters have since criticized Multnomah County for requesting temporary funding for permanent programs. Metro Councilor Ashton Simpson said he was “shocked” by the last-minute ask.

“To drop it on everybody — not even their own commission knew that this was coming,” Simpson said. “To be blindsided like that after, again, having months and months of continued conversation, and to not do that is, again, gross negligence.”

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson also said he was surprised, and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek shared a statement with KOIN 6 News saying she had “outstanding questions and potential concerns about how the county decided to make cuts to homeless services in their general fund.”

Julia Brim-Edwards said this lack of communication to county commissioners and city councilors was a disservice to the state government leaders that expect clear requests from local jurisdictions.

“I know from talking to the governor and legislators and other jurisdictional partners that they expect us to come together with a common plan with a common ask about how we’re going to do this work together,” she said. 

Brim-Edwards also said the data recently released by Multnomah County highlighting the number of people who successfully found permanent housing in late 2024 was incomplete.

“I’m concerned about the continued lack of data of inflow and outflow, because we actually have no idea that there’s a net reduction in homelessness without that, and we’ve been promised that for a while,” she said. “Without good data, we can put out cheery press releases, but if we don’t know the status of whether we’re actually making progress, we can’t make statements to our community that we are making progress.”

This data is slated to be released on March 11, though the commissioner noted that the information had originally been promised in 2024.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.