Sahaan McKelvey is tired of turning people away.
McKelvey is the head of community and family programs for Self Enhancement Inc., a North Portland nonprofit that works with Black youth and their families. He oversees programs that offer shelter and other supports to people experiencing homelessness and provide rental assistance to people at risk of homelessness. But because of staffing shortages at SEI, McKelvey said he’s increasingly forced to say “no” to families seeking help.
“If we don’t have money to fully staff programs, we can’t get resources out the door to people that need them,” McKelvey said. “What it comes down to is, the magnitude of need is greater than the resource to meet that need.”
McKelvey has seen a constant turnover of staff at SEI due to the nonprofit’s inability to pay competitive wages. But McKelvey doesn’t fault SEI’s leadership — instead he places the blame on the government.
Like many Portland-area nonprofits, SEI’s housing programs are partially funded by the regional supportive housing services tax, the voter-approved fund meant to support organizations with programs that help move homeless people into housing and keep people from entering homelessness. This funding stream has been slow to reach the people it’s intended to support in Multnomah County, however. The Joint Office of Homeless Services, the agency that oversees Multnomah County’s pot of the supportive housing tax, reported in May that it spent only $40 million in the first three...
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