A jobs program for homeless or housing insecure young people run by HomePlate Youth Services in Washington County will cease to operate on Sept. 30, citing a quickly evaporating pool of public and private funding.
Dorian Russell, executive director for HomePlate, said the organization could no longer financially support its youth employment services. Russell said that all of HomePlate’s programs rely on combined funding from federal, state, county, city and private grants. As public funds at every level of government have become less plentiful this year, each of those sources has “become sharply more competitive,” Russell said.
“The level of uncertainty is extreme, the total landscape of resources is scarce, and every homeless services nonprofit leader I know is grappling with stress (and) insomnia as we scramble to cobble together the resources we desperately need to serve more homeless children, youth and families than we have ever seen before,” Russell said.
A decades-old transitional housing program in Portland also closed earlier this year due to funding uncertainty. And directors of several youth homeless service providers across the state have reported to The Oregonian/OregonLive that their programming will be reduced this year or is under threat, especially due to the Trump administration’s funding reductions.
An effort to significantly increase funding for youth homeless services died in the state Legislature this year as well, though there is still more money in that bucket now than there was a few years ago. Lawmakers approved $25.3 million for youth homeless services for the new biennium, maintaining current funding.
“Given the cuts that other programs took, … getting a ‘flatline’ amount was a victory and we make the best of it,” Doug Riggs, director of the youth policy advocacy organization Alliance4Kids, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in July.
Locally, the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding from the regional homeless services tax on businesses and high-income earners that supports Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties has leveled off.
The Trump administration has also taken a whack at youth services funding nationally. The administration cut grants for street outreach to youth, for example, and proposed sharp reductions to federal funding for homeless students. Cuts to broader funding streams, like those that provide low-income housing vouchers, also affect funding available for youth.
Russell said HomePlate, which served more than 1,000 young people in 2024, does not receive much direct federal funding and so they didn’t initially expect the cuts to hurt them too badly.
“But very quickly we realized how many of our funders passed through federal funds to us,” Russell said.
Oregon has among the highest incidences of youth homelessness in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. A federally mandated count from January 2023 found that more than 5,000 people under age 15 were homeless in Oregon. That number has almost certainly risen, but more recent statewide data is not yet available.
Young people who are homeless, who have low educational attainment and who are unemployed are more likely to become homeless adults. For these reasons, Russell said they consider supporting vulnerable young people to achieve educational milestones and secure a job to be an “upstream investment.”
The HomePlate youth employment program has provided job search help, application assistance, skills training, resume and cover letter creation and interview practice along with work-readiness workshops, employer site visits, job shadows and paid learning opportunities for 12 years, according to a statement released last month.
HomePlate also offers housing support, drop-in service centers and educational programs. Russell expects that programming to continue for now.
Russell said it was ironic that HomePlate would have to reduce employment support just as proposed federal policy changes are tying work requirements to benefits like Medicaid.
“How are you supposed to get healthy if work requirements prevent you from getting your most basic bodily needs met, and meanwhile, how are you supposed to show up for work if you can’t get the basic assistance needed to sleep safely at night, not go hungry, and be healthy enough for labor in the first place?” Russell said.
Lillian Mongeau Hughes covers homelessness and mental health for The Oregonian. Email her with tips or questions at lmhughes@oregonian.com. Or follow her on Bluesky @lmonghughes.bsky.social or X at @lrmongeau.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.