The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners heard from more than 30 community members Wednesday night as they laid out their priorities for the fiscal year 2022 budget. This year’s proposed budget is the largest ever at $2.81 billion dollars, and aims to help those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement before the hearing, County Chair Deborah Kafoury described the budget as “ambitious” and “forward thinking.”
“There’s no doubt that this year’s executive budget was built under the shadow of the ongoing pandemic. The proposed investments in this budget are intended to address the highest and most immediate priorities in the wake of this public health emergency, to put our community in a position to recover quickly and equitably from the pandemic, and launch a once in a generation effort,” she said.
Major themes from the hearing included additional funding for woodsmoke curtailment efforts, as well as supportive housing services and transitional housing. The hearing was the first of two virtual public budget hearings; the second of which will take place May 12.
Multnomah County partnered with the Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) to host the hearing in an effort to center the needs of communities of color and other historically underrepresented groups in the county.
CCC Executive Director Marcus Mundy highlighted the County’s “unprecedented investment in [community-based organizations] over the last year” in remarks before the hearing. He also called out the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health program, as well as the Preschool For All and supportive housing services measures, calling them “an amazing first step in planning for the future of Multnomah County.”
Woodsmoke Curtailment and Other Air Quality Efforts
Ashley Henry was one of several community members who testified in support of increased funding for woodsmoke curtailment efforts. After heavy exposure to drywall particles during a home renovation, Henry was diagnosed with adult-onset asthma.
“When I first moved here, I thought some folks who complained about allergies and air quality problems were perhaps hypochondriacs, and I learned my lesson the really hard way,” she said.
Henry says she spends hours every spring and summer exhausted and bedridden because of the way smoke from fire pits affect her lungs. She says her experience is not unique among Multnomah County residents.
“It’s been a real eye opener,” she said.
Alicia Cohen, founder of Woodsmoke Free PDX, underscored just how extreme the effects of domestic wood burning are on Multnomah County’s air quality.
“Domestic wood burning causes so much pollution because, quite simply, it is such a massively dirty fuel source. Studies show biomass burning is dirtier than coal, our dirtiest burning fossil fuel,” she said.
“A new wood heater running at peak efficiency for 24 hours will emit as much PM2.5 as an average car does in a year,” Cohen continued, referring to the fine particulate matter found in smoke.
Michael Heumann, who stated that he previously served as the lead environmental and occupational epidemiologist at the Oregon Health Authority for 27 years, also testified, sharing his 1990 study from Klamath Falls, which evaluated the impact of woodsmoke air pollution on residential health.
After finding “significant levels of decreased lung function among children among the winter and spring heating season that corresponded to the levels of woodsmoke in the air where they lived,” Klamath Falls integrated one of the first wood smoke curtailment programs in Oregon.
“That lung health study relates directly to the conditions today in Multnomah County,” Heumann said.
“Our air quality is among the worst in the nation and residential woodsmoke is a leading cause, negatively affecting resident’s health, as you heard from others today, also impacting environmental justice, community livability, ultimately climate change, and even the region’s economic viability.”
Others testified in favor of eliminating the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Multnomah County, citing air and noise pollution problems.
Homeless Services Measure and Additional Transitional Housing Funds
“I am a graduate of Oregon Institute of Technology… I am a professional engineer and a certified energy manager, I am a business owner and I employ five people. There was a time in my life when I went to Volunteers of America. Yes, I was a drug addict. I’m in recovery and I try to stay in recovery every day,” testified David Burchfield.
Burchfield was one of several people who testified in support of the County’s funding for supportive housing programs and to advocate for additional transitional housing funds, highlighting the crucial work performed by Volunteers of America’s Men’s Residential Program.
“All of the people who are part of that institution are critical to helping our communities get away from drug addiction and recover,” he said.
Among the testifiers was Craig Freeman, who shared his experience in the Volunteers of America’s residential program. He says that without transitional housing, there would have been no other place for him to get around-the-clock support. He credits the environment, which surrounded him with those who cared about him, as being pivotal in his effort to build a better life.
“It gave me a solid foundation so I could take care of the issues that faced me, not only my drug addiction, but my moral dilemmas,” he said. “We are in the COVID pandemic, but we have been in a drug pandemic for the longest time.”
The services he was offered didn’t just affect him, but the rest of his family as well, including his children.
“It helps give them a solid foundation, a dad that they can be proud of, a dad that can nurture them, that can give them support. A paper can’t tell you what it does, but lived experience can. That’s why I’m here tonight,” Freeman said.
Some community members testified in support of Chair Kafoury’s budget for investing funds from the Supportive Housing Services measure that voters passed in May 2020.
Among them was Cole Merkel, the deputy director of outreach and engagement at HereTogether Oregon, a coalition working to fight the homelessness crisis in Portland, who said, “For the first time, we have the resources and voter mandate to scale solutions to the complex crisis of homelessness by prioritizing our hardest-to-serve, the chronically homeless population, while centering equitable outcomes for communities of color.”
“We believe this budget will provide a roadmap home for thousands of our neighbors. It leads with proven services, tailored to the needs of individuals that center each person's journey and humanity, while striking a balance between permanent housing and short-term, creative solutions,” he continued.
Others advocated for more robust funding for alternative shelters.
“I’ve had the opportunity to get to know many folks who are being supported by alternative housing and shelter, but I meet more who are asking for these options,” testified Sean Green, the co-founder of PDX Shelter Forum and Shelter Now and chair of the Northeast Coalition of Neighbors.
To accommodate the diverse speakers and listeners online, the County provided simultaneous interpretation in four languages, as well as in American Sign Language.
Chair Kafoury thanked all participants for sharing, saying that their priorities, ideas, and opinions are “profoundly important” as the Board continues to make decisions regarding the FY 2022 budget.
