The sweeping intergovernmental plan to turn tourist dollars into a safety net for the region's houseless population has been put on hold.
The Visitor Facilities Intergovernmental Agreement plan, first detailed by Willamette Week, would use a portion of the annual revenue from a regional 2.5 percent tax on rental cars and hotel rooms to fund services and programs that combat homelessness.
In the past, revenue from that tax has been divided up among Metro, Multnomah County, and the City of Portland to fund major projects—like the expansion of the Oregon Convention Center, Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, and Providence Park. Recent talks between these three governments and the tourism nonprofit Travel Portland, however, have focused on directing a $5.25 million slice of that total revenue—which came in around $21 million last year—to the Joint Office on Homelessness Services (JOHS).
County officials have said this funding is crucial to fulfill the permanent supportive housing promises included in the $652.8 million Metro affordable housing bond approved by voters in November.
A meeting yesterday between Mayor Ted Wheeler, Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury, and Metro Council President Tom Hughes resulted in an agreement to put the plan on pause until next year (which is a dramatic way of saying next month). The three leaders issued this joint statement yesterday afternoon:
"We had a substantive and productive discussion today about how the visitor facilities trust account can deliver improvements across our community. We agreed on the tremendous opportunity before us to make an investment in homeless services and also modernize our visitor facilities. This is a complicated intergovernmental agreement, and we will continue meeting in the new year to finalize additional details and arrive at a revised visitor facilities trust account agreement that helps us improve our visitor venues while providing critical support for the people living on our streets."
The Metro Council already voted to approve the plan last week. Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Commission were slated to approval the agreement this week. The item has been removed from tomorrow's city council agenda and will not be on the county commission's agenda before 2019.
It's still unclear what, exactly, has kept the plan from moving forward. According to Willamette Week, the county may be waiting for a guarantee from the city that this revenue stream will be permanent—and not be downsized or cut if tax revenue declines.
