Multnomah County’s public housing authority, Home Forward, will be cutting staff and rolling back services next month as it faces a $35 million budget shortfall.

“Federal budget reductions, paired with rapidly rising costs to operate and maintain affordable housing, have placed unprecedented pressure on housing authorities nationwide, including Home Forward,” Home Forward CEO Ivory Mathews said in a statement emailed to OPB.

That pressure will impact at least 12 staff positions and lead to further delays for low-income people waiting for affordable housing in Portland, which is already facing a dearth of affordable units.

Home Forward oversees the federally-funded Housing Choice Voucher program, formerly known as Section 8, for Multnomah County. That program helps qualified low-income tenants pay rent for market-rate apartments in a tight rental market.

Because of a $14 million reduction in voucher funding from the federal government, Home Forward has paused issuing any new housing vouchers. That means that the already years-long wait time for a housing voucher could be extended further.

Home Forward spokesperson Rylee Ahnen said that staff who work on housing vouchers will likely be the most impacted by the budget cuts. Ahnen said that 12 staff positions will be “impacted,” which could mean everything from layoffs to moving employees to vacant positions elsewhere in the agency.

“These are extremely difficult decisions, and we are committed to approaching them with care, fairness, and a close focus on preserving essential services for our community,” said Mathews.

News of these cuts has sent ripples of anxiety across Portland’s homeless service provider network. Kim Hernandez works for Sunstone Way, a Portland-based homeless shelter operator that helps connect people who stay there to housing. She told OPB that the nonprofit has worked with people who have waited over a year to receive a Home Forward housing voucher.

“This change will only devastate low-income individuals and families,” Hernandez said. “This will result in more lives on the streets and leaves service providers maxed out on ways to help.”

Multnomah County contracts with many nonprofits like Sunstone Way to run county-funded homeless and housing programs. In a statement to OPB, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson condemned the federal government for slashing Home Forward’s budget.

“The continued cruelty of federal policy choices like this will increase hardship for people who are priced out of our local housing market,” Vega Pederson said. “We already have a housing shortage and long wait lists for vouchers. These cuts will make waits even longer, and more people will likely fall into homelessness as a result.”

It’s just the latest blow to the region’s housing and homelessness systems due to federal government funding cuts.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced new restrictions on how federal money can be spent on programs that help move people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing. These changes could lead to significant cuts to the many Portland organizations that rely on that funding. Oregon and 20 other states joined a lawsuit last week challenging HUD’s overhaul of this program.

HUD did not respond to OPB’s request for comment.

Molly Hogan is the director of Welcome Home Coalition, a network of Portland-area housing providers and advocacy groups.

“Cutting one of our most effective housing tools will mean longer wait lists, more instability, and more people pushed into crisis,” wrote Hogan in an email to OPB.

She said the cuts should encourage local politicians to work together on the most effective way to spend local dollars on housing solutions.

The news comes as Portland Mayor Keith Wilson has announced a concerted effort to improve pathways to long-term housing for unsheltered Portlanders, as part of his work to address the city’s homelessness crisis.

In a statement emailed to OPB, Wilson said the city is working with Home Forward to help lessen the blow of the budget cuts.

“Our community counts on housing choice vouchers to help families and individuals move into permanent, stable housing, and this news presents a real challenge for Portlanders who are already waiting far too long for affordable options,” Wilson said. “While these cuts are unwelcome, my administration remains committed to strengthening housing stability.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/01/portland-oregon-home-forward-housing-rent/