ARTICLE
HBA has been involved in several workgroups assessing the path to reforming Metro’s Supportive Housing Services Measure, the tax passed in 2020 that funds homeless services through the counties. The current program collects a 1% tax on all taxable income of more than $125,000 for individuals and $200,000 for joint filers. It also collects a 1% on profits from businesses with gross receipts of more than $5 million.
The basic goal of the exploratory group meeting with Metro leadership has been to address the serious issues of the SHS program and tax that have arisen in the last several years, particularly the lack of accountability at the local level, the inability of counties to spend resources on basic services, and the growing problem of unsheltered camping in public spaces. So, for the last six months, Metro has gathered several stakeholders (HBA included) to vet proposals to reform the measure to make it more effective, with the added benefit of potentially lowering the region’s tax burden. The current tentative agreement being worked out calls for several reforms to the measure, including: