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Move-In Multnomah

Move-In Multnomah was a pilot program championed by former Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury meant to encourage landlords with available apartments step up and quickly help house hundreds more neighbors experiencing homelessness who might otherwise remain stuck in shelters or on the street with nowhere else to go.

Move-In Multnomah offered interested landlords a series of newly available incentives and supports, alongside a promise to rapidly connect those landlords to community service providers and their clients in need.

Landlords who participated in Move-In Multnomah received the following benefits:

  • Rent guarantees for up to 12 months (duration of a lease)
  • Holding fees to cover rents for vacant units while a tenant is being secured
  • A hotline for housing providers to connect with tenant case managers if needed
  • Damage coverage: Resources to cover damages beyond the cost of the security deposit

The goal of Move-In Multnomah was to overcome one of the most significant barriers people face when working to end their homelessness: finding not just a landlord with an available unit, one of thousands on the market on any given day, but also one who’s willing to rent it out.

Move-In Multnomah built on the Joint Office’s ongoing work successfully helping to house thousands of people every year, offering a mix of rent assistance and support services such as case management and treatment. Some housing placements are in designated affordable units, but many are in apartments already on the market.

Funding for the landlord incentives were made possible by revenue from the Supportive Housing Services measure.

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Outcomes

By September 2022, Move-In Multnomah had housed 214 people. New placements through the program did not continue after that point, but many of the participants who were placed into housing as a result of Move-In Multnomah are still living in that housing. As of March 1, 2023, 208 Move-In Multnomah participants were still housed.

As of July 2023, the Joint Office is still evaluating the outcomes of the program. More information and results will be available later in 2023.

Aspects of Move-In Multnomah, including the landlord recruitment strategy, are being continued through Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s Housing Multnomah Now initiative.