Public Housing, Public Money, Public Silence

Sophie Peel’s reporting begins to raise serious questions about Home Forward, our region’s housing authority. But there is far more beneath the surface.

At a time of declared housing emergency, Home Forward has reportedly left up to 15% of its affordable housing units vacant. That alone should demand accountability.

But the deeper concern is not just vacancies. It is a pattern: lack of oversight, lack of accountability, and a system that appears insulated from meaningful external review.

Over the past year, I have raised concerns directly with Home Forward, Multnomah County, Metro, and the State Auditor. The response has been consistent: deflection, silence, or both.

Here are three areas that demand urgent investigation.

1. Health and Safety Failures in Public Housing

Residents in multiple Home Forward buildings have reported conditions that raise serious concerns about personal safety and basic habitability.

At a meeting with residents of Dawson Park, I heard repeated reports of:

  • Open drug use and dealing
  • Sex trafficking
  • Theft and violent crime
  • Unauthorized occupants living in units
  • Garbage overflow and deteriorating conditions

These are not isolated complaints. Residents from other properties describe similar conditions.

I have raised these concerns directly with Home Forward leadership, noting that if even a fraction were true, they could violate federal standards governing HUD-funded housing.

The response? A polished statement about “engagement” and “feedback channels” that were largely routed through property managers.

That is not independent oversight. That is internal filtering and deflection. 

Even more concerning: I had raised concerns about a seemingly inordinate number of deaths associated with Bud Clark Commons.

The question was completely ignored.

If nothing else, this question deserves a clear answer: How many residents have died in and around that building over the past five years?

2. $55 Million in Rent Assistance, Few Answers

Home Forward has played an exclusive role in administering Multnomah County’s Regional Long-Term Rent Assistance (RLRA) program, funded through the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) measure.

Over $55 million in County SHS funds have been allocated in rent alone over the past four years – not including supportive services or navigation.

Over a year ago, after reviewing the program, I raised concerns with Home Forward about:

  • Lack of transparency
  • Fragmented and opaque processes
  • Weak or unclear accountability structures
  • Reports from providers and clients describing dysfunction and harm

The response from Home Forward included an 8-page letter that ultimately raised more questions than it answered.

I brought these concerns to the Multnomah County Board during last year’s budget process and urged commissioners to ask basic questions about where funds were going and how outcomes were being measured. 

No one responded to my emails, and no one raised the questions with the Homeless Services Department, the County Chair, or the County Budget Officer.

Yet millions more were allocated in a budget approved unanimously by the Board.  

I escalated concerns to the Oregon Secretary of State and received a meeting, with a lot of head nodding and note taking. 

Nothing followed.

When I then raised additional questions with Home Forward, I was told that staff had been instructed not to respond further outside of required communications with partner agencies.

At the same time, public-facing information about the RLRA program has quietly changed or disappeared completely from agency websites.

3. Discrimination Under the ADA

A constituent came to me with a simple question:
Was she eligible for a County housing program administered by Home Forward, and how could she apply?

She had documented disabilities that made it difficult to process written or phone-based information. She had requested a basic accommodation from Home Forward and Multnomah County’s Homeless Services Department (formerly the Joint Office of Homeless Services): an in-person meeting.

Instead of a meeting, for two years she was given the runaround.

Eventually, she filed a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI)’s Civil Rights Division.

After a year-long investigation, BOLI found Substantial Evidence of an Unfair Housing Practice on the Basis of Disability against both Multnomah County and Home Forward.

This is not a technical violation. It is a fundamental failure of public systems to provide access to the people they are designed to serve.

And it raises a larger question: How many others have simply given up trying?

A federal lawsuit was recently filed based on these same allegations. I hope these crucial issues will finally see the light of day.

The Bigger Problem

Across all of these issues – housing conditions, public spending, civil rights – the pattern is the same:

  • Serious concerns raised
  • No meaningful response
  • No independent investigation
  • No clear accountability

Even more troubling, many elected officials appear not to understand what Home Forward even is, let alone how it operates, who oversees it, or how its decisions are made.

Two Questions We Need to Answer:

  1. What IS Home Forward and who is responsible for holding it to account?
  2. Why has there been so little action or scrutiny by the County, the City, the State – all of whom fund Home Forward – despite repeated red flags?

None of this is acceptable.

Public housing and rent assistance exist to serve some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

Residents deserve safe housing and personal dignity.

They deserve transparency.

They deserve accountability.

They deserve accessibility.

And they aren’t getting it. Which means we are wasting time, money and lives. 

I am not a journalist. But I can put facts on the table.

Now it’s time for others – reporters, auditors, elected leaders – to do their part.

Because this story is far from over.